Khaaaaaaan!!!!

Caught the special showing of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at the Grauman's Chinese on Tuesday. It seemed to be an original theater print, but with the Director's Edition DVD fresh in my mind, it actually came up short on picture quality and suffered from the absence of the added scenes. BUT... there is absolutely nothing like seeing a film like this on the BIG screen, playing to a full house packed full of fans! The best and biggest TV is just not big enough to convey the majesty of a big movie and the contagious emotion of an audience.

The coolest part was the before and after "Inside the Actor's Studio"-type of live presentation featuring Majel Barrett Roddenberry before the movie, and director Nicholas Meyer and Gene Roddenberry Jr following it. We got to see 10 minutes of Roddenberry's upcoming documentary 'Trek Nation'. Meyer's anecdotes were especially candid and entertaining! Oh, and Chase Masterson was there too, adding virtually nothing.

This is just the greatest Trek movie ever. Say what you will about Shatner, but I love BIG stage actors like him and Montalban - I don't want to see some method actor mumbling his lines so they seem "real", I want ACTING! Kirk is THE Captain. Everything in this movie came together - the words, the performances, the direction, even the efx were advanced enough to be OK today. Needless to day, a great time was had by all!