The Re-Wrath of Khan!

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2013)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was the best of the movies. Nearly every film since then has tried to recreate the formula with a similar scenery-chewing villain, and this film decides, what the heck, let's just bring back Khan.
Does it work? Kind of. I found myself intermittently being touched by the nice nods to the classics of Trek and then rolling my eyes at some of the corniness and over the top action scenes.
SPOILERS-
After a series of terrorists attacks on Star Fleet, Kirk and company are sent to the Klingon home world to hunt down the perpetrator, whom they are told is a renegade Star Fleet office but is in fact Khan. Seems he was resurrected by a renegade admiral who wanted to use his knowledge to prepare for war with the Klingons.
They have some subtle commentary on the war on terror and the ends justifying the means. Mostly, though, it's enough plot to hang an okay action movie on. Peter Weller does a great job in his role. The machinations between Kirk and Admiral Marcus and Khan are pretty good.
Good stuff? Carol Marcus, a Tribble, Klingons, a ship they seized from Harry Mudd, Section 31, and so much more from a Trek Nerd's wish list.
Also, have to say a lot of good things about the characters here. They all disappear into their roles fairly easily, with maybe the exception of Pine, who simply is not invoking Shatner just yet. Karl Urban is great as McCoy, but he's completely underutilized. Quinto is becoming a convincing Spock.
The more dubious stuff. The action scenes are a bit much, to the point of eliminating my suspension of disbelief. This is the kind of cartoonish stuff the Star Wars Prequels did. They spent a lot of money on this, and frankly, STII:TWOK got the same emotional impact with cheap sets on a movie they originally planned as a made for TV operation.
The actor who played Khan... just didn't work for me. Ricardo Montalban did it a lot better.
The Deus Ex Machina they use at the end to save a major character is telegraphed so obviously there's no tension, and after they spend a lot of time creating a thematic bridge between this and the climax of TWOK.
Worth watching. Yes.