Via Ace, who laments the Bay-ification of Roddenberry’s dream. I’ve never been a Trek fan but I know enough to appreciate that (a) it’s not about the FX and (b) campiness is central to the charm. That’s all gone here. In that sense, it is to the original Trek what the modern Batman movies are to the Adam West series from the ’60s, with a notable difference being that the Batman movies are stylistically distinct. They’re a true reinvention (or, rather, a return to form of the darker Batman comics that predated the West version) whereas this looks like everything else on the sci fi market except with a young Kirk and Spock glaring at each other. That feels generic, too: If I want to watch a “young rivals butt heads before learning to respect each other and becoming partners” story arc, I’ll rent Top Gun or any cop buddy picture ever made.

One other thing. Has Trek ever fundamentally been about the sort of personality conflict seen here? One of the pleasures of the series (both original and TNG) is that so many unfold as mysteries and team problem-solving. Distracting soap opera shenanigans are mercifully minimized and usually relegated to subplot. This, by contrast, looks like it could be a two-hour exercise in brooding tools practicing their best emo faces in between scenes of bedding down space starlets. Whatever; you know you’ll see it anyway.