Some thoughts about revenge as a motive for drama

[Gaith]

Khan was nothing but an out of control One dimensional screaming madman? When did that happen?

When he was going to blow up the Enterprise just for the hell of it after getting his sleepers back?

... Anyhow, San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick Lasalle once wrote some interesting thoughts on revenge as drama:

There are two things wrong with revenge as a motivator. The first is that there's no urgency about revenge. Revenge can be dished out now or later. It makes no difference if the worst has already happened. The second is that it usually places an action hero in a state of mourning. A revenge plot is a sure way to sap the energy out of any protagonist.
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[Hober Mallow]

I don't think there's any inherent problem with using revenge as a motivator, except that that's all we seem to get in Star Trek films of late. If I were to identify one problem with it, it's that part of such a film needs to be devoted to the psychology of the villain, precious runtime which is taken away from developing the psychology of the heroes. If they're going to develop characters, let's have them develop the heroes, because after two films I still feel virtually no attachment to most of the main characters.