A Review of "Superman II"

"Hello, I'm Sarah MacLachlan. For only $50/month, you canpledge to house and feed Kryptonian refugees such as these folks done in by the destruction of their homeworld."

Well we talked about Superman and how it was such a pop culture smash hit when it was released. Richard Donner's brilliant big-screen portrayal of the Man of Steel was the first serious take on the character in quite some time, if not ever. Depends on how you look at the Adventures of Superman series starring George Reeves and whether or not you saw it as campy or not. Well, since Superman was such a huge project undertaken by its producers, Ilya and Alexander Salkind, they decided to ensure Superman's silver-screen triumph by shooting the first movie and a sequel back-to-back, with the sequel being a continuation of the first movie's subplot involving the Kryptonian villains General Zod, Ursa and Non. The problem? Well there was a lot of production mischief going on behind the camera. Donner was hired to be the man to shoot Superman and Superman II back-to-back. He had finished Superman, but was so at-odds with the producers that they actually fired him when he was only about forty percent done with Superman II. There was still much of Superman II that needed to be shot. Following Donner's dismissal, the Salkinds hired comedic director Richard Lester to finish Superman II using some of Donner's existing footage. What we get in Superman II is still pretty epic, but not quite as epic as what Superman brought us. Lester took Donner's original story ideas and downplayed them, even having Superman coin one-liners or have much of the fights be kind of like slapstick gags. The cellophane 'S'. Need I say more?

Margot Kidder posing with Sylvester Stallone

The movie opens with a replay of the beginning of the first Superman. Before the destruction of Krypton, the criminals General Zod (Terence Stamp), Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and Non (Jack O'Halloran) are sentenced to banishment into the Phantom Zone. There's a distinct lack of Jor-El in this scene, unlike the first time you saw it. Marlon Brando's fees were too high to allow the producers to use his footage so they cut him and reshot the banishment scene, but it's acting like it was the first banishment scene even though Jor-El's not there? I don't fucking know, just roll with it. Then the movie rapidly switches gears to a showdown in Paris, where a bomb is reported on an elevator in the Eiffel Tower. This (I guess) is supposed to pick up right after the first movie, so we're going from two stolen hydrogen bomb missiles to a bomb threat in Paris in sub twelve hours. The world is a fucked up place. Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) arrives in the Daily Planet's office, only to ditch and fly around the planet to Paris, where he saves Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) from the elevator bomb, heaving it into space. So, let me get this straight. Lois gets her life saved in the California earthquake caused by the fault line, and then immediately buys a ticket to Paris to investigate something else? Doesn't she ever quit? Unbeknownst to Superman, but knownst to us, the elevator bomb hits and destroys the Phantom Zone as it passes by Earth, freeing the Kryptonian villains Zod, Ursa and Non who absorb energy from the Earth's yellow sun and fly toward Earth's moon.

*Laughs Uncontrollably*

Following that debacle, the Daily Planet chief editor Perry White (Jackie Cooper) sends Clark Kent and Lois Lane to Niagara Falls to pose as a newlywed couple in a weird resort. Lois beings to suspect that Clark and Superman are the same person. That night, when Clark recovers Lois' comb from a lit fireplace, Lois discovers that his hand is unburned, forcing Clark to admit he is Superman. Literally on an accident, too. He just tripped on the rug in the room and his hand went in the fireplace. Unbelievable. Now that the jig is up, he bails on their Daily Planet assignment and takes her to his Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic, and shows her the traces of his past stored in energy crystals. One is the green crystal that created the Fortress and opened Superman's contact with his parents. Superman declares his love for Lois and his wish to spend his life with her. After conferring with the artificial intelligence of his mother Lara, Superman removes his superpowers by exposing himself to red Kryptonian sunlight in a crystal chamber, becoming a mortal man. Clark and Lois spend the night together, then leave the Fortress and return from the Arctic by automobile. In answer to your question, yes this is how the kid in Superman Returns is conceived. Yes, I know, we'll have a huge problem with that one, but we'll get there. Just bear with me. We've only begun. Anywho, arriving at a diner, Clark is beaten up by a truck driver named Rocky. Why is his name important? Because what man named "Rocky" isn't going to be an abrasive insecure jerk who jumps to fisticuffs first? While this exercise in superpower futility is going on, the Zod gang travels to the White House and force the President of the United States (E.G. Marshall) to surrender on behalf of the entire planet during an international television broadcast. When the President pleads for Superman to save the Earth, the gang demands that Superman come and "kneel before Zod!" Clark and Lois learn of Zod's conquest and, realizing that humanity alone cannot fight Zod, Clark returns to the Fortress to try to regain his powers.

"My name is Gene Hackman. Vote me for best
actor in this movie and I'll send you a free
Rolls Royce convertible!"

In subplot #37, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) escapes from prison with Eve Teschmacher's (Valerie Perrine'shelp, leaving his accomplice Otis (Ned Beatty) behind. Thank you Ned Beatty, your check is in the mail. Luthor and Teschmacher infiltrate the Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic before Superman and Lois arrive. Luthor learns of Superman's connection to Jor-El and General Zod. He finds Zod at the White House and tells him Superman is the son of Jor-El, their jailer, and offers to lead him to Superman in exchange for control of Australia. The three Kryptonians ally with Luthor and go to the offices of the Daily Planet. Superman arrives, after having found the green crystal that restores his powers (the "deus-ex-machnia" crystal) and battles the three. The fight isn't bad for 1980. They came up with some cool ways to show off the archaic blue-screen and rope-suspended flight fights as best as they can, but it's ultimately kind of a weak showdown by today's standards. Zod realizes Superman cares for the humans and takes advantage of this by threatening bystanders. Superman realizes the only way to stop Zod and the others is to lure them to the Fortress, in the barren Arctic, away from people. Superman flies off, with Zod, Ursa, and Non in pursuit, kidnapping Lois and taking along Luthor. Upon arrival, Zod declares Luthor has outlived his usefulness and plans to kill both him and Superman. Superman tries to get Luthor to lure the three into the crystal chamber to depower them, but Luthor, eager to get back in Zod's favor, reveals the chamber's secret to the villains. Zod forces Superman into the chamber and activates it, seemingly once again wiping Superman's powers out again. However, Superman crushes Zod's hand during an attempted handshake and tosses him into a crevice to his death. Luthor deduces that Superman reconfigured the chamber to expose the trio to red sunlight while Superman was protected from it. Non falls into another crevice when trying to fly over it...like a complete dumbfuck...and Lois knocks Ursa into a third. With all three villains seemingly defeated, Superman flies back to civilization, returning Luthor to prison and Lois home. What an ending.

What is even happening in this picture?

At the Daily Planet the following day, Clark finds Lois upset about knowing his secret and not being able to be open about her true feelings. In what is perhaps a bigger "WTF" moment than Superman flying backwards around the Earth to reverse time, he kisses her, using his abilities to wipe her mind of her knowledge of the past few days. How? Why? When did he obtain this power? Who knows but it's caused ire with Superman fans since they first saw it. Does it tongue do it? Do his eyes? Does his mind? What the fuck? Later, Clark returns to the diner and has a rematch with Rocky the truck driver and defeats him easily. Superman is many things, and I guess petty is one of them. Superman restores the damage done by Zod, replacing the flag atop the White House and tells the president he won't abandon his duty again. He's right, but he'll replace his moral and ethical standards for motion picture making in Superman III.

Superman II is a mixed bag. It's still on the epic scale of the first movie, even including a bloated opening credits sequence retelling the first movie's events with the "Superman March" blasting triumphantly... but it's a tad hokey and rushed in its ensuing presentation. It's definitely the result of two directors' clashing styles. There's more dialogue than you'd want in a showdown between Superman and the Kryptonian villains and there's also less fighting than you'd want in a showdown between Superman and the Kryptonian villains. The stuff in the truck diner is fun, especially the end where Superman gets his revenge on the guy...despite the fact that I don't think it's something Superman would do. Lois is just...there. She cries, she mugs and she's ultimately a bystander. Lex Luthor's a hilarious inclusion in the movie, but once he and Eve Teschmacher find the Fortress of Solitude, he totally just leaves her elsewhere and carries the rest of the movie on his own. Like I said, the city fight is pretty good for 1980, but pretty lame by today's standards. There isn't a lot of fighting and there's like a three-minute sequence where the Kryptonians use their super breath to blow a street of Metropolis into disarray, complete with many Richard Lester sight gags. Ugh. Is it worthy as a follow-up to Superman? Sure, but it's just... not on the same caliber or tone and definitely not in the same league as Superman.

Oh right, you probably want to know about The Richard Donner Cut. Well, in 2006, twenty-six years after this movie came out and a couple years after the unfortunate passing of Christopher Reeve, original movie director Richard Donner released a recut version of Superman II, complete with all of the long-thought-lost footage that he shot for it. It still needed most of Lester's footage to cobble it together to make a finished movie, but it ended up making a completely different Superman II. Instead of retelling the events of Superman, the opening credits now just mimic the opening credits of Superman with no other images or movie clips, even using the original recording of the Superman March. The Paris sequence is completely omitted and instead, the missile that Superman diverts from Hackinsack New Jersey is what destroys the Phantom Zone and frees the Kryptonians. Lois's discovery of Clark's secret identity is completely changed and the fight at the end in Metropolis is extended, with just a bit more action and different bits and takes of things. It's a slight improvement, but it pretty much shuts the book at the end by having Superman destroy the Fortress of Solitude. Oh and it ruins everything it tried to build because do you want to know how Superman undoes his revealing of his secret identity to Lois, the Kryptonians, and basically everything after the end of the first movie? HE FUCKING SPINS THE EARTH BACKWARDS AGAIN. THE ENTIRE MOVIE NEGATES ITSELF. FUCK OFF.

A Review of "Superman" (1978)

*This photo was taken moment before Christopher Reeve collided with and destroyed
a very expensive and powerful PanaVision motion picture camera.*

Oh gosh. It's been a long time since I've talked about Superman, also known as Superman: The Movie released in 1978 starring Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. I mentioned that in my "Top 30 Favorite Movies" countdown that it was my favorite comic book movie ever made, and with good reason. Let's face it, every comic book movie being made right now owes something in some way, shape or form to Superman. If you don't think so then you're either a liar, an idiot, or both. Superman was such a milestone in pop culture cinema, but I'm often surprised at how many people forget about its impact on such popular things like the 20th Century Fox Marvel renaissance, or the Disney Marvel Cinematic Universe that everyone's popping chubbies for right now. You guys all realize the reason things like this exist is because of this movie, right? Like... if it wasn't for director Richard Donner's overly-expensive gamble on Superman, we may not have even gotten any other superhero movies until much, much later. Or if we did, their budgets would be far lower and therefore the outcome of much of these movies much, much bleaker. Let's analyze why this really, really, really big gamble paid off so well.

Superman watches an Amtrak train full
of kindergartners derail thanks to this
ludicrous idea.

The movie was written by the writer of The Godfather, Mario Puzo. Therefore, you know the scale and scope of this movie is already tipping the scales of "epicness". He essentially wrote the movie into an epic three-act play: the first act is on Krypton, the second in Smallville, and the third (and largest) in Metropolis. After probably the greatest opening credits sequence in any motion picture ever (Yes, even Star Wars), the movie shows the planet Krypton, where scientist and juror Jor-El (Marlon Brando) of the Kryptonian high council sentences General Zod (Terence Stamp), and his followers, Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and Non (Jack O'Halloran) to the Phantom zone. What is the "Phantom Zone" Basically it looks like if your relatives were banging at your window wondering why you locked them out? Imagine that, but floating through space. That's the Phantom Zone. Anywho, after this, Jor-El then tries to convince the rest of the Kryptonian high council that he believes that their planet will soon be destroyed when its red supergiant sun goes supernova. Despite his eminence, he fails to convince the other council members. To save his infant son, Kal-El, Jor-El launches him in a spaceship to Earth, a planet with a suitable atmosphere where his "dense molecular structure will give him superhuman powers". Shortly after the launch, Krypton's sun explodes, destroying the planet and killing the remaining Kryptonians.

"What do we do with this super-powered
baby we just found?"
"POSE FOR A HALLMARK CARD!"

After traveling for three years through space, Kal-El's ship crash lands on Earth near Smallville, Kansas. Kal-El, who is now three years old (obviously) is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who are astonished when he lifts their truck with relative ease. They take him to their farm and raise him as their own, naming him Clark after Martha's maiden name. Hence begins "act two" of this epic motion picture. At eighteen-years-of-age, soon after Jonathan's death from a heart attack, Clark hears a psychic "call" and discovers a glowing crystal in the remains of his spacecraft that Jonathan and Martha buried in the barn. It compels him to travel to the Arctic, where, after Clark tossing it into the snow, it builds the Fortress of Solitude. Inside, a hologram of his deceased Kryptonian father Jor-El explains Clark's true origins, and after twelve further years of educating him on his powers and his reason for being sent to Earth, he leaves the Fortress wearing a blue and red suit with the House of El family crest on his chest and becomes a reporter at the Daily Planet in Metropolis. Thus begins "Act 3". There, he meets and develops an unrequited romantic attraction to coworker Lois Lane (Margot Kidder).

"Chief! I need the day off. My anti-psychotics
just came in at CVS!"

Soon after, Lois becomes involved in a helicopter accident where conventional means of rescue are impossible, requiring Clark to use his powers in public for the first time to save her to the astonishment of the crowd gathered below, using the suit as a disguise to keep his identity as Clark Kent a secret. That scene is easily the best in the entire movie. The pacing, music, and build-up are all perfect. He then goes on to thwart a jewel thief attempting to scale the Solow Building, captures robbers fleeing police through the Fulton Market by depositing their cabin cruiser on Wall Street, and rescuing a girl's cat from a tree in Brooklyn Heights. He even saves Air Force One after a lightning strike destroys the port outboard engine, making the "caped wonder" an instant celebrity. Basically every bad thing you could ever want to have happen, it happens, but on a night where Clark feels the need to dress up in his Kryptonian royalty outfit and save the people again and again. Clark later visits Lois at her house the next night and takes her for a flight over the city in one of the greatest scenes in the movie, allowing her to interview him for an article in which she names him "Superman".

"I'm going to send him to a planet he
can't refuse."

Meanwhile, during all of this, criminal genius Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) learns of a joint U.S. Army and U.S. Navy missile test. He then buys hundreds of acres of worthless desert land and reprograms one of the warheads to detonate in the San Andreas Fault, sinking California and leaving Lex's desert as the new West Coast. A pretty cockamamie scheme considering some of the shit Lex has tried to pull in the comics, but I mean still evil enough even by Lex's standards. However, knowing Superman could easily stop his plan, Lex deduces that a meteorite found in Addis Ababa is actually a radioactive part of Krypton, and after he and his accomplices Otis (Ned Beatty) and Eve Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine) retrieve a piece of it, Lex lures Superman to his underground lair, reveals his plan and exposes him to a mineral from the meteor, Kryptonite, which weakens Superman greatly and relinquishes him of his superhuman powers. Lex further taunts him by revealing that the other warhead is headed in the eastbound direction toward Hackensack, New Jersey. Teschmacher is horrified because her mother lives in Hackensack, but Lex does not care and leaves Superman to a slow death by drowning. Knowing his reputation for keeping his word, Teschmacher rescues Superman on the condition he will deal with the New Jersey missile first. Superman diverts the eastbound warhead into outer space, but can't reach the other missile in time, and it explodes in the San Andreas Fault. Superman mitigates the effects of the explosion, getting rid of the fallout and shoring up the crumbling Earth, but the aftershocks damage the Golden Gate Bridge and cause the Hollywood Sign and the Hoover Dam to collapse, endangering lives and ultimately forcing Superman to step up his game for the first time in his superhero career.

Rumor has it... they confused the Kryptonite prop
with a chunk of real nuclear waste and Gene
Hackman soon became impotent.

While Superman is busy saving others and successfully adverting the effects of the missile blasts in several parts of the country, Lois Lane's car ends up falling into a crevice from one of the aftershocks. It fills with dirt and debris and she suffocates, dying. Angered at being unable to save her, Superman defies Jor-El's earlier warning not to manipulate human history, preferring to heed Jonathan's advice that he must be here for "a reason". He accelerates around Earth so quickly, the force of his flight backwards around the Earth actually rotates her the opposite direction, rewinding time, to save Lois. After successfully saving Lois by rewinding time and heading both his fathers' advice in his head, Superman sets about bringing Lex and Otis to prison for their crimes. The prison warden thanks Superman for his efforts to save the country, after which he flies into the sunrise for further adventures.

So what makes Superman such a classic? Well, almost everything about it. The pacing is equivalent to The Godfather, which makes the movie epic in scale and presentation. The actors? Of course. The legendary Marlon Brando as Superman's Kryptonian father, Jor-El. Gene Hackman, another legend, as the villainous Lex Luthor. Christopher Reeve, a man we all know and respect, as the Man of Steel himself. Jackie Cooper as Perry White, the chief editor as the Daily Bugle with his whit, anger, and abrasive hilarity. Margot Kidder is Christopher Reeve's perfect Lois Lane, witty, cunning and snarky. What else makes the movie so classic? Obviously the score. John Williams was just off the success of Star Wars and followed it up with what I consider to be his third-most iconic score in his history, contending with Raiders of the Lost Ark for 2nd place. The main title march, the motifs for the big helicopter rescue, the music over the introduction to the planet Krypton in the beginning; it's all some of Williams' finest work and it deserves recognition. All piggybacking on the shoulders of then relatively new director Richard Donner, who had only done The Omen before this and would go on to do The Goonies, all four Lethal Weapon movies and Maverick as well. You throw all this together, and you've got what I, as well as many, not only consider to be the greatest Superman movie ever made, but also the greatest comic book movie ever made. This was not only a legendary product of it's time, but it was a mixture of the right music, the right actors, the right writers, the right director and the right producers all at the right time rolled into one; this movie is one of a kind. Legendary. Storied. Fabled; whatever you want to call it. Henry Cavill? Brandon Routh? They do good Superman impressions... but Christopher Reeve is Superman. Watch it immediately if you haven't.

Oh, and once again enjoy the greatest opening credits to any movie anywhere. Just because it's John fucking Williams.

Ranking the "Star Trek" Movies: #1 - Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

It all comes down to this. The best of the best in terms of Star Trek. I've only watched a majority of the original Star Trek TV series and only a handful of The Next Generation episodes and all ten movies, plus the first two JJ Abrams reboots. I've seen no episodes of Deep Space Nine or Voyager or Enterprise OR Discovery all the way through and I can easily say...beyond all of that...that this is the greatest Star Trek related thing to ever come down the pike. Not Captain Christopher Pike, just "the pike" in general. I don't want what comes out of Christopher Pike. Lame-ass joke, but funny enough it involves the very last movie done by the original TV cast, which was well into the television run of Star Trek: The Next Generation. That's hard to wrap my head around for some reason. Whatever! Let's get on with the greatest thing Star Trek has ever produced (in my opinion) with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

The movie opens with when Praxis, a Klingon moon, explodes without warning. The starship USS Excelsior, commanded by Captain Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), is struck by the shockwave and its crew discovers that much of the moon has been obliterated. I'm pretty glad to see Takei got to stick it to Shatner once and for all by captaining his own vessel. Don't worry though, I'm sure Shatner will somehow undermine him in the end. Due to the loss of their key energy production facility and the destruction of the Klingon homeworld's ozone layer, the Klingon Empire is thrown into turmoil. No longer able to maintain a hostile footing nor a reputable presence as a scriptworthy villain, the Klingons sue for peace with their longstanding enemy, the United Federation of Planets. Accepting the proposal before the Klingons revert to a more belligerent approach, Starfleet sends the USS Enterprise-A to meet with the Klingon Chancellor, Gorkon (David Warner, in a role different then the one he played in Star Trek V) and escort him to negotiations on Earth. Enterprise's captain, James T. Kirk (William Shatner, whose son David was murdered by Klingons years earlier in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, opposes the negotiations and resents his assignment.I mean...can you blame him? Imagine if the Taliban murdered your son and then you had to escort Abdul Sayid Bin Salaam or whoever through the United States to Washington DC to sign a Peace Treaty. Fucking harsh, man.

"This President is not above the law...Klingon DUMBASS."

After the rendezvous between Enterprise-A and Gorkon's battlecruiser Qo'noS (Kronos) One, they continue towards Earth, with the crews sharing a tense meal aboard Enterprise-A regarding the union of their two cultures. Later that night, Enterprise-A appears to fire on Q'onoS One with a pair of photon torpedoes, disabling the artificial gravity aboard it. During the confusion, two figures wearing Starfleet spacesuits and gravity boots beam aboard the Klingon ship and grievously wound Gorkon before beaming away. Kirk surrenders to avoid armed conflict, and beams aboard the Klingon ship with Doctor Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) to attempt to save Gorkon's life. The chancellor dies, and Gorkon's chief of staff, General Chang (Christopher Plummer...yes that's right the Christopher Plummer) has Kirk and McCoy arrested and put on trial for his assassination. The pair are found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on the frozen asteroid Rura Penthe. FUN FACT: Their lawyer is supposed to be a relative, or at least an ancestor to The Next Generation's Worf. The lawyer is also played by Michael Dorn, who played Worf, just to drive the point home. Gorkon's daughter, Azetbur (Roseanna DeSoto) becomes the new chancellor, and continues diplomatic negotiations; for reasons of security, the conference is relocated and the new location is kept secret. While several senior Starfleet officers want to rescue Kirk and McCoy, the Federation President (Played by Kurtwood "Red Forman" Smith) refuses to risk full-scale war. Azetbur likewise refuses to invade Federation space, stating that only Kirk will pay for her father's death.

The story of a Klingon and his eye patch

Kirk and McCoy arrive at the Rura Penthe mines and are befriended by a shapeshifter named Martia (Iman...yeah that's it..."Iman") who offers them an escape route; in reality, it is a ruse to make their arranged deaths appear accidental. Shrewd actions from a crippled Empire. Once again, the Klingons get feisty. Once her betrayal is revealed, Martia transforms into Kirk's double and fights him, but she is killed by the prison guards to silence any witnesses. Or accidentally, based on how the scene plays out, but you get the gist. Just before the prison warden reveals who set them up, Kirk and McCoy are beamed aboard Enterprise-A by Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy) who had assumed command and undertaken an investigation in Kirk's absence also headed by Lieutenant Valeris (Kim Cattrall). Determining that Enterprise-A did not fire the torpedoes but that the assassins are still aboard, the crew has begun a search for them. The two assassins are found dead, but Kirk and Spock trick their accomplice into believing they are still alive. When the culprit arrives in sick bay to finish off the assassins, Kirk and Spock discover that the killer is none other than Valeris herself. SHOCK! AWE! To discover the identity of the conspirators, Spock initiates a forced mind-meld, which is basically like "mental rape" but without the anguish and trauma aftewards, and learns that a group of Federation, Klingon, and Romulan officers of the law plotted to sabotage the peace talks, fearing the changes their success might bring the titular "undiscovered country" (the future), and that Chang is one of the conspirators. The torpedoes that struck Gorkon's cruiser came from a prototype Bird of Prey that can fire while cloaked, the ultimate doomsday weapon, and hovered just below Enterprise-A at the time of the assassination. What an other-worldly devious scheme by General Chang here. I'm actually quite astounded that this plan, so devious and so cunning in nature, practically went off without a hitch until they came up against James T. Kirk. Suck on that, deep space.

"Yes, Lieutenant. I am Leonard Nimoy and, therefore, a legend."

The crew contacts Captain Sulu, who informs them the conference is being held at Camp Khitomer near the Romulan border. Mighty of nice of Sulu to reveal highly-confidential and protected information such as that. He's got balls. Both ships head for the talks as fast as they can. As Enterprise-A nears the planet, Chang's cloaked Bird of Prey moves to intercept. With Enterprise-A unable to track his ship's position because of it's cloaking device, Chang inflicts severe damage on Enterprise-A and then Excelsior both. It's like playing agaisnt one of those assholes on Madden online that somehow knows how to spam the system to his (or her...gotta be PC here) advantage. At the suggestion of Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) the Enterprise-A's communications officer, Spock and McCoy modify a photon torpedo to home in on the exhaust emissions of Chang's vessel, using equipment originally intended to study gaseous anomalies. The torpedo impact reveals Chang's location, and Enterprise-A and Excelsior destroy the Bird of Prey with a volley of torpedoes. Crew from both ships then rapidly beam to the conference and halt an attempt on the Federation President's life. Kirk pleads for those present to continue the peace process. Having saved the peace talks, Kirk and crew are contacted by Sulu, who bids farewell to his old friends and the Excelsior departs. Enterprise-A is ordered back to Earth by Starfleet Command to be decommissioned, but the crew decide to take their time on the return voyage. As Enterprise-A cruises towards a nearby star, Kirk proclaims that though this mission is the final cruise of Enterprise-A under his command, others will continue their voyages... in the beginning of Star Trek Generations where Captain Cameron from Ferris Bueller will destroy the hell out of the Enterprise-B and kill Kirk, but that's a whole 'nother movie.

There you have it. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the best Star Trek movie ever made. The story is the best, the tenseness of uniting two species of people that had never made peace between each other before is absolutely on point, the plot is mind-boggling and interesting in nature and the characters are all well-acted, well-developed and well-executed, and yes, I'm even looking at you, Shatner. The special effects are some of the best I've seen in a Star Trek production, the action is astounding, the pacing is excellent; overall, it's just easily the best Star Trek movie I've ever seen and I rank it above all the other ones easily. That's not to disparage the movies Star Trek II and First Contact especially, but Star Trek VI is just that damn good. "What if the Berlin Wall Fell in Space?" was Nimoy's single question posed that prompted the drafting of this scrip that led to this awesome movie. The best Star Trek movie ever, I'll say it over and over. Watch it now if you haven't, you won't regret it.

Ranking the "Star Trek" Movies: #2 - Star Trek: First Contact

Looks like an album cover by an Eiffel 65 cover band

Now we're getting down to the nitty-gritty, and at long last, too. I'm ready to move on to other blog projects, but I can't just leave this stone fully unturned. Let's go ahead and get the last two entries in the countdown done and out of the way. The first of which is often considered the greatest The Next Generation movie that was made, certainly by me as well. Star Trek: First Contact. A movie that teaches us that wars are worth settling, as long as you risk half your crew and contemplate blowing up your trillion-dollar starship to try and destroy your enemy. To settle the score is to risk everything, life and limb, to achieve your goal no matter how costly, and this movie shows Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard and Brent Spiner's Data stretched to their peak mental and physical stress limit. It's a truly wonderous classic. In many ways, it's even following the style of The Wrath of Khan, it's a loose sequel to a television episode... except whereas Wrath of Khan was more of a direct followup, this one just followed up a few concepts. If you haven't already and want to, check out the Next Generation two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds", in which Picard is assimilated into the Borg collective.

It is the 24th century. Captain Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) awakens from a nightmare in which he relived his assimilation by the cybernetic Borg six years earlier, including a gruesome shot of a drilling going into his eye. Cringey right from the get-go. He is contacted by Admiral Hayes (Jack Shearer) who informs him of a new Borg threat against Earth. Just what PTSD Picard wants to hear. Time for a chance to get assimilated again! Picard's orders are for his ship, the USS Enterprise-E, the coolest and most advanced ship in the fleet, to patrol the Neutral Zone in case of Romulan aggression; Starfleet is worried that Picard is too emotionally involved with the Borg to join the fight. Except, it would make total sense to have Picard join the fight since he's the one who's dealt with the Borg the most. Learning the fleet is losing the battle, the Enterprise-E crew disobeys orders and heads for Earth, or as Data (Brent Spiner) says for the trailer "To hell with our orders"... where a single Borg Cube (which is literally a cube) ship holds its own against a group of Starfleet vessels. The Enterprise-E arrives in time to assist the crew of the USS Defiant and its captain, the Klingon Worf (Michael Dorn). Worf is upset because his first command gets destroyed and he's forced back into a supporting role. Picard takes control of the fleet and directs the surviving ships to concentrate their firepower on a seemingly unimportant point on the Borg ship. The Cube is destroyed after launching a smaller sphere ship (which is literally a sphere) towards the planet. The Enterprise-E pursues the sphere into a temporal vortex. As the sphere disappears, the Enterprise-E discovers Earth has been altered—it is now populated entirely by Borg. Realizing the Borg have used time travel to change the past, the Enterprise-E follows the sphere through the vortex. It's a total Back to the Future time travel plot, except Picard's not trying to sexually assault his own mother.

What do you mean I'm not in any of the future movies?

The Enterprise-E arrives hundreds of years in its past on April 4, 2063, the day before humanity's first encounter with alien life after Zefram Cochrane's (James Stromwell) historic warp driveflight; the crew realizes the Borg are trying to prevent "First Contact". After destroying the Borg sphere in an astonishingly easy fashion, an away team transports down to Cochrane's ship, the Phoenix, in Montana. Picard has Cochrane's assistant Lily Sloane (Alfre Woodard) sent back to the Enterprise-E for medical attention. The Captain returns to the ship and leaves Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) on Earth to make sure the Phoenix's flight proceeds as planned, dealing with a drunk and belligerent Cochrane. While in the future Cochrane is seen as a hero, the real man is reluctant to assume the role the Enterprise-E crew describe.

A group of Borg invade the Enterprise-E's lower decks and begin to assimilate its crew and modify the ship, apparently stragglers left over from the Sphere explosion. Picard and a team attempt to reach engineering to disable the Borg with a corrosive gas, but are forced back and Data is captured in the melee. A frightened Sloane corners Picard with a weapon, but he gains her trust. The two escape the Borg-infested area of the ship by creating a diversion in the holodeck. Thank goodness that Harry Potter wasn't really a thing yet, otherwise they might've escaped to Hogwarts in the holodeck. Picard, Worf, and the ship's navigator, Lt. Hawk (Neal McDonough), in a truly tense and well-put together scene, travel outside the ship in space suits to stop the Borg from calling reinforcements by using the deflector dish. The pacing, the special effects and the suspense in the scene are all exquisite. A well-done, awe-inspiring scene. As the Borg continue to assimilate more decks, Worf suggests destroying the ship, but Picard angrily calls him a coward. Sloane confronts the captain and makes him realize he is acting irrationally. Then the best line in the movie is uttered: 

"We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats. They invade our space, and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds, and we fall back. Not again! The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And I will make them PAY for what they've done!"

Hilarious delivery. I quote it in any situation, no matter how hilarious! Anywho, Picard eventually orders an activation of the ship's self-destruct, then orders the crew to head for the escape pods while he stays behind to rescue Data.

Zombie-faced robots. Now Star Trek has done it all.

As Cochrane, Riker, and engineer Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) prepare to activate the warp drive on the Phoenix, Picard discovers that the Borg Queen (Alice Krige) has grafted human skin onto Data, giving him the sensation of touch he has long desired to obtain the android's encryption codes to the Enterprise-E computer. I never got why Data would want to feel and be human. Being an Android is so much more badass, in my opinion. I'd stay an android forever. Anywho, although Picard offers himself to the Borg in exchange for Data's freedom, Data refuses to leave. He deactivates the self-destruct and fires torpedoes at the Phoenix. At the last moment the torpedoes miss, and the Queen realizes Data betrayed her. Thank goodness, too. He could've Back to the Future-style erased everything that the first warp flight fixed. In a hasty manuever, Data ruptures a coolant tank, and the corrosive vapor eats away the biological components of the Borg. With the Borg threat neutralized, Cochrane completes his warp flight successfully. The next day the crew watches from a distance as an alien Vulcan ship, attracted by the Phoenix warp test, lands on Earth. Cochrane and Sloane greet the alien Vulcans. Having ensured the correction of the timeline, the Enterprise crew slip away and return to the 24th century. How? We never see. I didn't think time-travel was a common thing in Star Trek and that like... ships were built to do it anyway.

Star Trek: First Contact is a tensely acted, suspenseful storyline that gives an interesting spin on a classic story. Patrick Stewart gives us the best Picard performance he's given us in all of the movies. The TV show had other masterful performances by Picard but this one beats all the movies by a mile. First Contact also builds on Data's wish to think and feel human emotions, something he expressed interest in having done in Generations. The discussion he has with the Borg Queen in the middle of the movie just following his capture is both intense and well-written. First Contact overall is a stellar, comedic and light-hearted entry in the Trek movie mythos. Superb movie. Give it a watch if you haven't already.

DK10: Tenth Anniversary of "The Dark Knight"

I didn't want anything in this post. I just wanted to remind you all of a special holiday for a lot of people, sometimes including me.

On July 18th, 2008, the world changed forever. Comic book movies went up a few clicks and got seriously badass. They were already pretty great, but a bit cartoon-y too. July 18th, 2008 showed us that comic book movies can be as badass as they need to be, want to be, and should be. The Dark Knight changed everything. It changed the superhero movie game, it changed the epic action movie game, it changed the Batman movie game, it changed so many things. Ten years later and a lot of people still claim Heath Ledger is their favorite Joker. More people claim that he's the best Joker. You all know my opinions, and if you don't, I've got posts in the archive that'll tell you all you need to know.

The world was a much different place in 2008: We were five years into War on Terror, well into a housing and lending crisis, the Xbox 360 and PS3 were duking it out in the video game wars while the Nintendo Wii was running donuts in circles about ten miles back, nobody knew who "the mother" was on How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory was still original, Charlie Sheen didn't have his psychotic episodes yet, I just got done being a Freshman in high school (wow, holy shit), Obama and McCain were having at it in the Presidential Election, the Cubs were pretty good but still hadn't gotten that World Series magic they'd see in 2016, Back to the Future wasn't even twenty-five years old yet, the thought of more Star Wars films was a pipedream as the franchise still remained under the ownership of the very-much retired George Lucas, only the second model of iPhone was on its way under the full-steam-ahead leadership of Steve Jobs, it was the first of two times Eli Manning got to embarrass Tom Brady in the Super Bowl, WWE had just switched to PG programming for the first time since '97, Jurassic Park celebrated it's 15th anniversary, the Harry Potter film franchise was shattering box office records every single time a movie was released...let's see, well you get the idea.

So do yourself a favor. Give yourself some time tonight to pop some popcorn, grab a couple cans of pop, dust off your Blu-ray player and your big-screen TV with ultra-premiere sound system and pop in The Dark Knight. Get yourself a little dose of nostalgia as you watch Christian Bale do battle with Heath Ledger, while Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman all mug for the camera and watch the showdown happen before their very eyes. The bank robbery in the beginning, the shootout in the parking garage, Joker's attempted assassination of Mayor Garcia, the semi-truck chase in the sub-level of Gotham City, Joker's challenge to the boats, Joker blows up a hospital and Batman's final confrontation with Two-Face at 250/52 street. The movie is filled twists, turns, tense moments, brutal moments, awe-inspiring moments and wild moments, to boot.

Happy viewing, and happy DK10.

A Review of "The 'Burbs"

You know when I did my Top 30 Favorite Movies of All-Time? Probably for that period I was posing blog post after blog post and you were like "Dear God, just shut up. Nobody cares"? Trust me, I was ready to move on to new discussions, too even though it was just me sharing more about myself. Anywho, the top 30 is incorrect. I know, you're probably pissed off. There's a movie in there that needs get the boot and the movie that's going in the Top 30 is this one. An obscure, yet underrated, hilarious, chilling 80s classic with Tom Hanks and Corey Feldman...The 'Burbs: a movie about small-town neighborhood paranoia and the distrust of your neighbors. It showcases comedy and horror rolled into one and gives you very enjoyable romp. I now present to you my spoiler-ridden review. If you don't want the movie spoiled for you, stop here and go watch it. If you do not give a rat's furry ass, we can continue.

The 'Burbs takes place entirely confined in Mayfield Place, a cul-de-sac in the fictional suburban town of Hinkley Hills. Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks) is on vacation from work for a week and is trying to learn more about his mysterious, new next-door neighbors, the Klopeks, after hearing strange noises emanating from their basement late one night. While Ray remains suspicious but passive, his dimwit next-door neighbor Art Weingartner (Rick Ducommun) believes the Klopeks are murderers. While snooping around one evening, Ray, Art and military veteran, Lt. Mark Rumsfield (Bruce Dern) watch Hans Klopek (Courtney Gains), the youthful member of the Klopek clan, drive his car from the garage to the curb, then carry a large garbage bag from the trunk to the garbage can and bang it into the can with a hoe. As rain comes, the three decide not to inspect the trash cans but to wait until first light to do so. During that very same night, Ray watches all three Klopeks digging in their back yard with pick-axes during a rainstorm, apparently trying to bury something. The following morning, Art goes to check the contents of a garbage truck as workers collect the Klopeks' trash can. He is joined by Rumsfield and Ray, but they find no human remains, suspecting that's what the contents of their garbage contained but they ultimately turn up nothing.

Meanwhile, Mark's wife Bonnie Rumsfield (Wendy Schaal) finds a neighborhood dog named Queenie running loose and realizes it belongs to another neighbor of theirs, an elderly man named Walter, and wonders if Walter went away since Walter never, ever lets Queenie run loose without him. Ray, Art, Bonnie, and the absent-minded teenager of the neighborhood Ricky Butler (Corey Feldman), who also believes the Klopeks may be serial killers, go to Walter's house and find his toupee in the kitchen, believing this to be a clue to Walter's sudden disappearance. Ray collects the dog and leaves a note for Walter, explaining the situation. The following night, Ray and Art have a meeting in the Petersons' basement and theorize about Walter's mysterious disappearance, all while Ray tries to ignore Art's reasoning for the Klopeks being satanists. "I Wanna Kill Everyone. Satan is Good, Satain is Our Pal."

Carol (Carrie Fisher), Ray's wife, grows tired of her husband and his buddies snooping around the Klopeks' home like a bunch of juvenile dimwits and she requests that she, Ray, and the Rumsfields pay the Klopeks a visit to formally meet them and introduce themselves like normal people. There they meet Hans, his uncle Reuben (Brother Theodore), and Reuben's brother Werner (Henry Gibson) while Art snoops around in the Klopeks' backyard. Later that evening, Ray reveals to Art and Rumsfield that, he found Walter's toupee in the Klopeks' basement, which he had previously slipped through Walter's mailslot after the group found it inside his house a couple of days earlier. Deducing that the Klopeks must have entered Walter's house in order to retrieve the toupee, Ray and the others are convinced the Klopeks have murdered Walter, and the trio agree to investigate the Klopeks' backyard the next day, knowing the Klopeks would be gone for the day to discuss another possible reassignment and thus, move out of their neighborhood forever.

The next morning, Ray sends Carol and son Dave (Cory Danziger) to go to visit Carol's sister, leaving Ray free to explore the Klopeks' place with Art & Mark. After Art disables the Klopeks' security system after a near-fatal electrocution, he and Ray enter the backyard and begin digging for Walter's remains, all while "commando" Rumsfield stands guard on his roof. After hours of digging and finding nothing incriminating, Ray and Art enter the house, where they discover what they believe to be a crematorium in the Klopeks' basement. Ray then begins to dig into the loose soil that constitutes the basement floor, believing they must have incinerated Walter's body, then buried his bones in the soil. This is where the roots of comedy and horror start to get a little hazy. You don't really know what's funny and what's tragic. That evening, things go awry when the Klopeks come back, only to drive back out when they see lights on in their basement. While all this is going on, Walter returns home with his family, alive and well. Realizing they were wrong, Mark tries to warn Ray and Art out of the basement, but find that the Klopeks return with the police, Art goes into the Klopeks' home to get Ray who, after thinking he had discovered a crypt that contains Walter's remains, hits a gas line in the ground with his pick axe. He yells for Art to flee, right before the Klopeks' house explodes into flames, with Ray still inside. A disheveled and scorched Ray emerges from the flames just as his wife returns.

As the night begins to wind down and the emergency crews tend to Ray and the burning Klopek household, Art speaks to an officer who tells him that Walter had a medical emergency and that his family had taken him to the hospital, thus explaining his mysterious and sudden disappearance. While away, Walter had made arrangements for the Klopeks to pick up his mail for him. When Ray had slipped the toupee through the mail slot, it was picked up, mistakenly, along with the rest of Walter's mail. Ray snaps at Art and declares that they were wrong about the Klopeks, before lunging at Art and then throwing himself into an ambulance on a gurney. Joining Ray in the ambulance surprisingly enough is Werner Klopek. Thinking that Ray must have seen a skull that he kept in the furnace, he confesses that they murdered the previous owners of the house and that the skull belongs to one of them, thus revealing that everyone in the neighborhood had been right about the Klopeks after all. This scene is creepily paced for being a comedy movie. Werner attempts to murder Ray with a lethal injection and collect his skull to replace the one lost in the explosion, as Hans assumes the role of the ambulance driver, but crashes into the Weingartners' house during the struggle. The gurney, with Ray and Werner still struggling on, rolls out of the ambulance and down the street. Ray makes a citizen's arrest on his would-be murderer as Ricky uncovers a large collection of human skeletal remains in the Klopeks' trunk. The Klopeks are arrested and the charges against Ray are dropped. Ray tells Ricky that he and his family are going away for a while and that he needs him to keep an eye on the neighborhood....

The 'Burbs is an absolute classic. It's got comedy, great characters, a fun setting, a more fun story and even a spooky amount of circumstances that result in one wild movie. Tom Hanks, Corey Feldman, Carrie Fisher, Bruce Dern, Henry Gibson, Brother Theodore, Wendy Schaal and others all deliver spectacular, goofy performances. So many quotable lines come from this movie as well, especially with the banter between Ricky and Mark Rumsfield. Bruce Dern took that role and nailed it. The 'Burbs is a lot of fun, even if you just read my review and spoiled it for yourself. Even if it is some spooky kind of fun. I regret not including it in my Top 30, it really should be in there.

Give it a watch, you'll love it.

Ranking the "Star Trek" Movies: #3 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

The cast of Fantasy Island's cancelled 8th season

The first really good one. The one that made Ricardo Montalban a superstar again! Wait...no. He was in Fantasy Island during this. Plus he did the Corinthian leather thing for Chrysler in those commercials. Alright scratch that. Well, it certainly is the one that many Trek fans consider the greatest of them all. Me? It's pretty great, I'm not going to lie. It's definitely a compelling adventure, and the original series cast isn't even remotely looking old or decrepit yet. Fun fact, it's the only movie I can think of that's a sequel to a TV series episode. It's a fun movie. Star Trek: The Motion Picture was made for like $45 million and was completely fucking boring. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was made for 1/3 that price and was far more entertaining. Let's dive right into one of the finest, most notable movies in the early 1980s.

"Good thing we don't play these roles enough."

In the year 2285, Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) oversees a simulator session of Captain Spock's (Leonard Nimoy) trainees, as it appears he's been replaced as captain of the Enterprise. I guess captains are retired like car parts. In the simulation, Lieutenant Saavik (Kirstie Alley) commands the starship USS Enterprise on a rescue mission to save the crew of the damaged ship Kobayashi Maru. In Trek lore, the Kobayashi Maru test is a no-win scenario test where prospective Starfleet captains are subjected to a rescue mission and then ambushed by several Klingon cruisers and destroyed. It's designed to test the merit of a Starfleet captain. When the Enterprise enters the Klingon Neutral Zone to reach the ship, it is attacked by Klingon cruisers and critically damaged. The Starfleet officers all submit their acting resumes as the fake bridge explodes and they fake their deaths. Later, Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) joins Kirk on his birthday; seeing Kirk in low spirits, the doctor advises Kirk to get a new command and not grow old behind a desk.

Meanwhile, the USS Reliant is on a mission to search for a lifeless planet for testing of the Genesis Device, a technology designed to reorganize matter to create habitable worlds for colonization. It's basically Jesus in the form of a planetoid torpedo. As McCoy says, "The universe was created in six days. Now watch out, here comes Genesis. We'll do it for you in six minutes!" Anywho, Reliant officers Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Captain Clark Terrell (Paul Winfield) beam down to the surface of a possible candidate planet, which they believe to be Ceti Alpha VI; once there, they are captured by genetically engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban). Fifteen years prior, in the episode of the Star Trek original series "Space Seed", the Enterprise discovered Khan's ship adrift in space; Kirk exiled Khan and his fellow supermen to Ceti Alpha V after they attempted to take over the Enterprise by force. I mean, yeah. How else do you try and take over a starship? By saying "please"? After they were marooned, Ceti Alpha VI exploded, shifting the orbit of Ceti Alpha V and destroying its ecosystem. Khan also recognizes Chekov in this scene even though Walter Koenig not only wasn't even in that episode, but wasn't even on the cast of Star Trek by that point. Khan blames Kirk for the death of his wife and plans revenge. Why now? Who knows, I guess the Reliant crew were the only ones dumb enough to come to his planet. He implants Chekov and Terrell with indigenous creatures that enter the ears of their victims and render them susceptible to mind control...a very Star Trek thing to have happen, and uses the officers to capture the Reliant. Learning of Genesis, Khan attacks space station Regula I where the device is being developed by Kirk's former lover, Dr. Carol Marcus, and their son, David. That's got to be an awkward reunion.

"Mom, what do you mean William Shatner's my father?"

The Enterprise embarks on a three-week training voyage. You know what that means! Plenty of expendable crew members to have die horrifically for no reason! Kirk assumes command after the ship receives a distress call from Regula I. Dang, furst usurping Willard Decker of command and now even his best pal Spock. Kirk'll do anything to fuck somebody over for a command. En route, the Enterprise is ambushed and crippled by the Reliant in a very classic and well-paced action sequence, leading to the deaths and injuries of many trainees. Khan hails the Enterprise and offers to spare Kirk's crew if they relinquish all material related to Genesis in, again, another badass and tense sequence with lots of quotable dialogue. Kirk stalls for time and uses the Reliant's prefix code to remotely lower its shields, allowing the Enterprise to counter-attack. Khan is forced to retreat and effect repairs, while the Enterprise limps to Regula I. This entire first encounter between Enterprise and Reliant is so memorable and so badass, it almost makes the whole movie. The other part that makes the movie is coming up! Kirk, McCoy, and Saavik beam to the station and find Terrell and Chekov alive, along with slaughtered members of Marcus's team in probably the darkest part of this whole movie as Terrell describes what Khan did to Marcus's team. They soon find Carol and David hiding deep inside the planetoid of Regula. Khan, having used Terrell and Chekov as spies, orders them to kill Kirk; Terrell resists the eel's influence and kills himself while Chekov collapses as the eel leaves his body. FUN FACT: A larger-than-lifesize scale model of Walter Koenig's ear was built for this scene. Hilarious to walk around a movie set and see a giant Walter Koenig ear just hanging on a wall or something. Khan then transports Genesis aboard the Reliant. Though Khan believes his foe stranded on Regula I, Kirk and Spock use a coded message to arrange a rendezvous. Kirk directs the Enterprise into the nearby Mutara Nebula; static discharges inside the nebula render shields useless and compromise targeting systems, making the Enterprise and the Reliant evenly matched. In easily the best scene of the whole movie, with tense moments and suspense, the Enterprise and Reliant hunt for each other blindly in a dust cloud. Spock notes however that Khan's tactics are two-dimensional, indicating inexperience in space combat, which Kirk then exploits to critically disable the Reliant. Crazy cool scene here, plus a sick reference to three-dimensional chess.

Mortally wounded, Khan activates Genesis like a complete bitch, which will reorganize all matter in the nebula, including the Enterprise, basically eradicating everything remotely close to the scene. Though Kirk's crew detects the activation of Genesis and attempts to move out of range, they will not be able to escape the nebula in time due to the ship's damaged warp drive. Spock goes to the engine room to restore the warp drive. When McCoy tries to prevent Spock's entry, as exposure to the high levels of radiation would be fatal, Spock incapacitates the doctor with a Vulcan nerve pinch and performs a mind meld, telling him to "remember". We would later find out Spock basically backed himself up like a hard drive into McCoy's brain, or I'm sorry, "gave McCoy his ka tra". Spock successfully restores power to the warp drive and the Enterprise escapes the explosion, though at the cost of Spock's life. Somehow, he just reaches into the warp core, then it's fixed. It isn't really shown how he fixed it, but...he did. So there. The explosion of Genesis causes the gas in the nebula to reform into a new planet, capable of sustaining life.

"Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaann!!!!!!!!!!"

After being alerted by McCoy following Khan's annihilation, Kirk arrives in the engine room and discovers Spock dying of radiation poisoning. The scene's a little twisted. I mean Spock even bumps into the wall, revealing that he's blind. It's a little messed up. In probably one of the most famous Star Trek scenes in history, the two share a meaningful exchange in which Spock urges Kirk not to grieve, as his decision to sacrifice his own life to save those of the ship's crew is a logical one, before succumbing to his injuries. "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." A space burial is held in the Enterprise's torpedo room and then, like tossing out the garbage, they fire Spock's coffin into orbit around the new planet. The crew leaves to pick up the Reliant's marooned crew from Ceti Alpha V as Spock's coffin, having soft-landed, rests on the Genesis planet's surface...hinting that the pointy-eared Messiah may rise three days later...Happy Easter everyone!

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a fantastic Trek movie. It's got plenty of action, compelling dialogue, tense suspense scenes and moving moments. It's so much better than The Motion Picture that when you watch this one after that one you'll wonder what the hell the team on The Motion Picture was even doing. Star Trek II is easily considered by many Trekkies to be the best of them all. I consider it great, but there's two more Star Trek movies that I love even more. No offense to Star Trek II, but with my list, the best is yet to come. If you've got time and you want to get into the original ten Star Trek movies, you can start with this one. It's basically the first entry in the aforementioned "Genesis trilogy", so you can totally ignore the events of The Motion Picture. It's events aren't mentioned ever again anyway. So, give this one a watch. We've only got two more to go!