I had a friend in college who came to the conclusion that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was the best movie ever made. This happened over time. He didn't reach the conclusion lightly. In fact, he hadn't seen the thing until we watched it one very drunk night, just on the verge of total disillusionment with freshman parties. Over the next summer, he claimed, he spent a period of months with a routine of heavy beer consumption and nightly viewings of The Wrath of Khan.
I should maybe add that my friend is an engineer, which seems to have some bearing. I don't want to reduce him to a creepy, Shatner-obsessed alcoholic. Not that he isn't.
Anyway, as we watched again, some years after our initial viewing, I had to admit he had a pretty strong argument. This movie has everything, I realized. Action, comedy, drama, romance, a quasi-Shakespearean villain, bagpipes, mind-control earwigs, epic space battles, and most of all a whole lotta Shatner.
Granted, it helps if you like some camp with your sci-fi. But lord, if you do, you're sure to treasure moments like the Shat-man's famous "KHAAAAAN!" holler, 0r Khan's last retort of "From hell's heart, I stab at thee!"
But it's not all yucks, and I'm not proposing my buddy's theory as some wink-wink hipster joke. There's a real heart to STII:TWOK, and as we watched it that night, I damn near came to tears over the famous last scene between William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. It's been referenced to death, but I won't spoil it. Suffice to say it is profoundly moving in a way that not very many movies like it can achieve, and it certainly beats anything else in the Star Trek film canon.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is just an old-fashioned escape film. It's all about adventure and heroism, and and the large-than-life personas of Shatner and Ricardo Montalban as the wrathful Khan suit the larger-than-life-themes. And it's a hell of a lot more movie than you get with a lot of more serious fare. Maybe it is the best ever made; it just depends on your mood.
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