To begin with, it actually has a coherent plot, unlike Into Darkness where they kept trying to shoehorn in bits and pieces from The Wrath of Khan until the film was an unintelligible mess of competing plot threads, contradictory messages, and mindless action. It somehow ended up being less than the sum of its parts. S.T. Beyond on the other hand, has a briskly moving plot which can be followed easily as it moves from action scene to action scene, interspersed with some good character work. Don't get me wrong: this is indeed an action movie- a little too much action for my taste. I would have preferred it if more time had been spent on character development and exploring deeper questions or moral quandaries, but the wonder of it is- after the previous two attempts- that any time at all was spent on these things. I was particularly glad that some effort was made to flesh out the prickly relationship between Spock and Dr. McCoy, since that has always been one of the highlights of TOS. It was much better to focus on that then rehashing- again- the lame romance/melodrama between Spock and Uhura which was thankfully kept to a minimum in this outing.
So while Star Trek Beyond isn't a perfect movie, it's an entertaining and very watchable one and certainly closer to having an actual Trek vibe than either of the two films before it. It's a pity that the awfulness of Into Darkness probably sabotaged its chances for success, because Beyond is actually a much better movie.