Frankly I am amazed that this franchise is still alive and breathing. The last few movies from this franchise have been boring, dull, unoriginal, mindless and stupid.
This one isn't. It's not just a re-boot of the entire Star Trek universe, it's closer to a TV Battlestar Galactica-style "re-imagining", but IMHO better done. (I am not a big fan of the new Galactica--too dark, political, and frankly boring for my taste.)
In the new Trek movie, the characterizations are really, really strong--strong enough to carry what I think is actually a rather pedestrian plot. But the plot isn't the story here, it's the characters. And, the plot is consistent enough to explain why this Star Trek is different from the previous TV series and movies. But this one is about the characters--Kirk, Spock, McCoy mainly.
And yeah, they got Kirk right. "Give them everything we've got!" No PC namby-pamby Jean-Luc Picard yawnfest here. Kirk's character is inclined to shoot first and ask questions later, just as he should be.
It's a whole new Star Trek. Forget TNG, forget Deep Space Nine, forget Voyager, forget "Enterprise." For that matter, forget most of what happened in the original TV series.
If you ever liked Star Trek, I think you'll really like the new movie.
Rick Berman ran the Star Trek franchise from roughly 1990-2007 and really drove it into the ground for the last decade. They never should have let him have complete creative control after Gene Roddenberry died. This movie goes back to basics, like how they rebooted Bond and Batman and all that after some horrible movies (though I thought Star Trek Nemesis was OK). The difference is this movie is a prequel and manages to reboot things through an in-universe sci-fi explanation.
I totally enjoyed most the next generation movies except generations.
This is a reboot, just like they rebooted the James Bond movies.
And the interplay between the young Spock and youthfully babish Nyota I-Never-Knew-Her-First-Name Uhuru is a fun twist.