Tuesday 14 February 2012

Review: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Nicholas Meyer, 1982

If you have taken it upon yourself to watch all of the Star Trek films in order of release, don't let the instantly-tiresome Star Trek: The Motion Picture put you off. In fact, don't even bothering watching it. There, I said it. To achieve its intended effect just set up two televisions side by side and play 2001: A Space Odyssey on one and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope on the other. Do what you want, but if you want to donate two hours of your life to Gene Roddenberry you would be much better off skipping the first film altogether.

The Wrath of Khan is quite ambitious in that it is no way a sequel to the first film in the franchise, it is a sequel to Space Seed, an episode from the first season of the original series. That is not to say that the casual viewer should not watch this film under any circumstances unless they have already watched the episode in question. The connection between the two is irrespective of the potential for enjoying this film, and would only really be important for a very serious Star Trek fan.

From the outset it is evident that in order to fully appreciate this film it needs to be viewed on a big screen. The biggest of screens, in fact. IMAX would do. The special effects, although decent, do not transfer so well to the small screen. In every exterior space scene all I could think of was how magnificent this must have looked in a cinema, with the surround sound of starships vibrating my eardrums.

The space horror elements work very well, the plot is paced well and holds more than enough interest (even to a casual Star Trek fan like myself) for the entire duration, the ending leaves the audience wanting more (always a sign of a good franchise), and the visual effects are fantastic (especially considering how old this film is). However, the Father Christmas costumes and somewhat inconsistent woody acting leaves something to be desired.

If you have never watched an episode of Star Trek, nor have the desire to, I would still recommend Wrath of Khan to anyone with even the most remote interest in science-fiction films.

7/10

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan @ Amazon

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