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I just saw it today. I’m in that 40-50+ age group your asking for and I’m a long time fan of the original series and Next Generation. I didn’t think it was a great movie. I thought it was OK. If you like lots of action and special effects and you can suspend your disbelief a very long way and don’t mind the Hollywood formula, you’ll love it.

I finally saw this on Monday and I liked it. There are things obviously off with it that aren't entirely explained away by the plot, but I don't think it strayed too far from the Star Trek franchise. I think the new actors played the characters quite well, especially the actor for McCoy.

I don't see much reason to complain about the cheesiness of it, though... especially when comparing it to the original series. Cheesy does not necessarily mean bad and part of the reason some people enjoy watching the original series is to laugh at the corny acting, plot, and fight scenes. The original series was full of cheese and someone would have to be stubborn to try to refute that.

I'm not a trekkie, but giggling at all the references to the original series in a theatre of people that didn't seem to recognize them sure made me feel like a geek. The hardcore trekkies that hold the original series on a pedestal and watch it all day with rose colored glasses probably won't like this new movie at all, though.. since they'd be too busy picking it apart for its "inconsistencies to the original". A casual viewer of star trek wouldn't really notice much difference.

I'm not quite old enough to remember TOS when it first came on, but I do remember watching reruns with my mom as a kid, and getting into TNG. I personally enjoyed the new movie. Yeah, it had problems and plot holes and what-have-you. But so much has been done in the original canon univerise that it seems to be limiting what they want to do. This movie restarts the universe in a way that doesn't discount all of what happened before, but allows creators to take things in a new direction. Maybe I'm just used to seeing alternate universes in anime and books that it doesn't bother me to consider this an AU version of Star Trek. I thought the actors, for the most part, did a very good job with the characters. Enough that they got the basic personalites down, but with the slight changes that would come from an alternate timeline. Karl Urban was, by far, my favorite, but then I've always been a McCoy fan. ^_^; Anyways, I came out of the theater with hope for Star Trek for the first time in a lot of years. Yeah, they'll screw some things up, this is Hollywood after all. But it seemed more like the original intent of Star Trek than a lot of recent series have done with it, and that's a good thing. Of course, it's also sad to realize that now Enterprise is the only offical canon for this timeline. *blaugh*

And I don't care what anyone says, the new Enterprise is sexy as hell. I do miss the red doors on the turbolift, but outside it's sleek, classy, and totally awesome!