I can't say that I'm as positive as everyone else. Actually I'm having a hard time figuring out just what I feel about it, but this is hardly a good sign. The problem is that this is a movie which out of necessity can be viewed from two perspectives, and it is the collision of these that bothers me. The text below contains no direct descriptions of the plot, but I still say "be warned".
As we all know the script writers have made a big deal of how their creation doesn't violate canon, and how respectful it is of that which has come before. While this is technically true, make no mistake: this is a reboot of Star Trek as a concept. We now have a new Trek universe – but in order to explore it we need to leave the old one for good.
This I do not want to do. I have never felt that Star Trek needs to be rebooted, or that a reboot in itself would be interesting. As mentioned this is not a complete "in name only" approach like Moore's Battlestar Galactica, but it is close: nothing that happens in the film (and can happen henceforth) has any connection worth mentioning to the Star Trek that has existed up until a short time ago – by definition, from the story as played out. Let me quote Stephen Notley (Bob the Angry Flower):
[...] without getting into specfics of the plot, it essentially and explicitly takes all preceeding [sic] Star Trek stories and burns them to ash. It makes it so that they never happened. There's a scene in the movie where stuff was going down where I suddenly felt an internal clench, a sick lurch in my gut as I realized, well, there goes "Journey to Babel," that story can never happen, and a few minutes later I'm like holy crap, well, there goes "Amok Time." And Tuvok. And, well, Jesus, all of it. Everything that ever happened in the original series or the next generations has been erased. [...]
See what I mean? I mean, who cares, right? It's not as though all those episodes and movies have disappeared off the planet. It's not like I can never watch them again. They're all still there. And if I liked I could even imagine the old Star Trek timeline happily going about its business, serenely unaware of this new one. Which should be fine. Except... all of us in this universe, our living universe, we're stuck with the new Star Trek timeline."
This feeling that something is off hung as a shadow over the whole experience for me, so I'm finding it very hard to judge the movie on its own merits. For the same reason I found it difficult to accept the characters as those we all know so well, and once again this is by necessity: the Kirk of this movie is not the Kirk who fought Spock on Vulcan or fell in love with Edith Keeler, for, as Nero says, "that was another life".
I don't know, but somehow it feels like all prior renown and status is being used as a free ride, when the purpose all along has been to create something entirely new. A true reboot had so to speak been more honest, because this mentality of both having and not having feels almost... well, it needs to be said: disrespectful.
I know full well that I'm in the minority here, both in general and, it would seem, among Trekkers. I understand the movie is doing well and already there is talk of sequels – and this actually makes me sad. As Notley writes, we are stuck in this new timeline; in all likelihood all new Star Trek conceivably following in the foreseeable future is sprung from the events of this movie. In order to appreciate this "new", I must then accept that the whole world that has been built up through generations, with all it has brought with it; the whole mythology, atmosphere, dynamics; with all its faults and inconsistencies – that all this no longer matters, that is holds no relevance, that it is obsolete and can or should be forgotten. And this I am not prepared to do. I do not want to see a new Star Trek world founded if it requires the destruction of my Star Trek world, which already has a foundation. And it is this that makes me sad.
All the above is my attempt to express in a specific manner the general feeling that accompanied me throughout the movie, thereby strongly influencing my perception of it. It should therefore be stressed that I would probably need to watch it again with this insight already rooted, to better be able to let myself be absorbed by the movie as such and then make a better statement about it as a standalone work. However, I must say that right now I am – regretfully – leaning towards a thumbs down.
UPDATE: I have now watched the movie again, and here are my subsequent thoughts. Direction of thumb is still down.
P.S. The lunatic at ILM who thought it a brilliant idea to dazzle the audience with a strong head-on light with accompanying lens flares in every single scene ought to be slowly impaled upon a betleH. Or, better yet, be forced to look into a commercial laser for a week or seven.
P.P.S. All this bestowed upon me a strong wish to revisit the known Star Trek universe and I therefore watched TWOK again. It felt right.