See it for and judge it for yourself. Don't be a sheeple. Gene only attacks it from the sci-fi portion. I look at from a character roll development and from that point of view, it does one hell of a good job. It depends on what is more important, technical relevancy or good character development.
Actually the character development on the latest Trek was probably one of the weakest links in the movie IMO. Khan was so unauthentic and forced into the film. He's probably the best actor in the movie yet he didn't pull it off as if it was a natural part for him. Mccoy and Scotty were used mostly as comic relief rather than as characters with dimension. The bromance between Kirk/Spock was yet again trusted upon us and unnatural. Carol Marcus was portrayed as a complete bimbo, but she was hot so everyone likes hot right? Even Peter Weller seemed out of place and actually played a better role in ST Enterprise despite the serious flaws in the last season of that show. Lennord Nimoy was out of place in both films and it was painful to watch. Hmm we have this bad guy Khan bent on destroying us, let me make a quick phone call to my older self to ask him what to do. Really?
This movie, and the last as well, have more in common with Star Wars then they do with Star Trek. Jar Jar even admitted that in an interview that he never liked or understood Star Trek but he was always a Star Wars fan boy.
As a result, we got lot's of mindless action, bigger monster eating a big monster, jumping off moving platforms while fighting, timelines that make no sense, weak plot, insultingly stupid science. Sadly Star Wars films to me (all 6 of them) had more depth and believability than this film.
Sorry to rain on everyone's parade but if you didn't already know it, I'm a pretty big Trekkie and very disappointed in the pandering and watering down Jar Jar Abrams did in these movies.
I bought them just to complete my collection and for guests to enjoy when they come and visit, but I cringe anytime I watch them.
Now what blows my mind is Roberto Orci (one of the story writers of the new Trek) did an absolutely fantastic job with Transformers Prime. I just don't see how someone couldn't have improved the plots of the last 2 treks and focused more on believability than mindless stupid action, excessive camera shaking, extreme close ups and over usage of lens flare.
I've pretty much given up on SciFi now b/c there is nothing left with depth of storyline and believability anymore. DS9 was the benchmark in this regard and we will NEVER see another Star Trek like that again IMO.
Now I just wait patiently for more Through the Wormhole episodes with Morgan Freeman or Scifi shows with Dr. Michio Kaku