Why Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan's Director Criticized The Reboot Movies
Round up the usual suspects considered to be the best "Star Trek" villains in the franchise, and Ricardo Montalban's Khan Noonien Singh is guaranteed to be in the lineup. That bare-chested silver fox with vengeance on his mind after being "buried alive...buried alive..." is still the highlight of the best "Star Trek" movie ever made, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." It's understandable, then, why its director, Nicholas Meyer, was pretty vocal about the film that took key elements from his and failed in replicating it.
In the 2016 book "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams," which gives an oral history of the latter half of the "Star Trek" franchise up to that point, Meyer spoke highly of the new crew comprising Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, as well as the actor playing the antagonist of "Star Trek Into Darkness," Benedict Cumberbatch. Even so, he felt it wasn't enough to warrant J.J. Abrams' second contribution to the franchise, "Star Trek Into Darkness."
In the book, Meyer admitted, "I just thought [Cumberbatch] was great, but I have to confess that I don't understand these new 'Star Trek' movies. Maybe I just sound like an old fogey or something, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with what made 'Star Trek' compelling." Speaking of Khan, Meyer said, "I don't get how anybody else can be him and not be Ricardo Montalban. So a lot of it just didn't track for me."
Was Star Trek Into Darkness a rip-off of The Wrath of Khan?
Meyer's criticisms might seem strong, but he wasn't the only one to have an issue with Abrams' second "Trek" title. "Star Trek Into Darkness" fumbled its Khan mystery, trying to hide Cumberbatch's character behind the alias of John Harrison, which, by sounding like a Dunder Mifflin employee, made him even more suspicious. Meyer saw that the sequel suffered from its execution by going through a checklist (a Treklist, if you will) of what audiences already anticipated when going off course would've been a more intelligent move.
"Other than doing all the things that people expect in a 'Star Trek' movie, I didn't understand what those movies are about," said Meyer. "I think the difference between an homage and a rip-off is that in an homage you're supposed to add something. They should try to do something else besides trying to do 'Star Trek II.'"
That's sound advice. While it might be one of the more favored "Star Trek" movies in the franchise critically, "Star Trek Into Darkness" still stands as the lowest-ranked entry from the Kelvin timeline, according to Rotten Tomatoes. Here's hoping that whenever Chris Pine's Enterprise crew does return following the promising update on "Star Trek 4," should they face a new iteration of, say, Gul Dukat, they don't try and fool audiences into thinking he's just a normal, unsuspecting Cardassian named Greg Robertson.