Exceeded Expectations

Rating: 8/10 (3 January 2012)

Having suffered the post-Gene Trek franchise, I was prepared for the worst. So I have to give J.J. Abrams credit for washing the bitter taste of the Berman-era out of my psyche with this decent effort.
I had only one major disappointment, and that was the music underscore.
The composers for TOS were adept writers, steeped in Stravinsky and Prokofiev. TNG was fine until they made the boneheaded move of firing Ron Jones, a Ravel aficionado. And James Horner did fine work in the early movies.
With this new movie, it sounds like Abrams has hired a video game composer with severely limited abilities. All I could do was try to ignore this underscore and focus on all other elements of the film.
I hope they pay more attention to this issue in the sequel.
There were a few elements that didn't quite work for me, one being the dialect of Nero which sounds obviously American. The first Romulan we ever saw in TOS was Mark Lenard, and his dialect seemed credible. This wrong accent for Nero causes one to see an actor at work, instead of a believable character.
On the subject of casting, I realize this was the most difficult challenge of all, and I think they did very well re: Kirk-Spock-McCoy-Uhura. Sulu-Chekov-Scotty-Pike-Sarek were not as convincing.
One element that makes me feel trepidation about the upcoming sequel is the angle of the timeline alteration. Will Abrams use this as an excuse to destroy Gene's beautiful vision and revert to the destructive negativity so characteristic of the Berman era ?? Wiping out Vulcan was a pretty extreme plot angle. Also, I felt the torture scene was a bit much for a film kids will see, especially in an era where a recent Vice-President of the USA champions waterboarding.
If, in this upcoming sequel, Abrams chooses to steer the ship off course a la Berman, that will be it for me and I will stick to the beautifully buffed TOS-DVD release.
update MAY 2013 re: STII: re: *Will Abrams use this as an excuse to destroy Gene's beautiful vision and revert to the destructive negativity so characteristic of the Berman era ??*
In reading IMDb reviewers' posts now, I get the impression that JJA has indeed gone off-course in this way but I will have to try to summon the courage to get to the theatre to see indeed if we are now burdened by yet another ST-producer who just doesn't *get it*