Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix STV-

Would you buy the DVD when released? Rent it even?

For my part, I'd snap it up in an instant! I don't hate the movie (Really, it wasn't "Spock's Brain" bad), but I do HATE the FX (except the practical shuttle stuff)!

Fix the FX & we'd have the equivalent of a good animated ep, and I'd certainly PAY to see/own that!

Would you?

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

Yes I would. But then I enjoy TFF anyway! Be great to see the finale as originally intended though...

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

Agreed, I'd be buying it as well.

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

After The Motion Picture, I always figured The Final Frontier would be the next logical step. As with everything, it depends more on the cutting room floor footage, whether this would work. If it's just the selection already included as a DVD extra, then it made sense to prune that. If important scenes were shot with the intent to add an effect later, but they ran out of money... that's something else entirely. Revising the FX alone doesn't change anything, in my opinion anyway...

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

If you mean "fix" the effects, then no. That's a handful of shots that would make no difference to the film's fundamental flaws.

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

It's not a terrible movie. It's fun to see Kirk, Spock and McCoy play off each other like they did on the TV show. The flaw is that (much like TMP) the whole movie is about building up how awesome the end of the movie will be, and then nothing happens in the third act. Throwing some cool new effects in would fix that up nicely.

If there is enough footage to bring the originally planned rock monsters in the third act to life, then I'd be pretty excited.

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

Yes, if Shatner was really given the money to fix it as he wants. Paramount murdered that film. What we got was a highly flawed finished product with some glimmers of genius.

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

I would buy it, yes. The problems with the film are not as massive as some think. Get rid of the awful effects, trim out some of the more embarrassing attempts to force comedy, and use your improved effects and cut footage to shore up the third act, and you'd end up with a pretty nice end product, IMHO.

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

Definately. The whole ending would be entirely different, as far as I've read. And if you fix the visuals, people would automatically love it. The new movie is evidence for that.

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

I mean that, & FX additions to give it the ending they ran out of money for... I could deal with a little CGI Kirk kicking Hell out of rock monsters, couldn't you?

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

^ You might not have to go with "CGI Kirk" though. It would also depend on just what footage was shot for the original ending before they discarded it and created the revised ending that we got.

It is my understanding that many of the changes were made in post-production and not during filming. For example, the shot of Kirk climbing up the mountain and then looking back over his shoulder at the floating head blob thing was originally meant to be him looking back at one of the rock monsters. When they filmed, they were still hoping that they might be able to do something in post to salvage their original ending, but it provided too complex and cost prohibitive, so they cut the scenes down to their bare minimum and added in the effect of the floating head blob.

Now, with CGI available, you could easily create whatever you wanted to be interacting with the live footage. Rock monsters galore if you wish. The rock monsters emerging from the ground after the "temple" collapses, as originally planned, could be easily created with CGI as well. In other words, as long as sufficient live action footage from the originally planned ending exists, you could reconstruct the ending completely.

Now, again, is this going to turn TFF into 2001? No, of course not. The film has several fundamental flaws that are not going to be able to be fixed 20+ years later. But the film does have alot of heart, it has some good character moments, it has some great acting - DeForest Kelley and Lawrence Luckinbill, in particular, really shine -- and it has some powerful scenes, such as the death of McCoy's father.

If you took out the big, major things that knock you out of the film, such as the jarringly bad visual effects and the way out of place comedy, and also put some effort into constructing a better ending, you could be left with a very good film. Not a great film. Not a cinematic classic. Not a film, perhaps, that's even on par with Trek's best efforts. But still a very good film.

And given the amount of debate amongst Trek fans about this film, I can't imagine that a reasonable effort at "upgrading" this film couldn't be profitable for Paramount.

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

It'll never be a "very good" film as it's got serious structural problems. At best it'd be a so-so film.

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

Nope. I've seen the old Star Trek movies more then once, of course. But they are a little bit before my time to enjoy them as much as I can enjoy the later movies. They'd have to do a near-reboot to make them so enjoyable as to actually buy a new copy.

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

Obviously, there is going to be no consensus on this. Alot depends on your view of the film as it stands now. I already consider the film to be a so-so film. I do not at all consider it to be bad. So I believe it could go to "very good" with some work.

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

If they just took out Scotty walking into that bulkhead, I'd be happy with that. And FX wise, it's really mainly some starship flybys & the rock men stuff. How expensive could it be?

Every fan would have to rent or buy it- that's for sure (except the severe haters, and I don't think that would be enough to hurt revenues).

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

Take every VHS/DVD/whatever copy in existence, chuck them into an active volcano, then find every piece of data and delete every last byte including any and all possible backups. This is the only way it would be possible to "fix" Star Trek V. But seeing as how that's not possible, it can't be.

But in seriousness, the movie really is too ridiculously flawed to be fixed by any amount of money being thrown at it. You can edit or chop it up all you want, but nothing short of a do-over with a completely new script would make it bearable. You could make the special effects look better than Star Trek XI if you threw enough money at it, but it'd still be the movie where Spock's previously unknown (and never mentioned again) emotional Vulcan brother captures the Enterprise with the power of positive thinking so he can meet God.

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

I'd buy it in a instant! it's a underrated movie, yes it's not great, but it's not that BAD either.

 

Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S

You can't pollish a turd.

I'd still probably buy it though, sucker that I am.