Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan Redux - Fan VFX Replacement Showcase

Enjoyed this variation for the great external shots during the Mutara nebula sequence - especially liked the excellent lightening strikes on the ships hulls - making far better use of the crews reactions during those scenes. I loved many of the new nebula shots - also adding a smoke quality that seemed missing from the original. I wish some shots could be entwined or blended together with the vortex aspects of the original nebula. There were several shots in the original that showed a top down view with both ships crisscrossing through the vortex cloud formation at obvious different Z altitudes. This particular view IMO, helped to accentuate the three dimensionality of the battle space and brought better context to Kirk's ensuing orders. ie: (whether that be Z plus or minus 10,000 meters) Aside from those missing shots functioning as a scaffold for the tactical narrative, and some audio pops (documented).
Wraith has done a refreshing take on this all time classic - and I would absolutely encourage any ST fan to check it out.

I love Wraith's editing methodology - he does his research and takes notes so it's baffling to me some of the mistakes that made their way into the final cut of this fascinating fanedit. As others have pointed out, there's three loud BEEPS at 1:21:21, 1:32:44 and 1:35:33. Wraith also made some strange choices, for example when Kirk gives the order: "Z-minus 10,000 meters." when Spock notes that Khan has two-dimensional thinking. In his version the Enterprise goes... up? A decision that makes the final space battle confusing.

This isn't just a straight up replacement of the VFX though, Wraith also made a few creative decisions, like adding sound effects or dialog back in, or adding music cues to music-less scenes. Some of these changes work better than others.

Overall this was an interesting experiment. Some of the new visual effects don't work at all and look like something out of Babylon 5 while others are magnificent and breath taking. I haven't watched the theatrical version which only replaces the recycled shots but I'm sure purists will appreciate that one more. I'm still grateful Wraith created this as it's a nice template for anyone wanting to create their own "perfect" version of ST:TWOK. It is what it is: a Fan VFX Replacement Showcase.

Having just watched this "experiment", I quite enjoyed it. As Wraith had said it is not perfect it can never be perfect, it is an experiment in adding new Cgi from various sources. There are some issues her and there with the sound and a few scenes with a bit of sluggish transition. I do think this follows nicely if a person who had never seen the original watched this after watching the first Star Trek movie.

Kudos to Wraith for gathering the sources and assembling them together.
he's done a nice job. If you just want to kick back and not be a purist and have fun then I would say you will enjoy the experience.

Audio/Video Quality
I watched the 7gb file and it looked a bit soft and had a large amount of pixelation for a file of its size.

Visual Editing
I was intrigued, but I'll admit I'm not too keen on the added cgi footage. As pointed out in BionicBob's review, the back and forth between cgi and ILM models feels a bit jarring as is the frame rate issues with the differing sources. Unfortunately much of the additional ship scenes feel more like a dvd menu in quality. This is no fault of Wraith, but I'm not sure the quality of the shots were worth the alternate shots in terms of visual continuity. There are a few cgi shots that looked fantastic. The genesis proposal video is vastly improved, but is hindered by the frame rate stutter. When the battle first starts, there's something that just feels off in terms of intensity. I think some of it is due to the cgi shots and the still/smoothness they bring. The action is a bit subdued.

Audio Editing
There seems to be some audio inconsistencies and issues that stuck out. One example is when Spock says "their shields are going up". There is a loud static distortion for a split second. Some of the audio also has some doubling and/or high pitched sounds when inserted/extended scenes return to the original shots and some pops in the audio here and there. I assume these are due to the crossfading. I only point these out as reasoning for the score I gave.

Narrative
The additional lines are interesting and give some added depth to characters, but struggled to establish themselves due to some audio level inconsistencies and their reliance on being added while some of the newer cgi scenes are shown (eg Sulu's mention of his desire to become a captain). The little additions that extend scenes also feel a bit off and take away from the flow of those shots. One such example is when Kirk tells Uhura to signal their surrender and then we get a looped piece of audio and a cgi Enterprise shot. It just feels a bit off in terms of the flow. Seeing that the narrative of this film is very visual and that the intent of this edit was to adjust that visual narrative, I felt it actually slowed the movie down a bit and was at times a bit distracting.

Enjoyment
I have mixed feelings about this. It's a tall order to change/mess with what I feel is tied for the best Star Trek film and one of the better sci-fi movies ever made. I personally felt that the sourced computer generated ships and scenes did feel out of place with the original ILM work. The alternate takes of shots also had some struggle with fitting into the movie seamlessly. Some of the additional ship scenes did look pretty fantastic. My favorite shot is probably when the reliant pops up on screen in the nebula. It was like a Jaws moment with that external shot. It was almost like a jump scare. Unfortunately for me the rest of the lower quality cgi ultimately didn't stand up to the original source models. I also wonder if some more processing could be done to rework some of the fps issues with the cgi to help them gel more fully with the frame rate of the film. A valiant effort and a neat alternative experience.

Star Trek II Wrath of Khan is considered by most critics and fans the best of the original movie franchise (though my personal preference is Trek III ). It has a top notch story, solid performances and some incredible VFX Model Work by ILM. Yes, it is a medium budget movie, that re-used footage from TMP, but for me, that was never a distraction, as it all fell within the realm of acceptable visual continuity. For at the end of day, the original Wrath of Khan is a great looking movie.

So the concept of swapping out as many of the original VFX shots (with some audio work too) as possible with CGI, I found both surprising and exciting.

And having just finished watching Wraith's KHAN REDUX, I can say, as a Great Experiment, it was, as a certain Vulcan might describe it, a "FACSINATING" viewing experience.

Conceptually, I found it very interesting to see certain "what if" shots (Reliant launching from Space Dock) or classic shots from different angles or hearing previously cut lines of dialogue.

Unfortunately, the use of a myriad of fan VFX to create these changes significantly impacted my experience both narratively and entertainment-wise. The lack of a Consistent Visual Continuity continually broke my suspension of disbelief. As some VFX is borderline Studio Professional Grade, while others are far less polished. Some shots of the Enterprise are highly detailed, others are under rendered. In other instances, new CGI shots like Regula One poorly resemble their model counterparts. Additionally, the cutting back and forth from a CGI shot to practical model one in a single scene only reinforced for me how good the ILM work is, and how it has a texture and weight that is lacking in many of the new fan created shots. Also, the Frame Rate issue of many of the new shots I found to be very jarring and distracting at times.

This is not meant to be a negative review. As a technical experiment, an alternative viewing experience, this is very cool and creative. The amount of time and hard work that went into assembling and polishing it is very apparent throughout. Wraith is to be commended for his vision, passion and skill.

But as an actual movie experience, it does not entirely succeed for me, and only makes me appreciate the ILM mastery of the original even more.

Still, well worth checking out.
Good stuff. :)