Not the Wrath of Khan

Rating: 8/10 (27 June 2013)

The only other time I've seen Benedict Cumberbatch was in Amazing Grace, and there he put his icy upper class British arrogance to good use as William Pitt, working behind the scenes to end the slave trade. This time he's the villain, still icy, arrogant and British, and he lays it on with a trowel. (Hero or villain, dang, I like this guy) In the original Star Trek episode, Khan and his followers had been put in suspended animation and unwittingly revived. They tried to take over the Enterprise, were defeated, and marooned on a planet with the intent of allowing them to colonize it. In The Wrath of Khan, a Federation expedition unknowingly lands on the planet (apparently they didn't keep records very well), allowing Khan to escape again and try to resume his career of conquest.
Since it takes place before the split in the Star Trek timeline, Khan's back story must remain intact. But having the villain named Khan and having him try to take over the Enterprise is about as far as the similarities go. In this version, he's revived by a war-hungry Federation admiral who's hankering to have a war with the Klingons. Khan blows up a secret Federation think tank, tries to take out the Federation High Command, and escapes to the Klingon home world. Kirk goes after him and the rest is an intricate web of scheming, double-crossing and sabotage between Kirk, Khan, and the Admiral. If you see the Wrath of Khan on DVD and then watch this film, there will be no spoilers whatsoever.
For all the ferocious criticism it's gotten, Alice Eve's bra and panties scene lasts only about one second. Blink and you'd miss it. Frankly I'm amazed they were even able to get a clear frame grab to post on all the discussion sites.
The first half of the film does a nice job of delineating the characters in more detail without being heavy-handed about it. The middle third has a lot of action and plot twists. The finale, where Khan crashes his ship into San Francisco, and then Spock and Khan slug it out on top of flying whatchamacallits, is a bit drawn out, not to mention clichéd. The movie ends with Khan and his crew safely back in cryo-storage, ready to be unthawed for future villainy.
I do have to mention the preposterous beginning. Kirk tries to save a primitive race from a catastrophic volcanic eruption. They do this with a "cold fusion" device, which apparently the script writers think has something to do with refrigeration. The device freezes the lava and stops the eruption, and nobody seems to suspect that the pressures under the volcano are still building, setting the stage for an even more catastrophic eruption in the future.