I thought it was a bit awesome too, and I am a jaded, jaded individual where reboots etc. are concerned.
I agree, there wasn't a lot going on for poor Uhura, but in part I put that down to the finite time they had to cram in the stack of back-stories. And at least when she was getting her dialogue on, it was on a par with Kirk's. :D
My only gripe, and it's not really a 'gripe' and more of a 'why?' was the part played by Winona Ryder which could so easily have been filled by an 'actually' older woman. What was up with that? Very odd.