I watched the first one at the theater when it came out.
I liked it well enough.
Watched it again on Amazon so I could brush up on it before seeing the next one.
Maybe I wasn’t paying attention, but, the first time, I somehow missed the significance of the plot device of this new series being in a completely altered future from now on. It’s a somewhat clever mechanism to let this new series deviate significantly from everything before, while still retaining similarities and characters.
It was obvious the second time through, and I don’t know how I missed it the first time - maybe I went to get more popcorn during crucial scenes or something.
That was the symbolism of young Kirk driving the ‘67 Vett over the cliff...’67 being the year the original ST came out. They were saying right from the beginning, this is going to be a different ST.