Not really. They had a general storyline to follow, but they could have gone a lot of different ways with the characters except for a few of them.
It's not a reboot. It's a prequel to an existing story that fits in line with the existing material. A reboot takes the universe and re-tells the story in a different way.
How was this in any way different from Star Wars? In fact if you ask me Star Trek had a LOT more previous material they had to wade through. Every single character from the original is pretty much there, only younger. Heck a whole 15 minutes of the movie was devoted to the already well known Kobiyashi Maru scenario and I thought it was expertly handled.
The Star Wars re-boot used time travel to re-tell the original Star Trek story in a different way. In this new version, Kirk's dad is dead, Vulcan is destroyed, Spock and Uhura are a romantic item. They have a clean slate to go in any direction they want, because canon isn't dictating anything. They could kill Spock or Kirk if they wanted to and the story would still work.
If they kill Anakin in the prequels, the whole thing can't make sense.
In my opinion Star Wars was rebooted. Same storyline, but all new characters. Vader and the Emperor are really the only characters from the 2 series that carry over (unless you count robots and I don't) and even they aren't the same because it's technically pre and post Vader and Emperor.
Also appearing in both the prequels and the original trilogy: Chewbacca, Yoda, Jabba the Hutt, Greedo, Grand Moff Tarkin, Obi Wan Kenobi, Mon Mothma (scene deleted), Boba Fett, Owen and Beru Lars
I'll be honest, I didn't think episodes 1 thru 3 really held a candle to episode 4 through 6, but they weren't terrible either. Star Wars - A New Hope was a phenomenon like never before seen in the history of movie making. Stars Wars - The Phantom Menace was just another Sci Fi flick. A good Sci Fi flick, but nothing special.
It's neither here nor there, but I think The Phantom Menace sucks, and is a total failure as not only a Star Wars film, but a cohesive story, in general.
So I loved the Star Trek reboot. I was a little disappointed in the Star Wars reboot. I don't mind reboots. They can be either great or not so great.
I loved the Star Trek reboot.