Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
"Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" (original title)

Spoilers Ahead:

OK, Trekkies I will only review this one and leave the rest of your dreadful inventory unscathed. My philosophy professor called me the buzz-saw. I only had to go after TNG Insurrection because its ethical retardation was so profound. This is actually entertaining, believe it or not. Montalban was always a great actor. I also applaud Meyer for quoting Melville here is how you say Ahab Picard, use hatred, hello? He is a psycho. Picard quotes him in FIRST CONTACT like he was a knitting grandma in a rocking chair. Montalban quotes him with exactly the rage and hate that Melville wrote him with in Moby Dick. The film moves very quickly, it makes up for its very low budget by cannibalizing footage from Star Trek; The Motionless Model. The studio was almost burned to the ground by angry Trekkies after that horrible, over hyped piece of poo poo came out in 1979. They rushed this out, as fast as possible, you can see the many shots of the Enterprise that were lifted right out of Robert Wise's turkey.

It is surprisingly intense for a Star Trek movie with those brain controlling slug things in the ear. Not terribly likely but hey anything after the frozen model of 1979. Winfield was always an underrated actor and he gives a great performance here. There are weak spots in the acting basically every time, then beautiful, Kirstie Alley speaks. Also, Merrit Butrick is just awful. He sounds like he is reading from a teleprompter. The hairpiece and the girdle are fully functional for Kirk; he is at his best in this film. Just one scene was cringe worthy, when he screams Khan like he is having an aneurysm. The movie is one of the most action packed of the entire set of both crews. It is refreshingly free of the usual humanistic boredom that the TNG films subject us to. There is a slight believability gap of Kirk allowing any ship that close to his ship. In the original series, that never would have happened.

The death scene of Spock is the most moving of all the scenes in any Star Trek movie. That is probably why JJ thought he needed to rip it off in STAR CRAP: INTO MORAL DARKNESS. The nobility of Spock is worth watching the movie for, yes his Vulcan axiom of the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one is exactly the moral opposite of STAR TREK: INSURRECTION. That is why this film endures while that one disappears. Narcissism is not a pretty picture. If you are going to buy the Star Trek films, which I would not, start with this one. It is like Everest compared to the other films of the series. Especially avoid Star Trek 4: We Need To Pick Up Whales, unless you have been drinking heavily, then it is one of the funniest movies you will ever see.

The intensity, script, acting carry this film over the crummy low budget effects. Please, Regulus looks like a big cheese-ball. You can tell which scenes were taken from the comatose picture by, if they look good, they are not indigenous to the film. I did admire Meyer for always trying to educate those Trekkies. Here it is Herman Melville later in Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Rest Home it is Shakespeare. I think it is noble; look, he is trying to help them.