Early on, there's a joke from Kirk about his life feeling episodic, which is ironic since this movie kind of plays like a long episode. Which isn't necessarily a problem; I wish more franchises would do this. After Into Darkness, it feels like everyone involved agreed to just go out and have some fun this time around. It kind of follows my Predator Principle of keeping the plot as simple as possible.
After a kind of slow beginning, the pacing is almost non-stop, which is a bit problematic since there's little time to really set up the villain or stakes but was probably the right choice since it's not like the quieter moments really worked IMO; you have to really be invested in Leonard Nimoy's death or else it's just kind of cheesy.
I didn't think the direction was anything to write home about. Some nice visuals and action but, at the same time, there were a lot of times where I just had no grasp of the geography of anything, which is fairly standard nowadays but I think it hurts action scenes.
The action is solid. Karl Urban is, once again, doing more of an impression of Bones than a character but he supplies a lot of comic relief so it's not an issue once you get used to it. Simon Pegg is good although I could have done with a few less "Lassie"s. Zoe is barely in it. A nice bounce back role for Chris Pine, whose been overshadowed by fellow Chrises Pratt and Evans but I'm still not really feeling him as a leading man of a non-franchise. (And, this sounds odd, but I feel like he's growing into more of a villain look than good guy.)
All in all, it's one of those films that I probably won't remember in a year but it does make me more likely to see the next Star Trek film (which I wouldn't of if Abrams was directing the follow up to Into Darkness.)