This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
When I rewatched the Director's Edition of The Motion Picture earlier this year, I was pleasantly surprised at how willing that film was in making Kirk unlikable, and presenting the crew as having drifted apart in the intervening 10 years. There isn't much character work in that film, but it felt real.
But how did I forget that Wrath of Khan does so much more with it? Wrath of Khan takes the flaws of Kirk and really explores where they…