Review Detail

Definitely better than the original. Better I'd say even than the first one. It looks better, the pacing is better, there is less filler, the story is tighter. It looks great too. The color here definitely is better than the original's; it pretty much reminded me of the original Trek movies a lot. The influence from the Trek movies definitely helps.

Minor issues affect the edit: namely the very ending. Everything straight from the beginning was top-notch, but the very ending seems a bit flat. The original's choice to keep the fight between Khan and Spock suspenseful by revealing the necessity for Khan's survival a little later was good. This edit bypasses that suspense and because of that, the final fight isn't as cathartic. Leaving that part in would've surely tied the edit together thematically in connection with the title: Vengeance. Actually, I do have an issue with the title because thematically, vengeance isn't a very big aspect of the story. I get that the reference to the USS Vengeance is a bigger reason for the title being that way, but Star Trek has always been neat in titling its movies. The Wrath of Khan is very poetic and spot-on. Generations, Nemesis, etc. Vengeance being the title here isn't very strong. Finally, the edit tried a little too hard to end the film in a more isolated manner, but it ends up being too rushed. It needed the lengthier ending of the original. Kirk's speech in particular at the end is very awkwardly cut, straight into the Final Frontier speech.

Overall, the visuals are great, and the visual editing is too. The audio just kinda suffers a bit with the awkward cutting at the very end. Nitpicky and anal? Perhaps, but that awkwardness right at the very end kind of breaks the spell that the film holds on you, especially after such a masterful experience beforehand. Another auditory badness is the mixing. I wish something could be done for the mixing because it still has that theater-intended mix that sounds terrible on TV. Finally, the narrative is just a little iffy, as in the examples I've stated above. Overall, as the edit is now, I'd give it a solid 6.5/10, while the original was a 4. It'd be a 7 if the ending was fixed.