"Clutchman83" (joshstodola)
03/02/2016 at 14:33 • Filed to: None
2
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"Clutchman83" (joshstodola)
03/02/2016 at 14:33 • Filed to: None | 2
| 25 |
Yesterday !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! writing about what if’s in the Star Trek universe. What if Kirk wasn’t a big giant douche and let Captain Decker do the job he selected him for? Well, it probably would have been awful for fictional humanity, thankfully today we get to see what happened when Kirk isn’t a jerk and is just Captain Kirk the badass. The Wrath of Khan is a beloved movie for a reason and I love it with all the feels my heart can provide. This movie kicks ass.
First I want to address my own mess ups and some of the cool stuff people brought to the conversation. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! pointed out that the Enterprise didn’t get the A model identifier until after it got blowed up in Star Trek 3. Then !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! got me on that too but pointed out that there is no way the original Enterprise, designation NCC-1701 could have been modded to become the movie version without a comprehensive re-construction. I’m gonna call this a nerd draw, I hope everyone is okay with that. But lets get in on some Wrath of Khan awesomeness!!!!
Yeah, I’m talking about this guy, hooh boy he’s been a bit of a controversial character especially of late. First lets talk about the character. He was written as a genetically engineered super human who is both strong and super smooth. He was part conqueror of earth and part terrorist as he was written in the original series. He was frozen, along with his compatriots in suspended animation and was encountered by the original Enterprise crew while floating around in a disabled spaceship. Kirk and co. handily deal with him and maroon him on a planet never to worry about him again (that was the plan at least).
In the film Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan he’s brought back to the fray after the starship USS Reliant stumbles upon him while conducting a survey for scientists working on project Genesis. Lets take a small step back here and explore the Genesis project because the people involved are incredibly important to James Kirk’s story.
Dr. Carol Marcus is Kirks ex Bey and also his baby mama. I always found it strange that there was no allusion to her or their son from TOS (at least that I noticed, please correct me if I’m wrong) but it works in this movie if you just don’t question the fact that Kirk is a big ‘ol manslut and was too busy to give a crap about his now adult, highly educated, and very successful kid. Speaking of the kid...
Meet David! Hunky I know. Come on Kirk, you could have taught him to be a manslut too! Poor parenting, he’s way too nice in this movie. Carol and David have created a crazy technological marvel called the Genesis device. It’s basically a photon torpedo that seeds life with the primary drawback that it kills absolutely everything before it does so. It’s basically like a restart button on your NES but more deadly.
The dynamic duo of Carol and David are trying to find a place to test their hyper deadly life creating thing and Starfleet has assigned the Reliant to help them find a suitable life devoid planetoid to do so. Here’s where the film kind of deviates from the course assigned by the previous movie. The crew of the Enterprise has been split up again. Spock is training Kirstie Alley to do, something. Chekhov is on the Reliant. Kirk is an Admiral again and not in command of the Enterprise, again. Somehow the Enterprise is now a training vessel but most of the original crew is still doing the same jobs they’ve been doing for approximately ever. Whatever, it’s a movie.
Honestly this film feels like a soft re-boot of the film series. It’s like they acknowledged that the first movie was too high brow sci-fi so lets go do a cold war submarine action movie instead! Well it worked.
Surprise! Kirk takes command and all the original crew members snap into position pretty quickly after the Reliant is taken over by Khan and his surfer dude minions. They captured the Genesis device but Khan is PISSED and wants to take it out on Kirk for screwing him over so hard back in the ‘60s. They engage in some brilliant tactics that leaves the Enterprise hobbled and it runs away into a nebula where nobodies sensors work. This results in some exceptionally tight suspenseful action sequences and makes for some of the best Star Trek ever. The Enterprise ends up crippled and Spock throws himself to the radioactive dogs to save the ship and dies resulting in a famous sequence where he proclaims his friendly love for Kirk.
Yeah, I said it. SPOCK FUCKING DIES!!! He’s not brought back to life by magic Khan blood or force fairies or rainbow farting unicorns. He’s fucking dead. D-e-d. Dead. Good movie.
Tune in tomorrow to find out what happens! (I’m pretty sure you all know how this goes but I like cliffhangers)
Jonee
> Clutchman83
03/02/2016 at 14:48 |
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One thing that always strikes me about this movie is how good Shatner is in it. His acting gets made fun of all the time, but he had some chops and they’re on full display here. His choking up during Spock’s eulogy gets me every time.
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Clutchman83
> Jonee
03/02/2016 at 14:59 |
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I think Shatner realized that he was famous for being a bit silly and played it up. I have a DVD of him interviewing former Star Trek people and Leonard Nimoy totally roasts him for being a silly fake actor at times. He was fantastic in that scene for sure.
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Jonee
> Clutchman83
03/02/2016 at 15:11 |
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Yeah, I think he’s always been fully aware of his own campiness. I watched a few T.J. Hooker episodes not too long ago and they’re absolutely hilarious. And you can tell that Shatner was in on the joke.
Birddog
> Clutchman83
03/02/2016 at 15:53 |
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“this film feels like a soft re-boot of the film series”
It wasn’t really a series yet. STTMP was so awfully received Khan may as well be the first movie in the series.
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Birddog
> Jonee
03/02/2016 at 15:54 |
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Kind of like Denny Crane on Boston Legal. So over the top it’s almost circled back to serious.
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Clutchman83
> Birddog
03/02/2016 at 16:02 |
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The first movie is actually pretty good, it’s just not an action film. It’s worth another watch if you like science fiction!
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Birddog
> Clutchman83
03/02/2016 at 16:10 |
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Watched it several times. I saw it in the theater on original release and always liked it.
People just recently started mellowing on it. through the 80s and 90s it was not regarded well.
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Clutchman83
> Birddog
03/02/2016 at 16:21 |
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Yeah, it wasn’t a fun adventure and I think that hurt it. Still a good Sci Fi film though.
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Jonee
> Birddog
03/02/2016 at 17:41 |
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Pairing him with Spader was pure genius. Hooker definitely doesn’t come back around to serious, but there is a certain artfulness to its camp, and that is all Bill Shatner.
Spoon II
> Clutchman83
03/02/2016 at 17:45 |
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I think my favorite was Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. #2 is second though!
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Clutchman83
> Spoon II
03/02/2016 at 17:51 |
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I love 6 as well. I’m gonna do a summary/review of it in a couple days, I’m having fun re-watching the whole series and posting my thoughts here, one per day. Watching 3 now, ugh....
Shour, Aloof and Obnoxious
> Jonee
03/02/2016 at 18:39 |
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If you can get ahold of the the director’s commentary, Meyer has some interesting things to say about Shatner’s “method.” In short, Meyer felt that Shatner was at his absolute best when he wasn’t trying or emoting...instead, just being.
Meyer's prime example was, "Here it comes," Kirk's indication to Khan that the Genesis transmission was inbound, when in reality they were transmitting the console command code. Every time they ran a take, Shatner would would have a little twinkle in his eye or voice, a little touch that gave away too much of the deception. Meyer's solution was to shoot take after take after take until Shatner got so fed up and worn out that he had stopped "acting" and just said the line.
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Jonee
> Shour, Aloof and Obnoxious
03/02/2016 at 18:47 |
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That’s great. I can totally see it. Shatner is such a ham so much of the time, that seeing him be “subtle” is astonishing. Meyer really got the best out of all those guys. James Doohan is also pretty great in that movie. And, Star Trek got the best out of Meyer. Khan and VI are the best things he’s ever done.
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Shour, Aloof and Obnoxious
> Clutchman83
03/02/2016 at 19:03 |
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I think one aspect of WoK that is easily overlooked until it’s mentioned (and I overlooked it for years), and makes this epic game between Khan and Kirk all that more amazing, is that not once throughout the film, do Khan and Kirk meet face-to-face.
Crews are marooned. Ships are crippled in epic space battles. Numerous crewmen on both vessels and on Regula Station die. Two different Starfleet captains commit suicide. One man fights the other to his last, dying breath...and all without ever sharing the same room.
Shatner mentions in a making-of featurette that he was disappointed that he didn’t get to see Montalban at ALL during production; all of their scenes were filmed separate. All of Shatner’s acting and responding was not to Montalban, but to a woman casually reading Montalban’s lines from the edge of the set. Montalban had the same experience when it came to filming his “interaction” with Kirk. (This was also because all Enterprise scenes had to be filmed first, then they rearranged the Enterprise bridge into the Reliant bridge, then filmed all of Reliant’s scenes.)
Imagine an original trilogy where Luke or Obi-Wan never stand face-to-face with Vader/Anakin. Spiderman never sees Green Goblin, or Kal-El never shares the same space as Zod. Doesn't seem like it should work. But Wrath of Khan makes it work, distinctively so.
RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> Clutchman83
03/02/2016 at 19:50 |
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I always liked the design of the Reliant in Wrath of Khan...one of my favorite Federation ships....pity it meets it’s end! :(
f86sabre
> Clutchman83
03/02/2016 at 20:27 |
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It was a stroke of genius brining ricardo Montalban back. First, Kahn was a cool character from the show, Second, he was riding high on Fantasy Island at the time so he was a known name.
Third, the man chewed through some scenery. That scene where they captured Checkov and his captain, explain what happened and enslaved them was awesome. Dude was also ripped. Those pecks were real kids.
That said, I think this movie represents a major nerd split for Star Trek fans. There are those who want strange new worlds, moral subplots and social change that TOS had. Then there are those who want photon torpedoed and shit blowing up. TMP showed that it is hard to translate the loftier attributes to a 2 hour movie, so a lot of movie Trek after that was either blowing shit up, kind of typical political thriller or just silly.
Bring it
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Clutchman83
> f86sabre
03/02/2016 at 21:06 |
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This is an excellent comment!
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Clutchman83
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
03/02/2016 at 21:16 |
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I believe that it was a common hull type, Miranda class in fact. There were a ton of them flying around!
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Miranda_c…
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> Clutchman83
03/02/2016 at 21:23 |
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Yup! Any Star Trek game (including Star Trek Online), I always made sure to have a Miranda....only downside is they are usually considered “lesser” ships in the games, so you have to switch away from them at higher levels in order to actually ‘beat’ anything higher up... :(
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Clutchman83
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
03/02/2016 at 21:29 |
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Boo! If the Reliant could jack up the Enterprise the rest should have been OP if you could build it. A “Khan” mod would have been fitting ;)
Agrajag
> Jonee
03/02/2016 at 23:17 |
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His choking up during Spock’s eulogy gets me every time.
That and the scene in III when the Klingons kill David and he falls back into his chair. I seem to recall that that was an improv. Or he fell and just went with it.
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Agrajag
> Clutchman83
03/02/2016 at 23:27 |
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3 used to be the one played the most on weekend television. I was so sick of watching it I went probably twenty years without seeing it. When I revisited it on Blu-ray I was blown away by the visuals. Something happened between 2 and 3 and they completely nailed planets and ships. Other than that and a few specific scenes it’s okay.
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Clutchman83
> Agrajag
03/02/2016 at 23:33 |
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We’ll see. I just watched 3 and I’m trying to get psyched up to review it. I will be as fair as I can...
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Agrajag
> Clutchman83
03/02/2016 at 23:40 |
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“It’s not V.”
-Clutchman83
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Clutchman83
> Agrajag
03/02/2016 at 23:43 |
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Hey! I didn’t say that... yet...