Martin Schneider writes:

A couple of months ago, Anthony Lane's dismissive review of Watchmen managed to alienate fans of the movie, fans of the comic book, and fans of all comic books.

In the upcoming issue, Lane directs comparable if not quite equal disapprobation at the new Star Trek movie and the rest of the franchise as well. It's difficult to imagine a hypothetical Star Trek movie that Lane would want to bestow with a positive review, isn't it? In any case, queue up a second annoyed sci-fi fan base.

The inventors of Beer Trek are friends of mine, and they report deep pessimism with respect to the new movie. Based on a single viewing of the preview, I'm inclined to agree, at least by the curious logic of the entire rest of the Star Trek franchise (the new swagger-y, foreordained-Hero depiction of Kirk violates the Star Trek ethos in a big way), even as the movie looks pretty good by ordinary standards.

But then again, I'm closer to Lane when it comes to Star Trek! I could only get interested in The Next Generation....