Netflix pick for 6/6/2016 – ‘Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’

As heard in episode 178 of Cinema Crespodiso.

“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” is the Star Trek movie that non-fans can easily watch and enjoy. Of all the Star Trek movies and TV shows, this is the most popular and easily accessible of them all. This 1982 movie is a sequel to the first “Star Trek” movie and plot-wise actually works as a direct sequel to one particular episode of the original television show, which aired 15 years prior in 1967, so in theory it should be a tough movie for non-fans to just jump right into, a particularly tough nut to crack for people not familiar with these characters or their backstories, or the world in which they live. Without seeing that one TV episode, how can anyone know who this Khan character is and why we should care at all about his wrath? How could this movie possibly withstand the test of time but being so specifically tied into something that relatively few people would have seen at the time this movie came out, let alone now, almost 35 years later?

It accomplishes this feat by, quite simply, being extremely entertaining. William Shatner is in now top form as Admiral Kirk, Leonard Nimoy is his reliable Spock-y self as Captain Spock, and Ricardo Montalbán makes an absolute meal out of his role as the titular villain, Khan Singh, a genetically enhanced being who leads his small group of loyal warriors in a vengeance quest against Kirk and the rest of his crew. Revenge is a helluva motivator and for decades it has been used to propel plots forward, and here is no exception. Khan is on a mission of righteous retribution against the heroes of the movie and it all makes for some great, pulpy drama.

While still getting into some of the “nerdier” aspects of the franchise, “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” was built to entertain the masses, not just the few loyal fans, and as such the plot stays fairly simple and straightforward, and the battles of good versus evil have more in common with the “Star Wars” movies than the “Star Trek” TV show and that is perfectly fine because this film is all about entertainment, and they nailed it. Fast paced, filled with action and clear high stakes, and with a fantastic ending that surely left a lot of people shocked when it happened, this is a movie that pretty much anyone could watch without context and just enjoy.

See for yourself and check out “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” here on the Netflix Instant.