Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) |...

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) | William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy | Much better !

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Star Trek II: The ...

	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy Paramount, 2002 average customer review:based on 377 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Admiral kirks midlife crisis is interrupted by the return of an old enemy looking for revenge and a potentially destructive device Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/01/2007 Starring: William Shatner Nichelle Nichols Run time: 116 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Nicholas Meyer

Space Opera Supreme

Take a classic television series with a dedicated fanbase, insert one of its most popular villains and toss a major motion picture budget at it and what do you get: "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan."

Perhaps the closest film in the "Star Trek" catalogue to the original televison series, "Khan" finds Kirk as the admiral in charge of assessing a green crew on routine training maneuvers. They happen to be aboard his old ship, the Enterprise, and the crew includes most of his key past crewmates. In another part of the galaxy, former crewman Chekov and his new captain are investigating a planet that may be used for Project Genesis, a device that could literally give new life to a planet. What Chekov and his captain actually find is a man hungry for revenge: Khan.

Having been exiled years ago and blaming Kirk for the death of his wife, Khan puts a plan into action to bring Kirk back into his clutches in order to get revenge.

Falling for Khan's trickery and with an inexperienced crew in tow, Kirk takes the Enterprise to Regula One, home of Project Genesis. He hopes to find out who used his name in order to get their hands on Genesis. Instead, he finds an ex-wife, an estranged son and one of his greatest enemies waiting to strike. What happens next is, simply put, a wonderful blend of drama, suspense and humor as Kirk and Khan battle each other to the death.

For a film released in 1982, "Khan" has excellent special effects. Granted, there are a few miscues, but the story more than makes up for them. Director Nicholas Meyer paces the film with perfection, utilizing the musical score and the individual performances of the players in order to build tension on the screen. He guides the games between Kirk and Khan with precision. All of the original crew do superb jobs, but I must point out that William Shatner gives his best performance ever. Ricardo Montalban's over-the-top performance as Khan makes this film worthy of five stars. Kirstie Alley makes her first big screen appearance and adds quite a bit of sex appeal to the film as Lt. Saavik. That's a tough job for a person playing an emotionless Vulcan to do.

As for the DVD, this two disc set makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity. The digital transfer of the film is excellent. It's one of the best transfers of a film including the original cast. Only "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" has a crisper looking transfer. The sound is also very good. There aren't as many special features included with this set when compared to the other films in this series, but they are some of the best extras you'll find. Highlights include original interviews with DeForest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy, Shatner and Montalban as well as new interviews with Shatner, Nimoy, Montalban, Meyer and executive producer Harve Bennett. There's also an interesting segment involving "Star Trek" authors Julia Ecklar and Greg Cox.

Fans of "Star Trek" have most likely viewed this film already. For those folks who haven't or for people who aren't fans of science fiction, I highly recommend "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" for its drama, wonderful suspense and overall story. For fans of military films, the calculated tactics of both Kirk and Khan should keep them interested. These are just a few of the reasons that have made this film one of the most popular of the "Star Trek" pictures.

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Much better !

After the disaster that was Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan was a breath of fresh air and complete opposite.
Lots of great characters, action and special effects added up to a great movie.
I cried he first time I saw Spock die and it still gets me a little sad when I watch it today!

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold

The Good Things
*Excellent action and some gorgeous special effects (including a very early example of CGI effects).
*Filming style is great and very original.
*Production design is a vast improvement over the first "Star Trek" film.
*Sound design is splendid too.
*The storyline is great. It takes after the episode "Space Seed" in the original series, but it's not entirely necessary to watch it in order to understand the movie.
*The characters are awesome. Kahn (Ricardo Montalban) is one of the best bad guys ever, and his performance is so dramatic. Kirk is very compassionate. Everybody else is good; great acting.
*Good writing. Lots of memorable lines.
*Strong themes about life and death, birth and rebirth, and growing old.
*Good music.

The Bad Things
*A few bloody bits (mostly involving alien bugs that burrow into people's ears); probably not for young kids or the extremely squeamish.

Definately the best of the "Star Trek" film saga. It does away with the dull space-opera elements of the first film and provides a smashing extravaganza of space battles, epic story-telling, and intense character conflicts. The writing is totally awesome, and presents loads of great lines and dramatic acting. It's a classic in every sense.

The original one-disc release has okay video and sound quality, and includes a trailer. The newer two-disc set has good quality and sound, and a bunch of fascinating featurettes and trailers.

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There i s none better than this one.

All the elements needed for a Star Trek movie quality epic. Since then very few of the rest have been cinematic enough to match to STII.

Should Be Titled "Harve Bennett's & Nicholas Meyer's 'Stolen' Star Trek I: Redefining Space With Old Scripts"

Let me be clear, as far as I am concerned, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)" is a fun movie; but the film IS NOT GENE RODDENBERRY'S MOVIE!!! Moreover, "Paramount executives, who blamed the relative failure of the first movie on the constant rewrites demanded by Roddenberry," removed Gene Roddenberry from the production and reduced his involvement to an "Executive Consultant" advisory position. Paramount then went out and hired Harve Bennett to "replace" Gene Roddenberry. While Gene Roddenberry was allowed to view and comment upon all scripts and dailies emanating from the production, the creative team was free to disregard Gene Roddenberry's input, which Harve Bennett elected to do. Next, Paramount had Nicholas Meyer, also the director, write the script for the Wrath of Khan. Meyer, who knew nothing about Gene Roddenberry's conceptualization of Star Trek--let alone ever viewing an episode prior to being hired--watched a few of the original television episodes and concluded that Star Trek was little more than Horatio Hornblower in space. So, Meyer wrote his own Horatio Hornblower script, Harve Bennett "bought" into it and convinced Paramount. Just like that, Meyer and Bennett redefined the entire concept of Star Trek, literally taking Star Trek to places Gene Roddenberry never envisioned.

Equally disturbing is the fact that the newly appointed "creators" of Star Trek completely ignored Robert Wise's efforts to transform the vision of the original Star Trek television series into theatrical "big screen" movies that continued the true intent of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek: intelligence; compassion; equality and fairness; symbolism and analogy; social awareness; controversy; and wonderful, fun, thought provoking, imperturbable entertainment. Instead, Bennett and Meyer went for a movie that was: simple minded "naval" action; ruthlessness and bitterness; bigotry and injustice; basic descriptions and cliches; narrow mindedness; uncontroversial (except for the poor actors that were forced to say lines that made them "ill"); and tried and true, blow it up, in your face conflict.

While I was disappointed when I saw "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" at the theater, I remember consoling myself that the movie did revisit an old script's story line and that Ricardo Montalbán was brilliant in his updated performance. In deed, I believe that it is Montalban's performance that kept this movie from being a disaster. Yes, Meyer's "British Navy" and 18th century broadsides appealed to the then current generation of "movie goers," satiating their lust for endless, pointless "action." But, I remain convinced that without a performance equivalent to Montalban's, along with the "killing off" of Leonard Nimoy's character, Captain Spock, the movie would have been a boring movie not even worthy of three stars.

As I stated in my review of "Star Trek - The Motion Picture: The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)," I consider Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek--and his vision of the show--to have been the best television show up to that time (1966-1969). Equally, I consider Harve Bennett's and Nicholas Meyer's "stolen" Star Trek to be an entirely different production. While I was convinced in 1984 by friends to go with them to see "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," I essentially "gave up" on the whole Star Trek "franchise" after "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan."

It would not be until 2002, when the DVDs came out that I would watch a Star Trek movie ("Star Trek - The Motion Picture: The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition"); and then, only because my oldest boy was trying to reconnect with me by giving me the movie for Christmas. It is only now, 16 years after "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" came out, that I have decided to purchase "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)." While the extra features and time have softened me, and I will most likely watch the movie more than once, I still believe that "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)" is no more than an average movie (i.e., a three star film).

Update--1 July 2008: If this review was not helpful to you, I would appreciate learning the reason(s) so I can improve my reviews. My goal is to provide help to potential buyers, not get into any arguments. So, if you only disagree with my opinion, could you please say so in the comments and not indicate that the review was not helpful. Thanks.

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