Star Trek Beyond: 10 Reasons It's Better Than Into Darkness
3. The Plot Is Simpler & Less Convoluted
Some might call Into Darkness "complex", while others would simply say that it's far more convoluted than it needs to be. Khan's plan is such: he manipulates a man into becoming a suicide bomber in order to save his daughter, which leads to a Starfleet summit which Khan attacks and kills Captain Pike, and Khan then leads the Enterprise on a merry chase that relies on a ton of supernatural intuition and coincidence.
Beyond may be a far simpler beast by comparison, but it's also less frustrating to watch because there's no blatantly apparent, overt contrivance: the reason for the Enterprise crew meeting Krall is tidy and makes easy sense, and so does pretty much everything else that follows.
Sure, it's a movie, so there's some level of coincidence to some things, but on the whole it isn't trying too hard to seem smart or over-complex, and such is the benefit of not having Damon Lindelof write your movie.