Rating of
3.5/4
Second Best Star Trek film
Drive-In Massacre - wrote on 02/26/10
There's really not much to put down about WoK, especially if you take it for what it is. If you take it as a campy adventure/fantasy movie with overly dramatic performances of almost operatic proportions then you are in for some fun...The one big problem for me is; one would think that the film that was considered the "greatest" film in the series would have more intellect and philosophical ideas, I'm not looking for much, it's a Star Trek film, but why is "best of the series" for the most part pure-pulp action entertainment? The only part where you even have time to stop and think is at the climax.
The Plus-Side: Great ideas all around. It really uses all the main cast to their best advantages and in the right ways. Montalban's performance as the title villain is fantastic. He's sympathetic, charismatic, and is not just simply evil for the sake of being evil. He was done wrong by Kirk and wants vengeance (justifiably so, after all, Kahn was marooned on a desert planet for years). The ceti eels are some of the most disturbing small creatures to come out of science-fiction since the chest-bursters in Alien. Rhythmically, everything is done at the perfect-beat and is extremely satisfying, brainless fun, until the end. Yes the death of Spock; which, let's be honest, is probably the most emotional moment in the Star Trek franchise, is played out perfectly and fits with the characters so well, that you do feel for them even if you were not really invested in the characters too much. I can not even imagine what the death of Spock must have felt like for the real fans at the time. Having to see a memorial service with the Enterprise crew and hearing "Amazing Grace" being played on the bagpipes in the background...man, some of them must have really needed consoling.
