Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan Wreaks Bloody 4K Vengeance

NEW YORK — "Ah, Kirk, my quondam friend. Do y'all know the Klingon saying that tells us revenge is a dish that is all-time served cold? It is very cold in infinite."

A shiver went through the audience in the Javits Center. Khan Noonien Singh'south spooky line hasn't lost any of its menace over the last 34 years — if anything, it'southward even more than frightening, brought back on a big screen with full 4K resolution.

Paramount debuted Star Trek Two: The Wrath of Khan Managing director's Cut in 4K at the Star Trek: Mission New York expo, and I couldn't resist checking out the movie for myself.

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I had every reason to be skeptical of it. While 4K resolution is great for home theater, actual picture (rather than loftier-res digital recordings) looks meliorate on a big screen. A director's cut oft reintroduces critical material, but it can also make the movie feel bloated.

Credit: Blu-ray.com — (Prototype credit: Blu-ray.com)

When y'all're dealing with a nostalgic movie, there's always the adventure that information technology just won't exist as good every bit you remember information technology. William Shatner (Kirk) and Ricardo Montalban (Khan) don't merely chew the scenery in this film; they devour it.

Most of the moving-picture show is rather repose and dependent on two or three characters but talking to i another. The plot-heavy narrative requires a lot of exposition. Last simply not least, the activity scenes in the movie are deliberate and suspenseful, a hit contrast to the loftier-octane extravaganzas in the more recent J.J. Abrams era of Star Trek films.

It took most 15 minutes for The Wrath of Khan to allay my fears completely.

In example yous oasis't seen the 1982 picture, here's a brief rundown of the plot: Way back during the original series, Captain Kirk exiled a genetically superior supervillain named Khan to a unsafe-just-habitable planet. Presently subsequently the USS Enterprise left, an ecological disaster ravaged that world, causing Khan to commandeer his own starship, the USS Reliant, and seek revenge on Kirk and the Enterprise'southward crew. At present, Kirk must command an Enterprise crewed by Starfleet trainees to prevent Khan from taking control of the Genesis Device, a planetary weapon that tin transform a dead world into 1 that's teeming with life.

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When Lt. Saavik (played by Kirstie Alley before she joined the cast of Cheers) fails the Kobayashi Maru grooming test and presses Kirk for a solution, but to be met with a coy smile, I smiled, also. But when Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) gives Admiral Kirk an exquisite pair of reading spectacles every bit a birthday present and exhorts him to get dorsum in the captain'southward chair, I was sold. I knew the movie was the real deal.

These pensive moments of character development, which juxtapose the camaraderie of good friends with the unease of growing older, are something that the newer Star Trek movies haven't actually gotten the hang of yet. Even and then, these moments can be only as riveting equally the biggest explosion in the most intense starship boxing — and in this case, they are.

William Shatner gets a lot of (sometimes justified) grief for his compulsive overacting, but when the human needs to tone information technology down, he admittedly tin can. Seeing Kirk, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and McCoy take stock of themselves and their situation earlier the activeness really begins is 1 of the reasons why the motion picture tin can justify a column of emotional gut punches after on.

The Managing director's Cutting is rather sparing with the material information technology adds, but includes a few scenes that probably should accept been in the movie to begin with. When Scotty (James Doohan) introduces Kirk to his nephew, Peter (Ike Eisenmann), it makes Scotty's distress over the novice engineer's fate afterwards much more understandable. Kirk, Spock and McCoy have an extended conversation about the Genesis Device, recalling some of the classic antagonistic dialogue between the three from the original series.

Beyond that, what tin you say about The Wrath of Khan that hasn't already been said? It'south a gorgeous, dramatic, fun movie, and Nicholas Meyer, the film'southward director, gave the Javits Center audition a long talk about his thought procedure just before the screening. Even though Meyer is not a diehard Trekkie, the human is a genius when information technology comes to balancing character interactions, plotting intense battle scenes and packing expository dialogue with subtle character touches.

While the whole movie holds upward spectacularly, two moments in particular held me rapt. The first was the final showdown between Kirk and Khan, equally the Enterprise and the Reliant, both ships battered about beyond repair, face off in the sensor-dampening Mutara Nebula.

The battle is essentially submarine warfare. Neither transport tin see the other, which makes firefights fast and furious, while most of the confrontation is merely Kirk and Khan, thinking, strategizing and waiting.

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Few mod movies would trust their audiences to follow a suspenseful climax rather than an action-packed one; the new Treks don't, for example. Only the scene is riveting, edifice and building upon itself until Khan'southward final speech, channeling Helm Ahab from Moby-Dick with an intensity that would have seemed comical if Ricardo Montalban had possessed whatsoever less confidence about his office.

The second scene that reaffirmed my full faith in the film was … well, this is a pretty big spoiler, so if y'all haven't seen information technology, yous might want to scroll back upwardly.

Ready?

When Mr. Spock sacrifices himself to salve the Enterprise, I don't think at that place was one dry center in the theater. Most of these fans had seen Wrath of Khan before; many of them had seen it a dozen times or more. But the scene is well-executed and has lasting consequences for the characters.

As Spock straightens his uniform i final time, his decorum unquestionable even in the face of expiry, my breast tightened; every bit he slid down the drinking glass wall, trying to hold his paw to Kirk's through a thick pane of drinking glass, I felt my heart breaking, just as information technology does each time I watch the scene.

This is the kind of scene, I idea, that 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness (essentially a remake of Wrath of Khan) did non take the courage to do. When reboot Kirk pulled off the aforementioned self-sacrificing maneuver, and reboot Spock vowed to avenge him, it wasn't a tearjerker; it was a big joke, a reference for the audience to chuckle at and pat themselves on the back for having seen the original. Not to mention that reboot Kirk is restored to health a few scenes later on. Spock Prime doesn't get better (not in this film, anyway), and Kirk'southward eulogy for him is one of the nigh moving moments in the serial.

In spite of Spock's death, The Wrath of Khan does not end on a sour annotation. Kirk feels rejuvenated and hopeful, set up to set out on some other intergalactic adventure. Hit this nearly-perfect balance betwixt exuberance and pathos, action and drama, storyline and character development is no mean feat, and some fans would debate that Star Trek has never done information technology improve than in this item picture.

I don't know when Wrath of Khan in 4K will be bachelor for streaming or UHD Blu-ray viewing at home, although information technology'southward definitely on the way. If you can encounter it in theaters, picture is however the way to go, just the 4K remaster is about equally good as information technology gets on the pocket-size screen.

Just make sure you take copies of Star Trek Three: The Search for Spock and Star Trek 4: The Voyage Domicile prepare to become. The 3 films grade a narrative trilogy — one, thankfully, that wraps up with a happy ending.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you tin observe him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on archetype sci-fi.