Lewis Lovhaug, in his review of a less-than-stellar comic adaptation, ascribes the film's success to its containing no extraneous material, and he's pretty much there. The Wrath of Khan contains no padding whatsoever; no digressions, no over-extended effects shots, no tacked on love interests. It is as spare and precise a piece of film-making as you'll find anywhere, and not merely in SF. It foreshadows and pays off its foreshadowing; it conveys real emotion and depth, warmth and pain. It places its protagonists in real peril and gets them out of it convincingly and without contrivance. It has high stakes and lasting consequences for the characters.
It also created one of the most enduring concepts in speculative fiction: The Kobayashi Maru; a test that forces its participants to face a no-win situation.
I love this film. It remains my favourite Star Trek film, pending the release of Into Darkness, and I was somewhat disappointed to learn that Benedict Cumberbatch would not be bringing us his rendition of Khan Noonian Singh. On the other hand, the basic elements of Wrath seem to be present in Into Darkness, but reversed, with Kirk as the relentless pursuer, hounding an enemy even to his own destruction. The kind of did that with First Contact, but I'm interested to see how they manage with a more direct parallel.
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