I also wasn't impressed with the still, particularly of Kirk, but wow, he really works in the role. As does Quinto as Spock. They're not quite the TOS versions, but they're really interesting characters in their own right. Which is awesome.

I wouldn't worry about it ruining TOS for you. All three of us who saw it last night came out not only loving the movie, but wanting to go home and immediately watch all the old episodes and movies. It actually seems to enhance the TOS love. Which is great.

And yeah, I think they were definitely trying to undercut Tomcat!Kirk (and also K/S slash). It ends up creating a very different version of Kirk and Spock, which like I said above, is pretty darn groovy.