STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN is one of
the best STAR TREK movies ever and one of my favorites.
I have watched this movie over and over since it has been released. You
have Captain Kirk facing the impossible situation while he is also getting older as he says traveling the stars is for the
young (as he wants to command the Enterprise again and be out there again). He is put at odds when the Enterprise
(with a mostly new untested crew) has to go investigate why Space Station Regula isn’t responding. Kirk finds himself up against Khan (Ricardo Montalban) again whom Kirk stranded fifteen years ago
on a planet. Khan wants revenge against Khan and he also wants the power of Genesis
which Doctor Carol Marcus (an old flame of Kirk’s) has created as a way to super terraform worlds. This STAR
TREK movie is one of the better character driven movies of the series along with providing a couple of great spaceship battles
as director Nicholas Meyer imagined STAR TREK as Captain Horatio Hornblower in space. The beginning of the movie ties in with the sacrifice made in the climax. STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN begins a
trilogy (which continues with THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK and THE VOYAGE HOME). The
score from James Horner is one of the best STAR TREK scores ever along with the new Starfleet
uniforms which imagines the crew as naval officers (but creator Gene Roddenberry objected to the more military look of STAR
TREK as he imagined Starfleet more as the Coast Guard instead of a navy). If
you want to know how good STAR TREK can be as a movie series, you should really check out
THE WRATH OF KHAN if you have only been exposed to STAR TREK through the action driven
reboot series.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
THE GENESIS EFFECT: ENGINEERING THE WRATH
OF KHAN (HD)- a new retrospective documentary on the making of THE WRATH OF KHAN
FAREWELL: A TRIBUTE TO RICARDO MONTALBAN
(HD)- director Nicholas Meyer remembers working with the actor on THE WRATH OF KHAN
JAMES HORNER: COMPOSING GENESIS (HD)- James
Horner talks about the iconic Star Trek score
COLLECTING STAR
TREK’S MOVIE RELICS (HD)- meet a super Star Trek fan as he talks about collecting various things from the Star Trek
movies
STARFLEET
ACADEMY: THE MYSTERY BEHIND CETI ALPHA VI (HD)
Theatrical trailer in high definition
The old DVD
extras are carried over which include:
PRODUCTION:
CAPTAIN’S LOG- The old making-of
featurette
DESIGING KHAN- the production and costume
design of the movie
WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE: THE VISUAL
EFFECTS OF STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN- a look at the visual effects
Original interviews with DeForest Kelley,
William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Ricardo Montalban
A NOVEL APPROACH- interviews with the writers
of a few Star Trek novels (with prime focus on the Khan novels)
Storyboards for various sequences including
a main title concept that wasn’t used
FINAL ANALYSIS: STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN is one of the best STAR TREK movies ever and the new extras wonderfully
compliment the extras produced for the DVD special edition. I hope Paramount
does new transfer of the other STAR TREK films soon (but word has it they may have already done a new transfer for STAR TREK
VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY) and release them to blu-ray again with the Director’s Edition of STAR TREK: THE MOTION
PICTURE (which has only been released to DVD).
This review is ©8-9-2016 David Blackwell
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