I don’t think for the movie to work was to make Nero as meaningful as a Khan. Take the Borg for example. We don’t need to know much about them. They’re amoral. They destroy/assimilate everything in their path. It works as a good villain. Nero fits this well.
Your super villain story will work better for the sequel.

To the critics of the 2009 movie-Keep in mind, Director Nicholas Meyer had to almost change the philosophy of Gene Roddenberry’s vision of what Star Trek is to make it appealing to a wider audience in Wrath of Khan. That movie barely stretches the gray matter as it’s thesis is about vengeance (similar theme to 2009). JJ Abrams simply did what Meyer already did before…..make Star Trek appealing to a wider audience! And I think he accomplished that, without altering the basic philosophy of what we love about Star Trek.

@64. denny cranium:
One could argue equally well that the audience would have been even bigger if it had had a more intelligent story. I am of course happy that Trek is alive and kicking. But as I already said, that could have been achieved equally well, if not better with a better story. And I don’t like the idea (I am not suggesting that you intended this), that you need to dumb-down a movie to make it commercially successful. That would be really sad. And in the present case I am not sure it would still be Trek if it continued this way. Let’s see what the second movie brings.

And concerning the science part:

69. J. Pablo Fernández:
Yes it is called Science-Fiction, so thank you very much. But just to clarify. Of course I am aware that even Trek – like all Science Fiction – is not entirely scientific (hence the fiction part). Nobody is requesting this. Least of all me. But Star Trek so far at least incorporated known science and built fiction on top of it. Maybe except for some naive TOS episodes (but, hey, those were simpler times :-). But in ST 2009 there are things that are known today and plain wrong. This is upsetting to me. I mean, hey, just do that minimum amount of research. That really makes it look the writers didn’t care or know themselves and just wanted to hook in all the morons that cannot distinguish a planet from a star -> commercial success.

Well said. It would be selfish to have a movie tailored only to us fans. Star Trek should deserves to have a universal appeal to non fans as well. I think that JJ, Bob and Alex, created an appeal that the franchise has never had before and gave it new blood. Star Trek is no longer on life support and I am happy for it. Bring on Star Trek: Something Something, ASAP!

Hear, hear !

Yeah, who would have a reaction like that?
*shifty eyes*
On a completely unrelated note, can I borrow a kleenex?