Can you see Chris Pine as Admiral Kirk?

[Timewalker]

^ Well, if you recall, Kirk was "really" a Lieutenant for most of ST XI (it's on the transporter readout screen). I believe that if the crisis hadn't interrupted things, Kirk actually would have graduated from the Academy, with that rank - exactly as Kirk Prime did. I can believe that, based on what we saw onscreen. It's not a stretch - Kirk Prime took cadet cruises with the rank of Ensign, but graduated as a Lieutenant, and I can see nuKirk doing the same.

Lieutenant Frat Boy or Captain Frat Boy makes no difference. He's still not qualified to run a starship.

He'll always be Cadet Kirk to me.

I'm looking forward to seeing him start the next movie as Commodore Kirk, be quickly busted to Lieutenant j.g., be promoted in the crisis to Vice Admiral, have to resign his position and take on a post as Commander, get cashiered back to Cadet 2nd class, and finally end the movie as Corporal-Captain Radar O'Reilly (B Phil and a ScD ABD).

I remember that episode.

Maybe if they made nuChekov a Radar-like character, these movies would be watchable. I enjoyed Radar's ability to get impossible things done.