Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

This is the second in a series of Star Trek Movie Marathon review posts. I’m playing along with Shannon the Movie Moxie and we’re counting down the release of the newest Star Trek film, due out in May 2009. Here’s the link to the Countdown post in case any of you want to play along too. I’m paying particular attention to doing my reflections spoiler free, like Shannon does. Like my TV episode reviews, I’m going to focus on what I find fun and inspiring about Star Trek.

It’s easy to see why this movie is one of the highlights of the Star Trek movie franchise.  The film has one of the best villain roles of all times!  The episode that featured Khan was one of the classic Star Trek episodes and the movie brings us right back to that moment.  I think the role of Khan is very well acted and his character is really willing to do anything to achieve his goal, which is what makes him such a great villain.  His egomania is a good foil to the philosophy that Spock gives voice to: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.

The crew of the Enterprise really captures the old charisma and luckily the second movie has more action and less gratuitous shots of the Enterprise.  Even though this one had less action than some of the newer installments, they really manage to make it more interesting with a cat and mouse suspense element to it, proving that you don’t need warp speed to have people on the edge of their seats.

There was also a bit of philosophical exploration to do with the science element going on in the show.  Dr. McCoy points out that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.  And there’s the reminder that science only does good if it is in the hands of those who would use it that way.

Cool Science:

• Rapid terraforming of planets.
• Retina Scans for security.

A bit of fun stuff:

• This was the film that introduced Kirstie Alley as a motion picture actress.
• New uniforms!  I’m so glad they didn’t keep the uniforms from The Motion Picture!
• Klingon Proverb: Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Need to catch up?  Here’s a link to my post on Star Trek: The Motion Picture.