Richard Roeper mentioned what he wasn’t purported to say about that 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot.
The veteran movie critic steered his friends graded the Paul Feig reboot “on a curve.” That’s not one thing a critic shares frivolously, and Roeper isn’t right-leaning by any stretch.
He genuinely felt movie critics went straightforward on a movie derisively labelled “The Girl Ghostbusters.”
Why? The movie’s all-female lead solid made it a tradition struggle battle, and critics adjusted their critiques in accordance. That’s in keeping with Roeper, in fact.
And, as destiny would have it, the movie dramatically underperformed. That led to a extra conventional sequel. which fared higher, partly, because of a smaller funds.
So how does this connect with the present response to “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy?”
The Paramount+ sequence debuted earlier this 12 months and rapidly turned fodder for gimlet-eyed YouTube stars like Nerdrotic and The Crucial Drinker.
They weren’t happy.
The brand new sequence includes a youthful solid led by display screen veteran Holly Hunter. The saga boasts an aggressively various solid, common for a model that featured TV’s first interracial solid greater than 60 years in the past, and an upbeat tone usually in comparison with “One Tree Hill” and “Beverly Hills 90210.”
That’s not a praise. And, by many accounts, it’s as unhealthy as marketed. And the rankings present it.
Even Collider, hardly a right-leaning platform, spelled out the dire information for the sequence.
On the time of writing, simply three days after the premiere of Episode 3, Starfleet Academy has been ousted from the present Paramount+ streaming charts within the U.S. That is made much more damning when contemplating the dearth of brand-new content material offering competitors for Starfleet Academy.
Exhibits like “Felony Minds,” “South Park” and “All people Loves Raymond,” which went off the air greater than 20 years in the past, are all beating “Starfleet Academy.”
Badly.
The free YouTube model of Episode 1 has fewer views than The Crucial Drinker’s takedown.
Inform that to the skilled reviewers. The “high critics” at Rotten Tomatoes gave the present a 93 p.c “contemporary” ranking, a stellar mark. But normal audiences weighed in towards the saga, giving it a 43 p.c “rotten” rating.
Are trendy critics grading “Starfleet Academy” on a curve a la “Ghostbusters?”
That is Star Trek, now.
I legitimately didn’t know I may hate trendy Star Trek any extra, however Kurtzman has outdone himself.
When you didn’t know higher and have been instructed that STARFLEET ACADEMY was a parody, you wouldn’t comprehend it wasn’t. pic.twitter.com/dqev1t2nME
— Price it or Woke? (critiques) (@worthitorwoke) January 16, 2026
This critic sampled the primary episode and got here away considering The Crucial Drinker and Nerdrotic nailed the present’s comical flaws. The dialogue is embarrassing, as are the clunky plot twists and unhappy struggle sequences.
Whereas the present’s “woke” trappings are simple, they’re the least offensive components of the primary installment.
Now, artwork is subjective, however a present like “Starfleet Academy” seems laborious to rally behind. So why are so many critics doing simply that?
This evaluate snippet from Selection’s rave feels … telling.
To make sure the franchise lasts a minimum of one other 60 years, it should replicate our precise world. There have to be area made for queer figuring out, multi-heritage and mixed-race characters. It’s clear in some ways (on tv and in actual life) that the outdated guard has lengthy dropped the ball. As “Starfleet Academy” declares, it’s now as much as a brand new era to repair the mess they’ve inherited [emphasis added].
Over on the far-Left Pajiba, the scribes declared the unhealthy viewers critiques to be “evaluate bombing” (as a result of any present critics like can’t be challenged by the good unwashed). The location additionally says it’s now a “must-see” present as a result of mentioned bombing.
Inform that to Paramount+ subscribers, preferring a decades-old comedy to this type of “Trek.”
This Pajiba paragraph, as soon as extra, is telling.
Consider it as a post-Trump America analogue: there’s quite a lot of work to be achieved to regain the world’s belief and reestablish moral management. Starfleet Academy is, at its core, a college designed to show individuals learn how to act proper once more.
Grading on a curve … once more? You determine.