Critic Reviews
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Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine
There is something comfortable, even old-shoeish, about the new film, a sense, appropriate to its theme of coming to terms with middle age, that all aboard are pleasurably rediscovering their best selves.
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Variety Staff, Variety
Star Trek II is a very satisfying space adventure, closer in spirit and format to the popular TV series than to its big-budget predecessor.
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Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
If only director Nicholas Meyer had grasped the implications of his tale more fully and enthusiastically, this might have become a classic piece of cornball SF poetry, but as it stands the tepid acting and one-set claustrophobia take a heavy toll.
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Derek Adams, Time Out
The net effect, between embarrassed guffaws, is incredulity: a movie at once post-TV and pre-DW Griffith.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Although I liked the special effects in the first movie, they were probably not the point; fans of the TV series wanted to see their favorite characters again, and Trek II understood that desire and acted on it.
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Janet Maslin, New York Times
Here comes a sequel that's worth its salt. The second Star Trek movie is swift, droll and adventurous, not to mention appealingly gadget-happy. It's everything the first one should have been and wasn't.
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Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
This isn't great "for a Star Trek movie", it's one of the best sci-fi adventure films of the post-Star Wars era.
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Stephen Carty, Flix Capacitor
Infusing more humanity and character work in the first ten minutes than TMP managed in its entire duration, The Wrath Of Khan is a satisfying improvement in almost every respect.
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David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
Meyer does a superb job of bringing Montalban's sinister yet charming character back into the fold...
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Rob Vaux, Mania.com
"To boldly go" never went quite so boldly as it did here.
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Charles Cassady, Common Sense Media
Thrilling, philosophical installment of popular space saga.
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Josh Larsen, LarsenOnFilm
If this is the supposed high point for the Star Trek movie series, it's still a low point for sci-fi.
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Stefan Birgir Stefansson, sbs.is
khaaaaan!
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, Film4
It's not Shakespeare, but it's certainly fun.
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, TV Guide's Movie Guide
This is one of the most popular in the series, thanks to a high action quotient (including a tensely staged space battle), a suitably campy turn by Montalban, and the shock value of Spock's 'death.'
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Thomas Delapa, Boulder Weekly
Keep on Trekkin' ... The Star Trek TV series boldly went where none of its movie versions have gone before or since in Meyer's exceedingly space-worthy sequel.
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Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Many fans consider this the best of the series, and I like it very much.
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Mark Bourne, DVDJournal.com
There's got to be some moral in the fact that the Star Trek movie with the smallest budget (by far) and fewest resources is still the dominant favorite...
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Kevin Carr, 7M Pictures
Awesome Star Trek flick!
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Scott Nash, Three Movie Buffs
What movie would be complete without an incredible villain? In Khan, Ricardo Montalban created a villain of legendary proportions.
Read all 22 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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And this is coming from an adamant "definitely not a fan" of the original series.
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This is the second movie in all of the "Star Trek" movies, and it's considered the best(I've only seen this and the first one). This is miles better than the first movie, and really showcases a great story, with great characters. A guy I work with recommended I… More
This is the second movie in all of the "Star Trek" movies, and it's considered the best(I've only seen this and the first one). This is miles better than the first movie, and really showcases a great story, with great characters. A guy I work with recommended I watch an old episode called "Space Seed" first. It's not mandatory, but it's a great thing to do, because it gives a great set up, and you get to see why Khan and Kirk hate each other. The effects are very dated, and the acting is just awesome. Awesome, because it's all overacted, which for a movie like this works well. When Kirk yells Khan, it's just awesome. I like the Abrams movies better, but this makes me want to continue with the old movies to see where it all goes. Good movie that's still good 30 years later.
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With a story this good, it's impossible to not call this one of the best Sci-fi tales out there. The characters get more development, which is exactly what I wanted, and the visuals are far superior now than they were in the previous film. The first half of this film is build-up… More
With a story this good, it's impossible to not call this one of the best Sci-fi tales out there. The characters get more development, which is exactly what I wanted, and the visuals are far superior now than they were in the previous film. The first half of this film is build-up to a very interesting villain who has clearly shared a past with James T. Kirk. Khan is his name, and his game is to take the Genesis information, which secret is to gain new life on planets. "Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan" is exactly what a Star Trek film needs to be, and more. The series is just getting started and I am already hooked! Great direction, the cinematography captures everything just right, and the Score and Visuals really hold the film together once again. I have absolutely no complaints about this entry! I love it!
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Satisfying enough and a great entry in the franchise, though I'm definitely spoiled by the J.J. Abrams versions.
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I never did understand how this film was so much more successful and popular than the first. Quite clearly the film has gone for a slightly more silly plot losing allot of the straight laced sci-fi from the first. I suppose you could say they lost the aspiring '2001' type… More
I never did understand how this film was so much more successful and popular than the first. Quite clearly the film has gone for a slightly more silly plot losing allot of the straight laced sci-fi from the first. I suppose you could say they lost the aspiring '2001' type sequences and went back to the more well known cardboard effects of Star Trek, shame.
Now I realise the slow building straight faced Star Trek we got in the first film was frowned upon but its hard to see what the fans actually wanted in a big screen version. There were complaints that the original was just an outstretched TV episode with fancy visuals, yet this sequel (in my opinion) was even more of an outstretched TV episode with lousy visuals.
I gotta give it to the creative teams behind the film, it was damn brave going ahead with this plot that's for sure. If you look at the facts here...the plot follows on from an episode which was in the old original TV series back in the mid 60's. So already you are possibly excluding most of your target audience as I'm sure many had not seen this episode and possibly not allot of the original series (of course many would have). So technically unless you had seen that episode you would be wondering what on earth happened before hand and feeling somewhat in the dark.
A bold move on the plot methinks, could of gone all wrong there. That aside I think the film looked pretty poor also, the effects looked allot rougher (which is saying something) and in general the grandiose feeling you got in the first film seemed to have been sucked away. What you had left was a quite cheap looking and very generic film, the only thing that looked spruced up were the character uniforms.
For me the franchise went backwards with this outing, it was kinda cool how they explored and expanded an old TV episode but the whole thing is so basic. I liked the slow strategic 'galleon' type starship battle between 'Kirk' and 'Khan' in the nebulae but apart from that there was nothing really that stuck out as a big moment.
Of course a sneering seething Ricardo Montalbán really helped the film with his portrayal of the dastardly 'Khan' but he doesn't do much does he. A curious one this, I know its a fan favourite and it saved the Star Trek franchise at the time of release but I just don't see why or how. I guess it was all about less fancy eye candy and a more 'down to earth' gritty Trek adventure.
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I used to look down upon Star Trek-thinking it was boring and too nerdy. I slowly got really interested in it though, probably because I've gotten older and can appreciate stuff that I thought was boring when I was a kid. I saw the 2009 film, and really enjoyed it. I was told it… More
I used to look down upon Star Trek-thinking it was boring and too nerdy. I slowly got really interested in it though, probably because I've gotten older and can appreciate stuff that I thought was boring when I was a kid. I saw the 2009 film, and really enjoyed it. I was told it was done in the spirit of the original series, so I watched some of the old episodes, and, while I wasn't blown away by them, I did like them. Now, having just watched The Wrath of Khan- I need to fully rescind my former thoughts and attitudes about Star Trek. I truly am more nerdy than I'm sometimes more willing to show or admit. This movie was fucking great. It dealt with great ideas and themes in a fun manner. Like I said, now that I'm older I can appreciate the intelligence of sci-fi. I really like Star Wars, but that's just a collection of genre films set in space. This is sophistcated and fun. The fact that this movie has overt parallels to Moby Dick doesn't hurt either. I finally get what all the fuss is about.
Despite coming out in 1982, this movie holds up better than expected. True, the effects look dated, but they're still cool. It makes one appreciate how far cinema has come. The writing is good, the direction is strong, and the performances, especially by scene stealer Montalban are great. For me though, I think the best part was James Horner's score. It has everything one could ask for in a great piece of work-it is rousing, touching, and suspenseful. It's gonna take a while for it to leave my head.
Maybe I'm letting my immediate thoughts dictate this review, but I can't deny that this film is awesome, and that Trek is now something I can say that I will consider becoming at least a casual fan of.
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The Greatest Star Trek Film EVER. Ricardo Montalbon's Khan Noonien Singh returns from his appearance in one of the greatest episodes of the original Star Trek series (Season One's "Space Seed"). Despite the greatness of the film, however, the Eugenics that… More
The Greatest Star Trek Film EVER. Ricardo Montalbon's Khan Noonien Singh returns from his appearance in one of the greatest episodes of the original Star Trek series (Season One's "Space Seed"). Despite the greatness of the film, however, the Eugenics that created the villain and the intellectuality behind his inaugural episode is largely vacant here, which marks the film down from being truly perfect. Also, much of the pleasure of this film is gained only by first watching the "Space Seed" episode from the TV Series, and, if not, Kahn is merely a vengeful guy, rather than the complex former dictator true fans know him to be.
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By far the best film with the original crew. Somewhat slow to begin with, but once things get going, it's a non-stop ride of pure excitement. Impressive special effects for their time and it might be interesting to know that this was one of the first motion pictures to ever… More
By far the best film with the original crew. Somewhat slow to begin with, but once things get going, it's a non-stop ride of pure excitement. Impressive special effects for their time and it might be interesting to know that this was one of the first motion pictures to ever incorporate CGI. Love the music score and Khan is hands down one of the all-time greatest movie villains - in any category!
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Now, I nearly was a diehard Star Trek fan. I haven't watched the show, only a few episodes with my dad when I was a kid, but that was it. I like what I saw, but I never was blown away by anything. Personally, I preferred Star Wars. For this sequel, it's kind of hard to judge… More
Now, I nearly was a diehard Star Trek fan. I haven't watched the show, only a few episodes with my dad when I was a kid, but that was it. I like what I saw, but I never was blown away by anything. Personally, I preferred Star Wars. For this sequel, it's kind of hard to judge because I haven't seen any of the other films aside from the most recent one. The recent one I thought was terrific. It also redeemed the Sci Fi genre after the lacking Star Wars prequels (Which I thought that the third one was the best of all). Now I haven't seen Star Trek:The Motion Picture, but I did very like this second entry. I thought the film had a very good story and decent enough acting. Considering that I really don't follow Star Trek, I think that this is a well made film that is definitely a landmark in the Sci Fi genre. The acting is fairly good, but it's nothing that great. The actors that in the Star Trek show and films are average, and aren't anything extraordinary. I thought the film had everything required to make a giood Sci Fi film. The film has a terrific story, and also boasts one of the most memorable film quotes ever in film. Sure at times the film feels slow, but theres enough story to keep you interested. Like I've said, I haven't seen the first Star Trek so I can't compare, but for what it is; this is a superb film. The Wrath Of Khan is a film that will definitely appeal to most Star Trek fans and it delivers a good story that keeps you interested till the end.
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Old genetically engineered adversary Khan reappears after being marooned on a desolate planet by captain Kirk 15 years previously to wreak bloody vengeance. The second big screen outing by Shatner and co was far more in the spirit of the original series than the slow moving but… More
Old genetically engineered adversary Khan reappears after being marooned on a desolate planet by captain Kirk 15 years previously to wreak bloody vengeance. The second big screen outing by Shatner and co was far more in the spirit of the original series than the slow moving but visually spectacular first film, and is widely regarded as the best Star Trek movie. I did not like the recent reinvention much as I found it to be a tacky exercise in cheap laughs and corny action aimed at the lowest common denominator. But the fact is, in full expectation of seeing a superior Trek film I found myself watching Wrath Of Khan through objective eyes, and as a result I also found myself realising that it isn't very good. The production design is not only dated, but also just generally poor and odd looking (especially the costumes), the dialogue clunky and immature, and seeing two of the biggest small screen hams facing off against each other on, well, small screens (they never actually meet in this film!) I found myself laughing at it a lot more often than with it. I grew up with Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley and so they still have a place in my nostalgic heart but if I was to be honest, if I saw this for the first time now, I'd find it a tacky exercise in cheap laughs and corny action aimed at the lowest common denominator. I just hope I can keep my objectivity on hold for the next time I see Star Wars or my reality as I know it will come crashing down around my ears...
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So much better than the first Star Trek movie, this one is often considered the best Trek movie of all time, it's not my favourite, but it is a great sci-fi movie and as I said, a great improvement over the first.
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though its not one of the worst movies ive ever seen i was never that interested in the old star trek series and this movie really wasnt that entertaining, (so far ive only seen nemesis, wrath of khan, and close encounter)
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With the movie's title emphasising the Khan-Kirk rivalry it's easy to forget the prominent sub-plot that ran into the next movie as well - the terraforming Genesis device. This was a time when you could make an action sci-fi movie with a kick-ass bad guy without cutting down… More
With the movie's title emphasising the Khan-Kirk rivalry it's easy to forget the prominent sub-plot that ran into the next movie as well - the terraforming Genesis device. This was a time when you could make an action sci-fi movie with a kick-ass bad guy without cutting down on the hard-core sci-fi concepts. The main story was fun, but I think the depiction of futuristic science in the sub-plot influenced me a lot as a child.
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After the raving reviews I heard about this over the years, I finally had a look and ended up severely disappointed. The effects do not look good, even for 1982, look at Star Wars 6 from '83 instead. The pace is awfully slow and even Spock's death doesn't work as shock… More
After the raving reviews I heard about this over the years, I finally had a look and ended up severely disappointed. The effects do not look good, even for 1982, look at Star Wars 6 from '83 instead. The pace is awfully slow and even Spock's death doesn't work as shock value anymore, because we all know he came back. Even the often praised bad guy Khan is nothing but a stereotype. I simply don't get it. Kirk's crew had a few much more enjoyable adventures later.
It also proves what a brilliant kick-start J.J. Abrahms gave the franchise last year.
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The best Star Trek film? Quite possibly.
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Infinitely superior to the first film, this impeccable sci-fi movie offers everything a fan could ask for: lots of elegant dialogues, expert pacing, bad-ass action, constant tension, good drama, wonderful performances, a great vengeance-driven villain and, above all, a very… More
Infinitely superior to the first film, this impeccable sci-fi movie offers everything a fan could ask for: lots of elegant dialogues, expert pacing, bad-ass action, constant tension, good drama, wonderful performances, a great vengeance-driven villain and, above all, a very well-constructed plot with an unforgettable ending.
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You are, and always will be, the best Star Trek film ever. Live long and prosper Star Trek 2!
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if you're not convinced by the great storyline, ahead of their time special effects and the appearance of Kirstie Allie, William Shatner's "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!" should make you love the movie anyway.
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I haven't seen the other Star Trek movies yet, but i know one thing: "Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan" is one of the best movies I've ever seen without a doubt. I've been a longtime fan of the original series and this movie couldn't have been any better.… More
I haven't seen the other Star Trek movies yet, but i know one thing: "Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan" is one of the best movies I've ever seen without a doubt. I've been a longtime fan of the original series and this movie couldn't have been any better.
It's about Captain Kirk (who is now Admiral Kirk) meeting an old enemy he once had battle with in the Tv series: Khan. Khan wants a device called Genesis that supposedly can create a whole new planet with life. Therefore, Kirk takes over and tells the new crew that they will have to mature a little early. Once Kirk beams onboard the ship that Genesis was created on, he finds a woman he was once involved with, Dr. Carol. He also finds out from her that he has a son. Will the up and coming crew and the aging Admiral Kirk along with Spock and the rest of the classic crew of the Starship Enterprise be able to finish off Khan and save Genesis?
"Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan" is one of the best movies I've ever seen in every aspect. It has great special effects, action sequences, and sound effects, especially for a movie during the early 80's. You'll notice that when you see parts of the movie such as when Dr. Carol shows Admiral Kirk something that makes him feel young again and while the U.S.S. Enterprise is battling Khan in the nebula. But more importantly, the movie also has great acting by everybody, but especially William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Ricardo Montalban (Khan).
Wait until you see the courageous feat that Spock accomplishes during the movie. NOTE: That was my Amazon review from the year 2000. I like nearly all the Star Trek movies, but this one's the best of them all to me, and that includes the new one.
Read all 20 featured audience ratings
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