Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Star Trek : The Wrath Of KhanThe primary reason why the feature is still loved and buzzed for, is that it ages well and the scrutiny in here focuses more on the simplicity of the emotion that is revenge, and keeps it more humane going man-to-man and street methods; it is more grounded. It is short on technical aspects like visual effects, sound department, production design, costume design and editing. The script has a lot of crispness in it to make it to screen and offer the audience the essential cinematic experience but what it lacks is enough concrete material to feed the audience for its almost two hours. Nicholas Meyers; the screenwriter-director, has got the appropriate vision and even though he fails to execute it as anticipated, the impact makes it worth the effort and time in here. The performance is plausible in here especially by the newer member Khan played by Ricardo Monatalbam and stayed true to their return roles by William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Deforest Kelly as a supporting cast. Star Trek : The Wrath Of Khan encourages the enraging behavior and allows the audience to shift on definite answers through moral complications and nail-biting dramatic sequences.

This movie follows "Star Trek The Motion Picture" and is almost the inevitable follow-up of the franchise. Not having watched the original series, I wasn't able to immediately understand the movie which, experts say, consists of the continuation of one of the episodes. But the film itself gives us the tools to catch everything quickly. And we must now say an obvious truth: after the failure of the first film it was difficult to do worse, and this film benefited greatly from the lessons learned with the mistakes of the first one. The script is frankly good, based on a revenge story between Kirk and Khan, and it has no dead moments nor creeps like the first movie. The main actors (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley) shone, in particular Shatner and Nimoy, without however being able to overshadow the talent of Ricardo Montalban, who managed to make his villain into a perfect image of rancor. As for the sets and costumes, there are also improvements: the hospital environment of the first film gave way to a setting where color is most evident and the Enterprise's crew red uniforms are truly elegant. The only less positive note is the costumes of Khan and his comrades of misfortune, who seem to have come out of "Conan the Barbarian" or something like that, but this is something that has no great relevance. Good movie, good entertainment.

There never was and never will be a Star Trek episode or movie that approaches this. It is the creative peak of the Star Trek saga, in fact this should fit very nicely into a list of the top ten sci-fi movies of all time even if you're not a Star Trek fan. Everything is right, from the special effects, the epic characters, the majestic musical score, through the dialogue and plot. And add to all that we get Kirstie Alley as a strangely alluring Vulcan officer. If one could complain, Ricardo's wonderful portrayal of Khan gets a tad shrill at the end, but whatever. Above all these other things is Nimoy's portrayal of Spock, a wonderful actor in a truly classic role, never done better or more effectively than here. This movie set a standard none of the sequels could match, it is one hell of a great movie from beginning to end.

I'll admit I'm no fan of JJ Abrams and his lazy, re-interpretations of the Star Trek franchise. Silly characters, bad acting and too much reliance on CGI action doesn't make up for poor script writing. For me, Star Treks II, III and IV comprise one of the best movie story-arcs in Sci-Fi. And Star Trek II: WRATH OF KHAN is the BEST chapter and best ST movie ever made. All the crew favorites were there - Kirk, Spock, Bones, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu and even Checkov - along with the best ST villain in Khan Noonien Singh, played with gusto by the late Ricardo Mantalban. The story is classic Star Trek, the pacing excellent and the space battles are epic. I have seen this movie many, many times since it was first made in the early 80's and it holds up with time. No CGI but the effects are good all the same. They made this movie back when blockbusters took time, effort and skill, not just lots of blinding CGI and "winging it" attitudes in acting. I encourage anyone who has never seen a Trek movie to pick ST II as your first venture into the Starfleet Universe. This is the quintessential Star Trek movie of all time. Still the best and still great to watch!