The only thing I didn't like about beyond, in terms of missed opportunities, is that for all this team talk about the relationships and doing new daring things, and this being another reality, they didn't really deliver what they kept preaching about. JJ did that better and he's a better storyteller for me.
For a start, they split the group to have different character dynamics (in theory) beyond Kirk/Spock, but they wasted this opportunity because, in reality, saved for Spock/Bones we didn't really see them doing that much with Uhura/Sulu and Kirk/Chekov. And Spock/Bones' banter or the old trio dynamic is not 'new' anyway. It's, in fact, a nod to tos or, to some, pandering a bit to those conservative old fans who lamented the first movies were blasphemy for daring to 'replace' Mccoy with Uhura (when they really didn't, but this is another discussion)
JJ&co gave me a contemporary reboot where things are allowed that tos didn't allow. I had an Uhura elevated to the original trio level, I had new Spock/Uhura and Kirk/Uhura dynamics adding to the bromances with Kirk/Spock and Kirk/Bones.. a trek whose interpersonal relationships weren't limited to male friendship only. Star trek beyond went backwards a bit and replaced that with Spock/Mccoy (and the Scotty show lol!) and tried to restore the original trio dynamic at the expense of the new dynamics of the reboot .. How is that a bold, daring, modern and progressive move?
I mean, everything is good and fine but don't pretend you are the revolution and the other team is the one who kept everything 'tos safe' when you actually are the one who kept things tos safe. I'm not surprised, in fact, that Beyond did better with old conservative fans who didn't like 'change' in the first movies.
tl dr: who cares about the fails in the villain story, I don't watch these movies for the villain story or any new character I won't see again after that movie. I watch for the potential of the reboot doing things WITH THE ICONIC CHARACTERS that the old thing didn't and couldn't do in the freaking 60s; and I'm not talking about special effects here.
Beyond is a good movie but it feels like a tos fanfiction rather than a continuation of what the other team created and THAT potential. Lin is just a tos fan for the memories he has as a kid, but I never got the impression he likes and 'gets' THIS (THIS) version of trek and THIS (THIS) version of the characters. I never got the impression the alternate reality truly inspired him. Someone who describes Kirk, Spock and Mccoy as if they had in the reboot the same exact roles they had in tos (Spock and Mccoy being the angel and devil at Kirk' sides with him playing the balance between the two) makes me think he didn't even watch the first two movies, honestly. Let alone get that JJ&co fundamentally changed the main characters in a way that made those symbolic 'roles' redundant and useless here.
So IDK, maybe the next movie, if any, will have a chance if we get a director who, regardless he loved old trek or not, liked this reboot a lot or enough to invest into these characters beyond tos homages and a 'tos origin story' limbo.
We need someone who is a bit like Nimoy was when he watched the first movie and saw new Spock and he was like whoa! I like the differences, I like the new things..I never thought about that but it's a good idea with potential.
Someone who thinks there is more to these characters than what they did in tos.
