Entertainment Weekly Reviews The Star Trek Movies

[jaime]

TOS was 1966-69. 2001 was made in '68. SW was made in '77 and ushered in the era of the "fun" blockbusters (With Jaw's help). TMP came out in '79. It missed its era by just a few years. One might argue if TMP had come out in the early to mid-70's, it might have been received and remembered completely differently.

It didn't do too badly. It's aesthetic isn't too out out of (don't forget, part of this criticism stems from it NOT being a Star Wars rip off. An odd criticism.) It's era. 2010 comes out a few years later, and there are plenty of 'clean' Sf films. As an aesthetic, TOS itself is very clean, even the engineers aren't shown covered in grime....because that's a bad idea in real space travel as well as pretend space travel in part designed to show off colour television.

 

[JeffinOakland]

It didn't do too badly. It's aesthetic isn't too out out of (don't forget, part of this criticism stems from it NOT being a Star Wars rip off. An odd criticism.) It's era. 2010 comes out a few years later, and there are plenty of 'clean' Sf films. As an aesthetic, TOS itself is very clean, even the engineers aren't shown covered in grime....because that's a bad idea in real space travel as well as pretend space travel in part designed to show off colour television.

Exactly my point. A difference of just a few years was huge. In 1979, fans wanted Star Trek meets Star Wars. They got Star Trek meets 2001.

 

[wayoung]

I enjoyed these. Yes, they were meandering, but it's been almost 40 years - there are thousands of straight forward reviews online. I like that these weren't a straight rehash of the same flaws and strengths that have been written about so many times before.

 

[Steve Gennarelli]

...Along with the Mark Altman/Ed Gross books, these "EW" reviews were the best Trek
non-fiction in a long, long time.

 

[Phoenix219]

TMP -- Kirk "steals" the center seat from Decker
TWOK -- Spock lets Kirk take command
GEN -- Harriman lets Kirk call the shots
Trek '09 -- Kirk maneuvers Spock into relieving himself from command

I always wished that this was foreshadowing for the end of the movie, with Kirk taking command of the "D" or pulling rank or some obscure regulation out of his ass to wrest control away from Picard. As pointed out here, its kind of part of his MO by this point. The next 3 (or more) movies should have been ensemble pieces of the Trek *franchise* as a whole, mix and matching whatever characters and eras they wanted, on grand big screen adventures. 4/7ths of the TOS cast have canon explanations for being alive in the 24th century, and Renegades (non canon) eventually brings 2 of the last 3. It would have been great to, at least, see one last 24th century outing for the TOS crew, plot mechanics be damned.