To fully appreciate "The Wrath of Khan', you'd have to already be plugged into the friendships between Spock, Kirk, and McCoy -- especially to enjoy McCoy ragging on Spock and Kirk like Stella Mudd, and the depths of Spock's soft spot for Kirk. To me, it's endearing and hilarious. And of course, the ending is still a knockout, even knowing that Spock will be resurrected.

Very good direction from Nicholas Meyer as Kirk and Spock move out to investigate really without a clue. The best sequence in the film starts with the mysterious jammed message from Dr. Marcus to the first space battle with Khan. These directors are all Spielberg students at this time, and they know how to move plot elements like chess pieces into a powerful and suspenseful combination.

It really hit me watching 'Wrath' this time how good Kirstie Alley is, to step in to this ensemble of legendary stars and more than hold her own. She's great! I love her flirty Vulcan-to-Vulcan bit with Spock: "You lied!" "No I didn't, I exaggerated!"

I bought this when I got Star Trek The Motion Picture Steelbook. Although the Motion Picture was a better Transfer, it seriously lacked in WoW Factor since it was the theatrical version and not the Director's Cut. This version of The Wrath of Khan is a great transfer...though not perfect. There are still some artifacts from the film and some slight graininess to it, but it is very clean otherwise. This being the Director's Version of "KHAN" is why I gave it the 5 stars. Not only does it have the Director's Cut, but it also contains the Theatrical release. For a movie produced in 1982, this film has held up in both quality and in story vision. This movie, Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan is by far the best Star Trek movie ever made.

In my opinion, the Star Trek films are passable as parts of a good franchise but aren't good movies in and of themselves. This film is an exception. It's well acted, particularly for a cast (William Shatner) famous for overacting. Ricardo Montalban is incredible as a brilliant villain half-mad with a rather justified obsession with revenge. William Shatner does well in playing an older character facing the consequences of a rules-don't-apply-to-me attitude and of everything he did as a young hotshot type in the series.

A nice touch, particularly in a revenge story, is how visceral this film is. An early scene shortly after Montalban is introduced would feel perfectly at home in a horror film (not gory, but very terrifying and handled well). The usual "clean" space battles of Star Trek where ships chip away at each other shields are absent. Both sides lose their shields immediately and then keep fighting, resulting in visible damage and heavy losses.

The Blu-ray edition doesn't add much, so there's no reason to buy this if you have the DVD.

I was a small boy when I first saw this film in the local cinema way back in the 80's. I loved this film then and to this day (Nearly 40 years later) I still love this film. The best Star Trek film ever produced. The sets, characters etc are just perfectly filmed and the story is superb. Ricardo Montalban steals the show. If your a fan of Star Trek and for some reason you haven't seen this film watch it! If your not a fan but like SciFi watch it! Just watch it!

After the long-dormant Star Trek franchise was revived with Robert Wise's widely anticipated but often slow-paced "The Motion Picture," a film that had a "sex with a computer" premise, everything was put right with this sterling follow-up effort.

In PARAMOUNT's second Star Trek film THE WRATH OF KHAN (directed by Nicholas Meyer), the decades seem to drop away and we're right back amidst those vintage Trek TV shows, thanks in great part to a spot on script and Ricardo Montalban's magnificent reprise of the evil superhuman of the "Space Seed" episode, marooned so long ago with 80 of his followers on Ceti Alpha V by Capt. (now Admiral) James T. Kirk.

Furthering the illusion of time stood still in this swashbuckling sci-fi adventure is Leonard Nimoy's recital of a revamped "Space... the final frontier" opening speech, also a self-admittedly aging Kirk's assignment to the equally high-mileage original USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), which has been reduced to an outmoded training ship.

Kirk and his crew of newbies, among them Vulcan/Romulan designated commander Lt. Saavik (Alley) are on a two-week milk run that includes the infamous Kobayashi Maru simulation, when barrel-chested Khan Noonien Singh and 15 other genetically engineered survivors take control of the USS Reliant and its commander, Pavel Chekov.

Khan and Reliant attack Space Station Regula 1, where Kirk's lover and adult son are developing a Genesis Device. After receiving Regula 1's SOS, Kirk relieves Saakik of command and warp speeds toward the station. While enroute, a surprise attack from Reliant cripples Enterprise and kills many of its green crew. Next comes a cat-and-mouse war sequence inspired by THE ENEMY BELOW (1957), a battle of wits between two old adversaries in which only one will survive.

Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 IMDb viewer poll rating.

(7.7) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) - William Shatner/Leonard Nimoy/DeForest Kelley/James Doohan/Walter Koenig/George Takei/Nichelle Nichols/Paul Winfield/Kirstie Alley/Ricardo Montalban