Star Trek 2: The Wrath Of Khan
Certainly there have been cases where a sequel turned out to be an actual better film than its predecessor, whether it’s because of a bigger budget, or maybe because it expanded upon the original’s premise in a much more satisfying fashion, or maybe because it just did a better job at developing and fleshing out its characters. But sometimes a sequel comes along that is not just a chapter in a franchise, but rather the latest installment in a entire pop culture phenomenon, and even accomplishes the near impossible feat of managing to be so good on its own that it actually compels the viewer to forget everything else they’ve seen in that particular universe, before or since, and stand completely on its own as just a straight up great movie regardless of whether or not we’re familiar with any of the characters themselves. This ultra rare event did indeed transpire in 1982 with the release of the second film in the Star Trek film series featuring the original cast from the 1960s TV show. Director Nicholas Meyer and Producer Harve Bennett took over the reins of the series from Gene Roddenberry (reduced to a consultant’s position for his sometimes lunatic rewrites and production delays during the filming of Part 1, The Motion Picture) and Meyer was able to bring some new ideas and approaches to Star Trek while coming up with the brilliant idea of actually making this a direct sequel NOT to Part 1, but rather to an episode of the original TV show back in the 60s. Titled “Space Seed”, it featured the crew of the Enterprise coming across a dormant vessel filled with people frozen in cryogenic sleep. Once revived, their leader, known as Khan Noonian Singh, revealed that he and his followers were genetically enhanced humans from Earth in the year 1996, exiled from their home planet at the time before the Enterprise stumbled across them 200 years later, with the brilliant Khan (whose contempt for “normal” humans was downright contagious) staging a siege that would have had him taking control of the ship and killing Kirk, before being defeated where afterwards Kirk had both him and his people once again exiled, this time to a remote little planet where they would be free to do as they pleased, provided they stay there of course. 15 years later, it was decided to follow up this story on the big screen, and since the actor who had originally played Khan (Ricardo Montalban) was now a popular household name on TV himself due to playing the lead role on the hugely successful TV show Fantasy Island, the box office success of the film was all but assured. But there was one snag. Leonard Nimoy had reluctantly agreed to come back and play Spock in Star Trek 1 despite wanting to completely dissociate himself from the character, but had flat out refused to continue playing him any further until the producers made him a juicy offer, that being that Spock would DIE in this film in a grand and glorious way, thus allowing Nimoy to get a crack at playing a death scene that would be remembered forever, and also guaranteeing (so he thought) that the character’s services would not be required for further films. Nimoy agreed, but this only motivated the writers to come up with some great material for the character interactions amongst the legendary original crew, whose chemistry was finally back on track after the 1st film, as stunningly well played out themes of friendship, loyalty, courage, and mortality became the order of the day. Moreso, the film marked the single finest acting performance in the career of William Shatner in his signature role of Kirk, silencing the critics who had often coined him as being a hammy actor and going out and delivering a performance that almost comes across at times as a tour de force of subtlety and introspection. The film sees Kirk in a depressed state of mind on the occasion of his birthday. Feeling himself getting more older and useless as he spends most of his time cussing out Starfleet trainees for messing up training exercises, he takes the recommendation of his old friend Bones (DeForest Kelley) to once again assume his old command and do what he loves doing the most, captaining a starship around the galaxy. Meanwhile, his old crew member Chekov (Walter Koenig) and the captain of the current ship he’s stationed on (Paul Winfield) make the big mistake of investigating a barren planet for lifeforms and run smack dab into Montalban’s Khan, who immediately recognizes Chekov as an Enterprise crew member (unusual since Koenig had not yet joined the show at the time as a cast member) and proceeds to place gruesome little mind control slugs into their heads and use the scenario to set up and draw in Kirk for a final showdown of revenge. And this amongst many other things is what separates the film from the rest of Star Trek and even transcends typical science fiction as well, as it basically comes across as a simple revenge story between two men that winds up involving hundreds of others along with two starships and an entire space outpost. Montalban as Khan is amazing with the authority that he carries himself with, obviously intelligent and well read, well spoken, and not to mention he is someone who considers his longstanding grudge with Kirk to be one of pride and honor, despite being hampered by his lack of experience and training when it comes to starships and his own massive ego. And THAT is the heart and soul of the film, with the excellent writing amongst the regular characters taking a back seat to Khan and Kirk matching wits and talking an absolutely HUGE amount of shit to each other in order to get underneath the other’s skin (and succeeding) and the movie literally crackles with electricity every time these two come into direct conflict with each other (an invigorating experience for the viewer as well that reflects Kirk’s own rediscovery of his old self), using every means at their disposal as part of their personal battle, including an experimental device known as Genesis, a kind of terraforming torpedo invented by Kirk’s old flame (Bibi Besch) and his long lost son (Merritt Butrick, obviously thought of as a rising star until his death from AIDS a few years later at age 29), as well as nearly getting Chekov to betray his beloved captain before the nice Russian boy proves just what a tough bastard he really is. Eventually of course, Khan proves to be such a viable threat (no doubt the best villain ever in Trek history, or maybe in all of scifi rivaling even Vader) that it all comes down to the notion that only the personal sacrifice of one of Kirk’s beloved own is the only thing that can defeat him. And there we have Nimoy, playing the scene with the thought in mind that he really, truly was done with Spock forever after this, with Shatner matching him every step of the way in the acting department, hammering home the idea that the original Star Trek was not at all about the wide variety of weird and strange aliens that were encountered by the crew nor was it about Roddenberry’s own personal politics being foisted upon us, but rather in the idea that Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Chekov, Sulu, and Uhura were kind of one big multidimensional family onto themselves, adopted by the American public as their own, and adding to the fold a debuting Kirstie Alley as sexy little Vulcan trainee Saavik, while Khan goes into the record books as the ultimate villain of the Star Trek universe, made even more ironic by the fact that he himself was almost completely, utterly human. And that is why Star Trek 2: The Wrath Of Khan is much, much more than just a movie with a number in its title, but is also by itself one of the Greatest Science Fiction Movies Ever Made, not to mention one of the best character studies ever put upon film when it comes to its cocky, beloved captain…
10/10