My Movie Review on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Greetings and salutations, my friends.

This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.

Today, for my 127th film analysis, I'm gonna give you guys my take of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan".

Here's the rundown of this adventure:

Having been promoted from Captain of the Enterprise to a Starfleet Admiral, James T. Kirk accompanies a group of trainees to monitor them on a training cruise aboard the U.S.S Enterprise, now captained by Spock.

However, during a mission to test a device called 'Genesis', commander Pavel Chekov and Captain Clark Terrell of the U.S.S Reliant stumble upon a planet that turns out to be the same one that Kirk banished Khan Noonien Singh and his crew to after their last encounter. Vowing revenge on Kirk, Khan takes control of the Reliant to engage Kirk in a fight to the death and steal 'Genesis'.

Will Kirk be able to once more defeat his arch-enemy? Or will Khan have his way this time?

I wasn't originally planning on reviewing the rest of the original Star Trek films in so short a time after analyzing "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". As a matter of fact, I previously intended on posting my reviews of numbers 2, 3, & 4 in July and 5 & 6 in August. However, I wanted to see these movies so badly, and the opportunity to watch them via Amazon Prime was one I hardly wanted to pass up.

Let's begin with "The Wrath of Khan", shall we?

I really must say, I can see why this movie's so highly regarded and is credited for saving the franchise after the disappointing results of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture".

IT'S FANTASTIC!!!

Everything about this movie was brilliant every step of the way.

For instance, the direction by Nicholas Meyer, the screenplay by Jack B. Sowards, and the story by Sowards and Harve Bennet, were awesome. Including Meyer's uncredited work as co-writer of the story and screenplay, and Samuel A. Peeples's uncredited work as co-writer of the story, of course.

The remarkable thing about this movie was that it had a greater sense of fun than its predecessor. There were nicely done action sequences that boosted entertainment levels sky-high, surprisingly dynamic dialogue, and the film was flawlessly character-driven to where you can't resist wanting to see where things'll be going. There was even neatly crafted emotion, wit, intrigue, and thrills that helped the film be so alive.

The music by James Horner was magnificent, if I may add.

For making his first score for a major film, Horner knew how to start his career doing so right. He certainly wasn't Jerry Goldsmith, but he did a great job at making his music cinematic in his own way, as well as getting it to deeply resonate with the personalities and emotions of the characters.

Finally, the acting, characters, and character development were outstanding.

The decision to make Khan the film's villain was a grand idea on Bennett's part, because the character himself held a potential that no other antagonist that appeared in the show had. His desire for vengeance on Kirk and to have what he wants, as well as his character development, made Khan perhaps the most human villain of Star Trek. Plus, Ricardo Montalban looked like he was having all the fun in the world portraying the character.

William Shatner also did a phenomenal job portraying Kirk. I can see why he earned a Saturn Award for Best Actor in this movie, because he projected so much emotion and commitment into the role that it can easily be called his best performance as Kirk in his entire career. Along with that, the character himself wonderfully developed, and it was nice that more exploration on the character was given in the form of him having a wife and son.

In addition, Walter Koenig made great use of his material as Chekov, and the performances of Leonard Nimoy as Spock and DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy were as wonderful as ever. The film's new cast members and characters were welcoming additions to the franchise, if I may add.

One thing I will say is that there were some elements in the movie that made me think it should've been rated PG-13 instead of PG. Mainly the use of blood and some cuss words. I blame that mainly on the MPAA rating system, not the film.

In conclusion, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" is an instantly worthy member of the Star Trek franchise, and one of the most fun installments I have ever seen. Nicholas Meyer clearly went all-out on this project, that's for sure.

So, I rate "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" five out of five stars.

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Sorry "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", but you're still a hunk of garbage in my opinion.