Seven Days of Star Trek, Day Two

[martinlivings]

Day Two - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

This movie is a perfect example of doing more with less. With a fraction of the previous film's budget, Nick Meyer crafted an almost perfect sci-fi action film. Much more militaristic than the first (to Gene Roddenberry's horror and disgust), and filled with fantastic and exciting action sequences, Khan is such an improvement over the first that most fans prefer to think of the series starting with it (or, in the case of Tim from Spaced, that "every odd numbered Star Trek film is shit", but more on that later!).

Watching this back-to-back with the first film, you can see where Meyer cut costs - a lot of the effects are re-used from Motion Picture, most notable a much shorter version of the dry dock sequence. Some of the sets are wobbly. The bridge of the Reliant is clearly the bridge of the Enterprise with a token amount of redressing.

But you know what? None of it matters. The film has such a spirit to it that overcomes, and even utilises, its limited budget. And the late Ricardo Montalban's Khan is such a great, over-the-top character, exactly what the undeniably-hammy Shatner needs as a foil. It's such a fun film, and introduces so much of the movie mythos, that it's impossible to watch without a smile on your face. And the death of Spock, despite being weakened for sequel possibilities by the studio against Nick Meyer's wishes, is genuinely emotional.

Four Starfleet badges out of five.


Quote of the film:
Kirk: "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!!"

Comments

[angriest.livejournal.com]

I like how for all the Kirk vs Khan hype, Kirk and Khan don't actually meet face-to-face for the whole movie.

[possbert.livejournal.com]

It's probably my favourite of the lot. 3 has its moments, 4 is a hoot (and could Spock get any sexier in his frock??).

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

I keep changing my mind whether this or STIV is the best of the Trek films; I suspect it depends largely on my mood.

BTW, someone on my f-list - probably from boingboing - did a google search for "Khaaaaaan" to see the most popular number of a's.