KHAAAAAAAAAAAAANNN!!!!One of the places in Morgantown that I really like is the Warner Theater - a small old theater downtown that plays independent movies at about half the price of normal theaters. Two weeks ago I saw Old Country for Old Men there (liked it a lot!) and last week I saw There Will Be Blood (also really good - Daniel Day Lewis owns your ass from the 19th century). Yesterday's movie experience was a little different. For some reason, the Warner Theater got the rights to play the first three Star Trek movies, and last night they were showing my favorite - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
I managed to coerce a few friends into going with me. I think most of them were more eager to see my fanboy reaction to the film than the actual film itself. I didn't care. Kirk was about to put the kaybash on Khan and look good while doing it.
While Star Trek V is enjoyable on a camp level (Kirk finds God, Kirk fights God, Kirk kills God), I legitimately love Star Trek II. It's a sequel to an episode of the original series (an episode that, surprisingly, I have never seen). In that episode, the Enterprise happens across a ship from the 20th century filled with humans in stasis. They wake them up (why not!?) and find out that these people are genetically-engineered supermen who started a huge global war with Earth in that crazy year 1996. Their leader, Khan, seduces a comely young lieutenant and tries to take over the ship. Kirk, highly annoyed at Khan trying to take his ship and comely lieutenants, exiles Khan and his cronies to Ceti Alpha V (nearby planet).
Fifteen years later, a hapless starship mistakes Ceti Alpha V for Ceti Alpha VI (the equivalent of taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque I guess) and finds Khan there. Khan is rather pissed. Six months after Kirk dropped them on the planet, the neighboring Ceti Alpha VI exploded, sending Ceti Alpha V into a wider orbit and destroying just about everything on the planet (sans Khan and company).
Khan has had nothing to do for fifteen years except play checkers, read Moby Dick, and curse the name of James T. Kirk while sitting on the can every morning. Khan uses some indigenous mind-controlling earwigs to brainwash the hapless starship captain and his first officer (the equally hapless Chekov). He takes over the ship and flies off to kill Kirk.
The movie rocks hardcore. There are larger implications regarding life and death (including a Doomsday Device that can create life on a dead planet or wipe out all life on a living one), but you can't beat Ricardo Montalban musing about his superior intellect being more than a match for Admiral Kirk. (Khan seems to take it as a personal kick to his genetically-engineered balls that Kirk was actually promoted since stranding him).
Kirk and Khan get to see who can chew the most scenery as they square off. This is one of the most over-the-top scenes, and it's probably the most well-known.
I love that the black captain would rather kill himself than shoot Kirk - despite the fact that he had no problem vaporizing some poor underling about ten seconds before this clip starts. Then you have the ear slug screaming after being vaporized, Kirk shouting so loud that it reverberates through the planet and out into space, and finally the clip ends with what looks like Ricardo Montalban having an orgasm.
I challenge anyone to find a better scene in cinema!
I make fun of the movie, but it's only out of undying adoration. It's legitimately good. It even ends with a half-charred Khan staring at the Enterprise and quoting Moby Dick. As the movie ended, the monthly showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show was about to begin, so the Star Trek geeks exiting the theater and the RHPS fanboys trying to get in were both trying to pretend that the other was more ridiculous.
Of course, I didn't dress in drag to come to the movie.... this time.
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Khan: Beating out the Shakespeare-quoting eye-patch-wearing bald Klingon from Star Trek VI for "best Star Trek villain" by a small margin since 1982.
I challenge anyone to find a better scene in cinema!
I make fun of the movie, but it's only out of undying adoration. It's legitimately good. It even ends with a half-charred Khan staring at the Enterprise and quoting Moby Dick. As the movie ended, the monthly showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show was about to begin, so the Star Trek geeks exiting the theater and the RHPS fanboys trying to get in were both trying to pretend that the other was more ridiculous.
Of course, I didn't dress in drag to come to the movie.... this time.
---------------------------
Khan: Beating out the Shakespeare-quoting eye-patch-wearing bald Klingon from Star Trek VI for "best Star Trek villain" by a small margin since 1982.
4 comments:
Ha. I was actually thinking about posting something to tell you that Moby Dick was quoted in that movie! It's the part about "from hell's heart I stab at thee/with my last breath I spit at thee" stuff. Ahab is saying it to the whale. :D See, Moby Dick is the Great American Novel. :D
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