John Logan did not have a background in science fiction, nor knowledge or passion for Star Trek.
And he could have wrote an absolutely fantastic script, it would have mattered - Stuart Baird was completely unsuited to direct the movie, he did a horrible job combined with the studio giving into Patrick Stewart's demands.
The screen tests are actually head and shoulders above what we actually got.
Logan is famously a huge fan of Trek. And the script still sucks, regardless of how much the direction also sucks.