Laura and I saw it for a second time this past weekend, and it held up quite well. What compelled me to see it again, I think, was that it managed to evoke an intense nostalgic sentimentality for TOS, and hit a few emotional chords. Clearly, these are character flaws on my part.
I agree that the strongest aspect was the acting, as you said. I particularly enjoyed how they worked in everyone's "classic lines" in ways that were mostly organic and contextually made sense. In particular, I will note that had I sat in the chair of old Spock's (screw that "Spock Prime" crap) jellyfish ship as young Spock did, and it started rotating in that way, I would also have said "fascinating." Urban's McCoy was spot on and made me happy, although one could argue physician bias. Chekhov was silly and annoying.
The story should have been stronger, and the absolute nonsense behind the black hole and supernova science broke even my rather elastic suspension of disbelief. I could have also stood for them to have left in some of the deleted scenes who's removal created gaping plot holes, like explaining what the Narada and crew were up to for the 25 years between encountering the Kelvin and the Enterprise. And while having more detailed exposition of what the events were that led up to old Spock and the Narada coming back would have broken up the pace, it would have made more sense, and given Nero a needed boost as a character.
It feels too high, but I'm compelled to give it an 8/10.
By the way, the graphic novel Countdown is worth a read. The art is merely fair for the most part (although the ships are well illustrated), and the story is rushed (it feels like it should have been a 6 issue series as opposed to the 4 that it is) but it paints a backstory that enhances the movie for having read it.
