He was old. Actually, it was quite painful to see just how old these cast members were by this time, based on what we saw in this movie. Making them any kind of action heroes was embarrassing.
He was old. Actually, it was quite painful to see just how old these cast members were by this time, based on what we saw in this movie. Making them any kind of action heroes was embarrassing.
It's my least favorite of the 6 but only because I don't like Star Trek as a full blown comedy. Jokes die faster than drama and since Star Trek is the very definition of "rewatchable" this one got dull for me more quickly than others because jokes stop being funny with repetition.
But I don't dislike any of the TOS cast films.
However, I do agree that Star Trek works better when the message is more subtle than the movies tended to be. The message in TVH is incredibly obvious because they literally show the audience a whaling video and have Gillian Taylor crying over whales.
But in 1986, it was a fun time for me in the theater.
Sweet Jesus, this is a totally different take than I have. First, McCoy is drunk during the camping scenes. He's been pounding Jack Daniels. So yeah, he's off because McCoy is off.
His comic timing is also sharp. "I liked him better before he died." "You want me to hold him, Jim?"
Second, the whole bit with his dad is widely regarded as his finest hour in the films.
Now Doohan...his work is less than his best, but mostly because his dialog is painfully obvious. "This whole ship looks as if it were put together by monkeys." And "The captain wanted me to get this transporter workin' and I'm not about to let him doon!"
Nah, they did fine. Shatner was still physically active, regardless of his emerging gut. He just finished a 5 year stint on TJ Hooker where he was running and jumping regularly (alternating with his stuntman). Takei was the only other actor who did anything all that physical and he was still in great shape then. He actually lobbied to do the entire tumble from the horse, but they wouldn't let him. Nimoy did very little physically, just jogged down the hill with Kirk, McCoy and Sybok on the God Planet.
Other than Kirk, nobody was really being portrayed as an action hero in this film. All the really demanding stuff was done by the Enterprise Space Marines.
The mountain climbing was a huge stretch, I will agree. A least some ropes would have helped. You have to be in amazing condition to free-climb.
There's a soft error in this movie that's rarely ever discussed. Given that Spock specifically says that Sybok was close enough in age to be raised as a brother with him, Sybok should NOT have appeared as old as he looked. He should look younger than Spock actually, as he's full Vulcan and Spock would age faster due to his half human heritage (established by the Deadly Years where Spock did not visibly age even after contracting the rapid aging illness and in fact Nimoy's natural aging in the movies was itself a contradiction of this albeit one that obviously couldn't be helped). But Luckinbill did a great job so it doesn't really matter although maybe they could've dyed the gray out of his hair.
I keep wondering if a 1988 release date would have changed anything. How would it have gone against the competition in that year and would ILM have been available?
The VFX was not the film's inherent flaw.
Sure, but couldn't hurt.
I feel like the film still could be saved. It just needs a new edit and new VFX. Now is the time the studio should do it, as Shatner isn't getting any younger. He has expressed interest in doing a director's cut.
And edit is not going to save the script.
So, a shitty script and bad acting, but great special effects? So you’re saying you want to turn STV into a Star Wars prequel?
Hmmmmmm.
So like I said in the first post: "I keep wondering if a 1988 release date would have changed anything. How would it have gone against the competition in that year and would ILM have been available?"
Now,
this might not change anything.
But
it's a fun thought experiment to see how the same film might have done differently in a different year.
So yes, for the sake of this thought experiment, yes I would love to see what a script that needed some more drafts on it and some pretty decent acting and great special effects would look like as a film and how that film would perform and how that would butterfly into the future.
Hey, if we can get ILM I'm sure it will be a masterpiece!
That is not what I said. I said that new VFX and a NEW EDIT could help improv the film. It is never going to be a masterpiece, but it still could be improved by cutting some of the comedy scenes that fall flat. For example, Scotty bumping his head on the bulk head and the scene of him with Uhura in sickbay could be cut from the film, and you would never miss those scenes. I did an edit on my own to test it out last month, and it played great without those two scenes.
Why?
I have a brother 17 years my junior.
We lived together 7 years before I moved out.
Well, you said the film 'could be saved', which is a stronger statement than what you're saying now about it merely helping to improve the film.
Or, you know...just different?
Perhaps "saved" is not the right word for me to have used, but it could certainly be made into a better film. Like "Insurrection", The Final Frontier always felt like an extended TV episode to me. Given that the film never got the VFX that Shatner wanted, a special edition with new VFX is justified. Shatner is 95 now, and I wouldn't want to see a special edition made unless he was involved. I hope the studio gives him a chance to revisit the film, as he has expressed interest in doing a Director's cut.
The funny thing is that people say that Insurrection feels like an extended episode, but they often mean that as a compliment. For me it's the opposite, as I want my films to feel like films, where they do things they couldn't or wouldn't have done during the run of a series.
I agree that TFF has the potential to be a better film by means of making the effects less tacky and such, but for me "saving" the film would likely involve radical surgery to the script and underlying premise.
I agree that TFF has the potential to be a better film by means of making the effects less tacky and such, but for me "saving" the film would likely involve radical surgery to the script and underlying premise.
