just when I thought I got away you pull me back in!

I'm no military man, but I understood well enough what was going on. It, like most of the movie, just didn't make any sense.

Why would the brand new flagship of the fleet be crewed by raw graduates who can't follow a checklist to launch her properly? Why would the captain promote a stowaway cadet on academic probation to second in command when he has a bridge full of legit officers? And then why send two of his bridge officers—including the guy he just promoted to second in command—on what is essentially a suicide mission to stop the drill?

My biggest problem, tho, is that Kirk's meteoric rise could have been handled much more smoothly and believably if they'd made any effort....

Kirk cheats at the Kobayashi Maru test and gives an impassioned defense about how his job was to win, not to participate in Spock's psych experiment. Kirk is graduated and commissioned as a lieutenant. Nero makes his move, and part of the fleet takes off for Vulcan—and is never heard from again. Starfleet recommissions some older ships and promotes new graduates to crew them. Kirk is assigned to the USS Finifter as a lieutenant commander.

The second part of the fleet goes to Vulcan more warily and encounters Nero, who destroys some of them, including the Finifter. Kirk is a survivor who gets beamed aboard the damaged and short-handed Enterprise. Pike, impressed with Kirk's bravery and leadership, and short-handed himself, promotes Kirk to commander and assigns him as first officer to make Spock the captain.

Now, this makes Kirk an impetuous hero instead of a rebellious screw-up, but guess what—that's what Kirk is supposed to be. Let his impetuousness show thru in the midst of his heroism instead of showing him repeatedly making career-limiting moves.

I don't understand why people need the movie to be so real.

That scene where Kirk is promoted makes 100% absolute perfect movie sense to me.  Pike always knew Kirk had potential as a leader and as a badass, he'd just saved the lives of EVERYONE on board the ship- and here's the important bit.  He didn't make him Captain.  He made SPOCK Captain.  He put the most logical, calm, rational thinking man on board in charge- and if logic, calm, and reason fails you, then Kirk's brand of fearless badassery is probably your last recourse.

Does that kind of shit happen every day in the modern military?  No.  Is that 100% sound logic in the real world? No.  You know what else we don't see every day, and doesn't make much sense if you think about it too hard?  Transporters, matter replicators, and most other things in Star Trek.  I don't understand why everything has to make real world sense and be real world practical... in a sci fi action movie.

Here's what it comes down to- Star Trek was a dying, terribly uncool franchise, and then we got a fucking BADASS movie that kept my nipples hard throughout as a lifelong casual fan of the original series and TNG.  And now Star Trek is cool again.  If you want the hardest of hard sci fi, that's out there but I wouldn't ever consider Star Trek that.  Or if you want a Star Trek story that makes perfect sense 100% of the way through, that may exist but I haven't seen it yet.

How anyone who loves the franchise could possibly not love this movie is a mystery to me.  I guess that's why there's different horses for different courses.