Rating: 
Summary: Great fights, action and acting... all rolled in one
Review: Ricardo Montalban made this movie for me. He played Khan, a revenge minded individual hellbent on destroying his enemy/nemesis, James T. Kirk. Almost, literally, playing the part of Captain Ahab from the classic tale, "Moby Dick", who is obsessed with destroying the white whale (Kirk). Montalban's great performance, I felt, helped push the other lead actors to perform to their fullest potential. Shatner did a wonderful job. His best of all the Star Trek films. The dialogue between all the characters, especially all the classic literature quotes, was written and performed beautifully. "Revenge is a dish best served cold." Amazing line and delivered beautifully by Moltalban. The film had a great story line and non stop action between two bitter rivals. I recommend this film to all, Trekkies or not. Enjoy
Rating: 
Summary: What the first movie should have been
Review: Especially improved is the sequence where Enterprise is first seen, in the first film, it was an overlong boring scene that brought the story to a halt at just the wrong moment. Wrath of Kahn has great pacing and story throughout, and avoids the totally un-needed "reunion" scenes. The reunion we do get is Kirk and an old and worthy adversary, and it is worth it. The nebula battle scene still holds up.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Even For Non-Fans
Review: Star Trek II is a wonderful movie. It has everything: action, drama, comedy, horror, a love story (long lost loves meeting again) death, life, and great special effects. Watching it again recently, it finally hit me that the script for this film is terrific, especially the dialogue. Certainly the best of any Star Trek movie and one of the best period. There are so many memorable quotes. Even to this day, Trekkers may watch this film and still have a hard time watching the "sacrifice" near the end of the film. It is still a powerful scene. Those who may have never seen this film, may want to watch the original series episode SPACE SEED. It isn't required, but it would let you see Kahn in action for the first time. Just to be "nitpicky", how Kahn got to meet Chekov before we met him in the series is weird, but oh well! I give this film an A.
Rating:
Summary: Boldy Go... the Second Time
Review: DigitalCritic Short Review: 4.5/5 Captain Kirk takes on archenemy Khan, the superhuman maniac of "Space Seed" fame. Ship hijacking, betrayal, and bloodlust. All this plus the creation of a new world... and the death of a legend. An exciting and dramatic piece with enough kick for anyone. Acting: 4/5 The Star Trek cast play it a bit smoother in this, their second film. Shatner walks alone most of the time, though he and Nimoy share some good dramatic moments in the end. Alley and Nimoy enjoy fun but chemistry-free screen time together as the Vulcan pair. The supporting cast gets so-so airtime. Koenig gets to be first officer on the Reliant after a tiny part in the first film. Doohan has a dramatic moment, that was reportedly cut down significantly. Kelley has probably the strongest lines in the entire picture, but little screen time. Nichols and Takei take a back seat to the rest of the crew, but come back firing strong in the next film. The supporting cast is pretty darn good too. Montalban turns an explosive and surprisingly sinister performance as Khan. Besch and Butrick are entirely believable as Kirk's estranged family, and just prickly enough too. Alley is acceptable as the off-kilter Vulcan sidekick for Spock (Alley left the franchise and was replaced by the better Robin Curtis in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock). Winfield turns a brief performance as Terrel, but would return to Star Trek later (on "Darmok" in Star Trek: The Next Generation). Directing: 4/5 Nicolas Meyer was given the task of constructing a cheaper and slicker sequel to Robert Wise's first Star Trek film. He took the task and ran with it. The film has an "alive" feel that never really returned to the franchise until the next time he helmed a film, in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Special and Visual Effects: 4.5/5 On-stage effects are good, but were restricted a bit due to budget constraints. The cavernous sets of the first film were scaled down to provide a grittier Enterprise under attack. Explosions were the big effects, as the ship is pummeled by the Reliant. Visual effects are quite good. ILM took on a Star Trek film for the first time here. (They would be involved in the third, fourth, sixth, seventh, and eighth films as well, though with decreasing involvement as time went on). Although the model and planet shots are all well executed, it is the computer generated "Genesis Device" scene that bowled audiences over. Although today the scene looks a bit antiquated, it holds up astoundingly well considering it was generated nearly twenty years ago. (To be fair, I should note that a number of shots from the first film were re-used. The Klingons in the simulation were from the beginning of the first film, as were the spacedock and plain-star warping sequences. Paramount had spent so much on the first film's effects that this just seemed like a good idea. This does not in any way detract from the film... the effects were well done!) Picture: 4.5/5 The picture is very clear. Artifacts are nonexistent in all but a few screens. Sound: 4.5/5 James Horner's music just sounds superb. Dialog tracking is a bit lacking, but sound effects are quite good. Advice: Pay full price.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Original Crew Star Trek Movies
Review: This is without a shadow of a doubt the best Star Trek movie with the original crew. A great villian, Khan Noonian Singh (Ricardo Montalban), Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty et al at their best. A great story, plenty of action, a terrific score by James Horner, excellent special effects by ILM. Kirsty Alley played Saavik well (as opposed to the store-dummy in Star Trek 3). It's a good transfer, best quality since I saw it when it was first released back in 1982 (all the TV/cable recordings I've seen have sucked).
Rating:
Summary: Great movie, sadly a no features DVD
Review: This is a review of the DVD version. Unfortunately, as with the whole collection of the Star Trek DVDs, Paramount has done us a disservice by not adding anything extra to the movies, except for a trailer, and a French language audio-track and English and French subtitles. No commentaries by Harve Bennett, Leonard Nimoy, or any other directors, composers, special effects people, actors - nothing. Nada. If it wasn't for the better picture quality of DVD, I'd stick with the VHS version. I am very disappointed in this, and all Star Trek movies, as a DVD. Please, Paramount, show some respect for the fans of Star Trek who have earned you untold billions of dollars, and give us a decent DVD offering of the movies we love so much. In terms of the movie itself, what can I say? This is great film-making, and great script-writing. People who don't like Star Trek might dismiss it out of hand, but I would suggest this one (and also Star Trek IV) as movies the non-trekkie, even the non-science-fiction fan, will likely enjoy. Of all the Star Trek movies, this one is the most mythic - using mythic in its proper sense, of characters who are beyond human, stretching in to the realm of true archetypes. Think Greek epic writing, and you'll get the idea. Khan as blind vengeance personified; Kirk as unstoppable but fallible hero; the meeting of Kirk with his unknown son; and Spock, the non-human, teaching us how to be human by sacrificing his life for the crew. It also has so much in it about death and life, and how we deal with situations that are no-win (such as Spock sacrificing himself). Great stuff. If you want to know about the plot of the movie, or more beyond that, you can read the other many reviews here. I only wanted to mention this is a great story, to watch and enjoy, and also something that could be used in a literature class in high school or college. The filing is beautiful, the soundtrack is phenomenal (ranks right up there with Conan the Barbarian and Star Wars for perfectly meshed film-and-music). Also, if you do get the DVD, you must watch the movie with the French audio on, because none of the French actors they used to do the voices is appropriate, and it's simply hilarious. I don't know where thy found the actors to do the voices, but Khan sounds like a weenie, Kirk sounds like an accountant, and the others have no emotion or acting skill at all. Truly a bad voice-over, but, as I said, utterly hilarious. When Khan utters his "revenge is a dish best served cold" and in French he ends with "Foie", he says it with such a silly emphasis, I about rolled off my couch to hear it, and played it over and over before going on with the rest of the movie. Great, wonderful, exciting and well-written Star Trek/adventure/science-fiction movie, my favorite of the Star Trek series, and the DVD is wonderfully clear and crisp, but offers nothing for which the DVD format is designed.
Rating:
Summary: "HE TASKS ME!!! HE TASKS ME!!!!!!!"
Review: The Movie I give five stars no doubt. It was and still is the best Trek movie yet made. The DVD though, is not exemplary. The picture is extremely detailed and clean but overall is a bit on the dark side. This DVD is best seen in a room with the lights off. The sound, Dolby Digital 5.1, is not very dynamic. This is not the fault of the crew who upgraded the soundtrack but rather it is this way because of the age of the movie. The soundeffects for the lasers and photon torpedoes emphasized treble rather than base, and for most of the movie Horner's score surpasses the sound effects. The only time you hear and feel the base is when the starships pass by.
Rating:
Summary: Captures the spirit of the Classic series...
Review: This was the first Star Trek movie I actually saw at an age where I could remember. When I first saw it, it was broadcast on ABC, so it naturally was edited in a fashion. It was also the first one I bought, and I can say it was probably the best buy I've ever made. I've been watching Star Trek since before I was even in school, so the characters were quite familiar. I have but only one complaint with the VHS/DVD copies of the movie. That being that approximately 15 minutes of footage on the ABC version is NOT on the tapes or my DVD copy. The action is great, the musical score is riveting, and doesn't follow the all is happy at the end trend of a lot of movies. Mr. Meyer did an excellent job with this film, from little things like putting a real book--A Tale of Two Cities--in the hands of Shatner to a quote at the end of that novel in the movie's end. And though the death of Mr. Spock was a bit off-putting, the film's crew couldn't have done any better if they hadn't included a bagpipe version of "Amazing Grace" at the end. It was enough to make a small kid--me, at the time--shed a tear. The whole look of the sets, especially the subdued lighting of the brigdge, and the cave on Regula with all the plant life, were superb.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent DVD Buy!
Review: Hello, Star Trek Wrath of Kahn is the second installment in the Star Trek movie series. Basically it is the continuation of the original tv episode, "Space Seed." In this flick, Kirk (William Shantner) fights an epic battle with the supposedly superior genetically engineered Kahn. This movie has stunning special effects for its time, particularly in the battle scenes between the Enterprise and Reliant. The plot is interesting, in that Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is killed while saving the ship from Kahn's genesis explosion. To this point in the series, no major character from the original bridge crew had been killed and fans left wondering, why did they kill of spock? This of course leads to the third flick, "Star Trek III Search for Spock." Finally, what impressed me the most about this dvd, was the quality of picture and sound. I still have the original vhs tape and the picture quality and sound have degraded considerably. Now DVD will preserve sci-fi classics such as this for years to come. Overall, a great buy if you love Star Trek.
Rating: 
Summary: Plot holes you can warp through damage this film
Review: This movie has a great reputation, and I can understand that. The conflict between Khan and Kirk is probably the most compelling one the movie series has had to offer, with the possible exception of Kirk against the Klingon conspiracy in Star Trek VI. The character relationships between Spock, Kirk and McCoy are drawn exceptionally well, and Kirstie Alley's Saavik made a nice addition to the crew. So what's the problem? The movie rests on a series of coincidences and plot contrivances that are ultimately too frustrating to overlook, most of them centering around the first battle between the Enterprise and Khan aboard the Reliant. Khan is able to inflict massive damage to Kirk's ship, and kill many crew members, because Kirk didn't follow regulations and had his shields down -- even AFTER another officer reminded him of the regulations. That kind of sloppy thinking should lead to an investigation and a court martial, at the least. Then, to get out of the predicament that Kirk's arrogance/ignorance has gotten them into, they use a code that lets them take over the enemy ship -- and after they fire a few shots, they let the ship get away, repair itself, and resume the battle. It's a deus ex machina in the middle of the movie, for crying out loud, and then it gets ignored. I'm not saying this is a terrible movie. If you like fun SF, you'll probably enjoy it. But it is an extremely flawed movie, and I find it hard to justify calling it the best of the series, as many have done. The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Country are, in my opinion, much better films.
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