Been a ST fanatic all my life, original series and TNG most of all, I know every line of every movie having seen them so much, and almost all the shows. I for one, thought they did the original cast justice. And I HATE Abrams. But to each his own. As a fan, I noticed and appreciated the little things stuck in there for die hard fans, for instance, Kirk finally coming into his own as the captain at the very end. You can tell just by the way he said "Bones! Buckle up!" and told Scottie to engage thrusters. Very Shatneresque. I thought the cast did great. Could have seen a bit more from Sulu and Chekov, but I'm sure they'll get more screen time in sequels.
Only major gripe I have about it is the whole black hole in the middle of a planet BS. And the fact that it didn't seem like drilling a hole to a planet's core was really necessary, why not just put the red matter in a torpedo and fire it off at the planet? But that was easy for me to overlook. I was more concerned for the characters and the 'spirit' of ST being kept alive, which I think it did.
