** spoiler alert ** I'm going to try to not give anything away in case there are others who haven't yet seen the movie or read the book...
Given the hype surrounding the "Trek reboot," I have to say I'm a bit...disappointed. An alternate timeline, and hence an alternate/parallel universe, I can accept. But the actions of Nero do not account for other "alterations" of the past, nor do they account for the different set of "physics" upon which this alternate universe operates. In short, Abrams and his writing staff apparently never consulted any of the tech manuals written, nor did they give anything more than a passing glance over the episodes and movies. Oh, and the whole plasma cutting to the core and dropping a singularity/red matter bit? Yeah, given that I just read Kevin J. Anderson's Last Days of Krypton, the whole thing screamed of "Rao Beam/Phantom Zone." Also, wasn't it established that Romulans used an artificial quantum singularity to power their ships? If so, the need for "red matter" becomes moot.
Future Spock pretty much violated Starfleet regs regarding interfering with the past, though he apparently came from an alternate timeline as well. Or else he would never have sought to escape Nero by going into the past in the first place. And the Federation would never have withheld any help to the Romulans any more than they ignored the Klingons when Praxis blew up. Typhon Pact or no.
There are other plotholes and inconsistencies... To make Kirk a genius and make him a Captain right out of the Academy? Kirk learned much from serving on other ships and such, going up through the ranks. Take the lessons he learned from Captain Garrovik on the Farragut. And Chris Pike as a mentor? Again, and having recently watched "The Cage," the whole nods to the original series stuff while ignoring key missions and information just...makes the story a little more annoying.
But...what the hell was Nero doing while waiting for Spock for 25 years? If he wanted to make a stronger Romulan Empire while decimating the Federation, he could have started picking off the Federation colonies, caused havoc in the Klingon Empire, and maybe even selling futuristic technology to the Romulans as "inventions." Yeah, he wanted to make Spock suffer. But to wait for 25 years and...do nothing? Furthermore, Starfleet of the future that we know, the 24th Century Starfleet, would have prevented Spock from tampering with the timeline and would likely have sent someone after him and Nero.
Speaking of the 24th Century and having your family on board... That, according to canon, is something that didn't happen until well after Kirk's time... What the hell was Winona Kirk doing on the Kelvin?
Yes, alternate timeline, alternate history... I get that. There's dialogue beating us over the head throughout. But...it's more than that. And the paradox of Old Spock talking to Young Spock, and being on hand, should Young Spock need advice? My head hurts. Which is why you don't screw around with time. Which is what this story is all about.
Change the names of the characters, ships, series, and so on, and it would have been better. But to pass this off as Star Trek in an alternate timeline... Sorry, but there's just too much that doesn't add up.
I'll still see the movie, and any sequels that come out, but I prefer the original stuff. Oh, and Dayton Ward, Kevin Dilmore, and David Mack do a MUCH better job of making the original series era more grittier with the Vanguard series. Take some lessons from them, Mr. Abrams...