(Semi spoilers - though nothing major)

I didn't like the film. I wanted to like it, but I couldn't. I need depth in plot development. This plot looks like it was written in 5 minutes at an LA Bob's Big Boy at 1:00AM. The villain was shallow, the characters were completely re-engineered and the personalities with them. Chekov was horrible. Scotty? Who cast this guy? And WTH was that little gremlin thing with him? McCoy as a neurotic country doctor? Kirk as a punk (one hopes falls into the ravine)? Uhura and Spock? WTH? The old spock on the same world where (conveniently) Kirk gets dumped? What? Really? C'mon JJ - hire some REAL writers to give it a semblance of plausibility.

That's fine. I expected JJ Abrams would turn it into an 80 minute soap opera of action scenes stuck together a la ALIAS or LOST. But there were so many holes in the plot, logic and events that I was already cringing before the film was even halfway through.

JJ Abrams weakness is in story resolution. Like a soap opera writer - he never has developed the skill to write a satisfying ending.

And yes, how hard would it have been to recreate the Menagerie USS Enterprise type interior and really soup it up with techno and CGI, without making it look like a totally different ship and still appeal to the 15-30 new demographic he was shooting for?

Less is more. In the future technology, gets less intrusive, it doesn't look like the back room of a deli. TOS had it right. A few buttons could navigate a ship a few small console could tell you everything you needed to know without having a 100 different screens and panels. A cleaned up TOS style interior with exquisite detailing and CGI would have been a true delight - but, unfortunately, it was not to be.

Am I happy the film is doing well? Sure. Is it better than the last few Star Trek films and the ones w/TNG. Sure.

Could they have done better with a 130 million dollar budget and today's CGI? Sure.