Lindelof won't be a part of the new trilogy, so that automatically gives me hope. If this Arndt fellow can whip up a good script JJ will do a great job. But if the script sucks, the movie will suck.
They don't want to heavily depend on any preexisting EU stories, so the challenge is then coming up with a fresh take on where the OT characters would be 30 years later. My main concern is that it will end up feeling like a knockoff of better EU stories that cover similar ground.