- I loved how Kirk showed at the end that he was still the same compassionate, decent Kirk that exists in the TOS, when he offered Nero a chance at survival.
That's exactly what I thought at this moment: "This is the Captain we knew in TOS". That makes his promotion as Captain at the end of the movie more believable.
From the top of my head, I have three things:
- Spock materialising just after loosing his mother. He doesn't say a thing, he barely moves but you can see he's utterly devastated. Quinto's performance is awesome in that scene. In fact Quinto as Spock is one of the things I completely loved in the movie.
- Spock Prime/Leonard Nimoy saying those famous lines at the end of the movie, just as TOS music begins. I was close to tears. I thought it was a beautiful tie-in.
- The score. Of course, if you don't like the main them, you're going to have a problem cause its heard throughout the movie. I thought this theme was spot on, very dignified.
I love the Vulcan theme, first used for the planet and then several time when Spock is on screen. It's exotically beautiful and haunting.
I also liked the fact that instead of using a fast paced action music at the end of the Kelvin attack, they switched to a slow and beautiful theme. That enhances the emotion in those finals moments. Imagine watching the same scene with an action music and you'll realise that the emotional impact isn't the same at all.
A lots of things I liked have already been mentioned so I won't add to the pile
