Movie Review: Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the consensus pick for best OG series Star Trek movie for good reason. While I personally prefer the first as a Star Trek story, I think the sequel is the better standalone film. A large reason for this is its eponymous villain, Khan Noonien Singh, reprised by the fantastic Ricardo Montalban fifteen years after playing the character on the original TV series episode “Space Seed” in 1967.
Part of what makes Wrath of Khan the more cinematic experience is the fact that it is written in such a way that you don’t actually need to have watched the original series to find the story compelling. The deliciously atmospheric setup on the desert world of Ceti Alpha V gives the viewer all they need to understand not only Khan’s motives but also the unique threat he represents. Who can forget the unnerving mind control ear eels? Who can forget the “Kobayashi Maru” opening bit? Wrath of Khan worked so well because it took classic Trek elements and introduced a lot of clever new ideas to meld with them.
One of those classic elements is the conflict between human emotional intuition and Vulcan pure logic, here played out between Kirk, Spock, and the newly introduced female commander in training vulcan Saavik, played by Kirstie Alley. I like how her obsessive by-the-book approach is both vindicated and refuted by the film’s conflicts. Yet another classic element is Kirk running into yet another one of his old flames in the form of Dr. Carol Marcus. She and her son David are scientists behind the Genesis project, a device that can create life on barren planets and essentially the film’s macguffin. It is a morally complex concept that the film doesn’t explore too deeply, but by giving Kirk a personal connection we as viewers are more invested in its fate.
The writing is excellent throughout from plotting to dialogue and themes. In fact every technical aspect of Wrath of Khan is top notch. The set design, costumes, music, and cinematography are all masterful. Director Nichoals Meyer deserves a lot of credit. This is his best work (next to his cameo in On Cinema, of course) thanks to a narrative structure and visual design that surpass the first film consistently. Wrath of Khan is a revenge story with a multidimensional villain and a flawed but inspiring hero. It is a proper blockbuster with very simple human personality conflicts at its core.
Probably the most entertaining aspect of the film is the constant back and forth battle of wits between Khan and Kirk. They get the best of each other again and again in space battles and strategic showdowns. Shatner’s hammy approach and Montalban’s effortless suaveness make their banter a delight. I like that we see them play each other’s strengths and weaknesses against one another. Kirk has the advantage of understanding 23rd century technology. Khan has his “superior” breeding, his ruthlessness, and cunning mind. It’s almost a shame he is killed off — Khan would have worked as a multi-film nemesis for Kirk.
There’s a plot twist in the later half where we learn that Dr. Carol’s son David was actually fathered by Captain Kirk. She explains that she hid him from Kirk and raised him alone because of Kirk’s busy career roaming around space. I’ve always hated this. It’s cruel, unspeakably so, to raise a child without a father and to deny a man the chance to know his son for such shallow reasons. Imagine a man doing such a thing to a woman. The evil of it would be obvious. This element should and could have been reworked in the script. It is disgusting the degree to which we undervalue fatherhood in modern culture by so casually suggesting how unnecessary dads are for their children.
It’s an ugly trope we have seen done to everyone from James Bond to Indiana Jones to Superman and it is offensive every time. It’s also not something to be blamed on the culture of the 1980’s because as alluded to in the previous sentence it is still frequently done in media today.
It is to the film’s credit that this is its only major flaw. There are some minor plot holes toward the end (the eel stuff with Chekov for example) and the final showdown could have used a bit more of Khan’s presence visually, but these are nitpicks that can’t undermine an unforgettable third act. Spock’s noble sacrifice and final words, “Live long and prosper,” served as a proper climax and a daring choice for such an iconic character. There are few comparable examples in fiction of a main character going out with such style and grace.
Wrath of Khan stands among the few Star Trek movies that transcends its genre. It is not just a good Trek story, it is a great work of film on its own merits. The subsequent two films in the connected story ark Search for Spock and Voyage Home, while both great, don’t rise to the heights achieved here. I’d recommend this for anyone and I’d add that you better not dare call yourself a Trekkie if you’ve never seen it.
Grade: A-
