We had bolts long before this film. Star Trek is an action/adventure franchise at its roots so I guess I never understood this comparison. It felt like TOS but in the 2000s.
And, it wasn't really a love triangle since there was no "Will she? Won't she?" in the relationship.
If we are being completely superficial then I could see it, but Star Trek is far more than the superficial.
When people compare these movies to star wars I wonder if they ever watched star wars.
And you cannot have a triangle if the person in the middle doesn't give a damn about the other guy.
Nyota Uhura already has her sassy vulcan boyfriend and it hardly is anyone's business until his home gets destroyed and they say goodbye on that transport pad.
The creative team
deliberately didn't make it a 'triangle' because the point for them was that she already is with Spock who, unlike Kirk, isn't the typical hero-who-gets-the-girl of this genre. They subverted an outdated trope.
Of course, they tease you a bit because they play with the audience taking it (a triangle) for granted.. which makes it more fun when they dismantle it.
The natural evolution of the kirk/spock/uhura dynamic is like trios such as han/leila/luke or harry/hermione/ron where, rather than a 'triangle', you have a guy and his friends (whom he will consider his brother and sister) and those friends of his happen to be in love/a couple. That way, instead of having 3 men and thus just male friendship being the main focus, you have 3 different kinds of relationships.
If Uhura were a guy, it probably would also be easier for some to notice that Uhura and Spock actually kind of have a similar dynamic with Kirk where they both don't like him at first, consider him just an idiot with ego etc, but he gradually earns their trust and in the end, both respect him and accept him as their captain. Spock and Uhura are similar in that they are the 'nerds' who don't take Kirk too serioustly at first because of his behavior (cheating on tests doesn't help) . I guess the fact they are hot and portrayed as 'desiderable' people and in a relationship prevents some from recognizing this trait in s/u because they don't fit with the typical image of the 'smart guys'. But they are that contrast to Kirk. Uhura has that dynamic with him even
before Spock does.
In stid, it's flipped with Kirk and Uhura being 'allies' in their similar issues with Spock. Once again, no triangle ..you can argue Kirk supports s/u in his way.
Tl dr: the 'Uhura replaced Mccoy' thing gives that agenda away. The faux annoyance for a nonexistent 'love triangle' frankly seems to be just an excuse to dismiss and/or minimize the narrative value of a different dynamic that includes a woman and thus isn't just about the 'bros' like in the old good 60s.
I get the nostalgia for the old trio, but no one says that you can't do something different or that everything must stay the same.
It would also be
nice if trek fans started to finally contextualize tos a bit as a show made in the 60s.
It's kind of irresponsible to worship dynamics like the bros trio while ignoring why it was like that in the first place, why that dynamic was everything they were allowed to give to the audience in the 60s. Liking kirk/spock/mccoy is fine but when you keep on pretending it's either that or burst, or that it's important (tm) for trek to focus on 3 guys at any cost, it feels like you are ignoring the fact that dynamic was, we like it or not, the result of a problematic context where they tried to have female leads but weren't allowed to. And you are now demonizing a trek that tries to fix that a bit.
It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive anyway, but some make ut seems it must be (again, few seem to notice that Uhura and Mccoy also paralleled each other as they are the ones important to the main guys ). Honestly, if you need to blame anyone for Mccoy getting little to do blame Kirk and Kirk/Spock not Uhura. It's the focus on the main bromance that made Mccoy and
his bromance redundant, it isn't the fact Spock has a life outside of his dynamic with Kirk and they are, you know, a tad more equal in that sense. It also is Kirk who 'replaced' Mccoy in the trio because he is the emotion that clashes with Spock's logic here. He was the one who argued with Spock. Uhura was, if anything, the balance between the two.
