Review: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the Starship Enterprise are faced with an old enemy: Khan Noonian Singh (Ricardo Montalban) who plans on stealing the Genesis Device, a bomb with the capability for great good…or evil, depending on how it is used. Khan blames Kirk for long ago abandoning him to the somewhat inhabitable desert, and is looking for his revenge. Kirstie Alley plays Half-Vulcan crew member Saavik serving under current Enterprise Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy), while Paul Winfield is Capt. Terrell, who along with Mr. Chekov (Walter Koenig) has his ship stolen by Khan. Bibi Besch and Merritt Butrick play Dr. Carol Marcus and David Marcus, respectively, the creators of the Genesis Device.

 

I’m with Cosmo Kramer, “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” is the best in the series, and also believe “Star Trek: First Contact” is not all that far behind. For me, that leaves this extremely popular 1982 Nicholas Meyer (who also made the respectable “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” and the highly underrated time-travel thriller “Time After Time”) film in third position. Make no mistake, though, the top three “Star Trek” movies are all pretty damn good and it’s a fairly steep descent after that. This is certainly a massive improvement over the dreary “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, that’s for damn sure.

 

Scripted by Jack B. Sowards (a TV writer who wrote episodes of “The High Chaparral” and “Bonanza”), like all of the best “Star Trek” films, this one gets the formula right: Interesting character interplay between the regulars, and enjoyable Naval/submarine-esque action. Let’s face it, “Star Trek”, when you get right down to it is an old-fashioned submarine/Naval exploration adventure that just happens to be set on a spaceship in outer space with the modern special FX of its time. Speaking of those FX, they are leaps and bounds ahead of what we were given in the first film. It’s probably the most aesthetically interesting film of the “Original Series” films, and is really pretty. The Genesis planet looks truly beautiful. I get that for many people “Star Trek” isn’t meant to be action-oriented, but I do feel the best entries have more action than the weaker entries, particularly the inert first film. The action in this isn’t exactly plentiful, but it’s tense and exciting when it arrives.

 

As I said, the characters and interplay are always key to the success of any of these films and this one probably gets it better than any of the other “Original Series” films. Sure, Mr. Sulu and Lt. Uhura get fuck all, but almost every other character in the film gets a moment or two to shine. It’s no surprise that this and “Search for Spock” are my favourite “Original Series” films, given that my favourite character of the original Enterprise crew is Dr. ‘Bones’ McCoy, and he’s at his best in these two films. Fuck Karl Urban, ‘Bones’ is and forever will be the irrepressibly cranky yet humanistic DeForest Kelley. He doesn’t get as much of a showcase as in the subsequent film, but Kelley is his usual dryly funny self here, occasionally hilarious. Walter Koenig’s Polish Mr. Chekov, meanwhile gets quite a showing here as he’s the first to encounter Khan, and the results are memorably disgusting. Khan sure has a unique and revolting method of torture. As for William Shatner’s performance as Kirk, it’s mostly fine, so long as you understand that he didn’t really start to improve as an actor until he stopped taking himself seriously and embraced his inherent campiness. Meyer certainly seems to get it, giving Shatner the funniest, most egocentric entrance of the entire series. To his credit, Shatner has a few moments of effective warmth shown from Kirk towards Spock and McCoy. However, we all know there’s at least one moment here from Shatner that has gone down in infamy as one of the most unintentionally campy acting moments in the history of cinema. It’s still truly, truly awful in 2016. Sadly, the intentional camp of Denny Crane was still a long, long way off. When Kirstie Alley and Ricardo Montalban give better performances than you, it’s saying a lot about Shatner’s acting, I think. Kirstie Alley is quite clearly the best Saavik in the franchise. She looks just right as a Vulcan, and gives a rock-solid performance. It’s a shame she never returned to the franchise/character, and we got stuck with Robin Curtis in the next film. Saavik, by the way, is involved in my favourite comedic moment in the entire franchise, when Spock makes a joke to Saavik in Vulcan. Vulcans. Joking. In Vulcan. At least to me, it’s innately hilarious.

 

No one is going to accuse Ricardo Montalban of being a great actor, but he’s certainly iconic as chief villain Khan. In fact, I’d argue that the character is more fascinating than Montalban’s actual performance, though he gets the occasional great moment of dialogue such as ‘From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee!’. He looks absolutely ridiculous, however, in a costume that seems far more “He Man & The Masters of the Universe” than “Star Trek” to me. He’s fine in the role (which he also played on television), though I’d have preferred it if a more ‘legit’ actor played the part instead, say Eli Wallach or Jack Palance, possibly David Carradine. I said that the character was more interesting perhaps than Montalban’s performance in the role, and indeed Khan is your classic bad guy with logic just twisted enough that you can’t quite sympathise with him. Yet, you can at least understand him and what motivates him.

 

I personally prefer the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” theme, but there’s no denying that the work of composer James Horner (“Battle Beyond the Stars”, “Cocoon”, “Aliens”, “Braveheart”) in this is one of the best scores in the entire series of “Star Trek” films. It may not be as iconic or canonical, but it’s exciting stuff nonetheless.

 

Exciting, funny, and clearly one of the best “Star Trek” films to date. An undeniably huge improvement over the first film, this one fires on pretty much all cylinders, even with William Shatner’s one regrettable descent into unrestrained, unintentional camp. Rock-solid entertainment, this one stands as the third best “Star Trek” film for me.

 

Rating: B