Despite my opinion of the movie as a whole, there is an ingenious little plot point that makes any longtime fan of the franchise understand that this is not a retelling of ST canon, and clears the way to tell all new stories without concern for violating established history. Of course, since they're starting from the beginning of the Captain Kirk story, as it were, anyone new to the story will find it pretty simple to jump in without missing anything. JJ Abrams may not be great at characterization outside of serialized TV, but he can really work up a decent plot outline.