So for awhile I've been reflecting on the directors edition of TMP as not as good as initially reviewed by others.
I threw in the dvd last night, and must say I'm mightily impressed. From the way the new Vulcan backdrop actually looks like Vulcan from other incarnations of Trek, as well as the new movie, to the way the new edit forces there to be less time in between each major action sequence, it just works overall.
If paramount fails to remaster it for 1080p there extremely stupid, especially considering such a respected director like Robert Wise only endorses the new one as being the definitive version.
Another thing I was thinking about was how much I've knocked the movie for lacking the fun, loose chemistry of the old show. If you take the story into context, none of the old crew has been around each other for years in the story. Think of how things are anytime you haven't seen a close friend for years. There is that expected amount of awkwardness at first until you both start cracking jokes again. If nothing else this film sports that awkwardness and it's really authentic.
The only thing I think that's too bad is that people like Sulu and Uhura weren't written a couple of their own scenes in this movie. To do something that actually had a profound impact on the crew making it home in one piece. However, Decker's character and Ilia's pretty much prevented that from happening.
The set design for this movie is still top notch. As much as I loved the new movie, the engineering section in this movie still kicks it's ass. It's what you'd expect from a futuristic looking engineering section. Also, the uniforms aren't nearly as uncool looking as I used to think they were. If nothing else I almost prefer the uniforms in this movie compared to the sequels. The special effects still rule, and are really better than anything we saw from later sequels.
All in all this film has held up damn well over the course of 30 years.
Also, pay attention next time you watch it, and in the end when you actually see the Vejur spacecraft approaching earth, it looks a lot like the Narada. Same power jolting through it, very borg like. Just adds to the continuity of other things we have seen before in Trek.
I threw in the dvd last night, and must say I'm mightily impressed. From the way the new Vulcan backdrop actually looks like Vulcan from other incarnations of Trek, as well as the new movie, to the way the new edit forces there to be less time in between each major action sequence, it just works overall.
If paramount fails to remaster it for 1080p there extremely stupid, especially considering such a respected director like Robert Wise only endorses the new one as being the definitive version.
Another thing I was thinking about was how much I've knocked the movie for lacking the fun, loose chemistry of the old show. If you take the story into context, none of the old crew has been around each other for years in the story. Think of how things are anytime you haven't seen a close friend for years. There is that expected amount of awkwardness at first until you both start cracking jokes again. If nothing else this film sports that awkwardness and it's really authentic.
The only thing I think that's too bad is that people like Sulu and Uhura weren't written a couple of their own scenes in this movie. To do something that actually had a profound impact on the crew making it home in one piece. However, Decker's character and Ilia's pretty much prevented that from happening.
The set design for this movie is still top notch. As much as I loved the new movie, the engineering section in this movie still kicks it's ass. It's what you'd expect from a futuristic looking engineering section. Also, the uniforms aren't nearly as uncool looking as I used to think they were. If nothing else I almost prefer the uniforms in this movie compared to the sequels. The special effects still rule, and are really better than anything we saw from later sequels.
All in all this film has held up damn well over the course of 30 years.
Also, pay attention next time you watch it, and in the end when you actually see the Vejur spacecraft approaching earth, it looks a lot like the Narada. Same power jolting through it, very borg like. Just adds to the continuity of other things we have seen before in Trek.
