I can now see all the references to these original Star Trek movies that were in JJ's versions (eg. training simulation, radiation leak, ear bugs, one-liners etc)! And so many came from this one movie! This was the Star Trek I was expecting, upping the ante action wise. Although everything still seems to have a camp/corny feel to it, at least this movie seemed to be going somewhere!
I was totally surprised to see Kirstie Alley, but I guess she did a decent enough job. Her acting was no more wooden than a lot of characters in the movie! This is one area that still bugs me in the Star Trek movies (albeit I'm only into the second one!) - that all the acting just doesn't seem to have any urgency to it. I mean, the crew just survived an attack, and in the next scene you just see people slowly walking around or staring off into space! Where's the emotion, the fear, the desperation!?!? Well, I guess the crybaby sitting in the chair next to Kirk after the first attack was showing some emotion - I just cracked up when I saw his face!!
The only one that really showed any emotion was Kirk himself, and then it was still a little corny! I mean, when he screams out "Khan!!!", I couldnt help but laugh!!
It just seemed so out of place with everyone else just standing around. I mean, everyone in the scene didn't seem flustered at all about being stuck with no way to escape! Everyone just seems contemplative instead of scared or angry or......anything!!
I guess Khan as the villain was your typical 80s camp bad-guy, with the bad hair and strange dialogue! He certainly had a penchant for spitting out poetry - in some scenes I had to turn on the subtitles to make out what he was rambling on about! :)
At least this time the music score by James Horner was more space-opera than wild western style of Jerry Goldsmith's original score. In many ways it reminded me of the Star Wars score, which is always a good thing :) Unfortunately the special effects are still a huge step behind the standard of the original Star Wars trilogy. The original cut of Star Wars has effects that stick out badly now, but the ones in Star Trek 2 are even worse.
But despite all that, I thoroughly enjoyed Wrath of Khan! It has certainly picked things up nicely after the boredom of part 1, and was more what I was expecting when I started this marathon. For the most part, I liked the extra action, humour, and definitely the improved pacing. So for this, I'd give it a 7.5/10! Can't wait to see how they get Spock back :)
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