The Last Star Trek Film You Watched

Discussion in 'General Trek Discussion' started by SJK91, Jun 24, 2013.

  1. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
     
  2. maneth

    maneth Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    maneth
    Star Trek Into Darkness. Very entertaining. I definitely liked this one better than ST09, mainly because Nero was almost as silly a villain as Shinzon, whereas Harrison/Khan had depth.
     
  3. SJK91

    SJK91 Ensign Red Shirt

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    The Final Frontier. How original, right?
    Time to bump this sucker.

    Alright, I'm finally back - and prepare for many reviews at once. I know how anxious you all have painfully waiting for my reviews. Please, calm yourself. I am here now. ;)

    Continuing my very first trek into the films of Star Trek...

    [​IMG]
    Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

    I can only imagine how great it must have been to be a Star Trek fan right before The Final Frontier had been released. The Voyage Home had been the last immediate release and had been a critical and commercial success - hell, it was even nominated for four (!) Oscars. So then comes Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, a movie that likely suffered from the mercy of "yes men" and its director, William Shatner.

    Now, let me get this out of the way: I love William Shatner as Kirk. It is true that Shatner pretty much plays himself but his screen presence is second to none, and Kirk is quite the character. But a director Mr. Shatner does not make. The Final Frontier is such a mess of a film and it doesn't take long to become a frustrating viewing experience. How can a film franchise that had delivered four solid feature films produce such a train-wreck?

    The biggest problem with Star Trek V, like with most bad high-concept films, is the script. The Final Frontier wanted to be The Voyage Home: Part 2 in terms of tone and spirit, but the jokes and humor come across as either incredibly forced or totally unfunny. The incompetence bleeds into the actual storyline of the film, too. I think there is actually something interesting going on with the plot, but the film is so concentrated on delivering 'laughs' that the story is wish washed to oblivion, and the film therefore shortchanges itself.

    When compared to what came before it, The Final Frontier's special effects look terrible. I got a kick when I realized that the only convincing shots were reused footage from The Voyage Home. I would not normally complain about the special effects from a film made in 1989, but previous Star Trek films always had at least decent effects. Some of the visual effects shots of The Final Frontier look straight out of the 60s TV series, and that is just unacceptable.

    It is nice to have Jerry Goldsmith bring back his Star Trek: The Motion Picture main theme and Klingon theme, but I was disappointed with the rest of the score. Maybe Goldsmith read the script became as unmotivated as the rest of the crew.

    There is but ONE truly memorable scene in the film, and it does not at all surprise me that it involves the late DeForrest Kelley. Sybok's forcing the 'emotional pain' from McCoy's past really stood out to me, especially in a film devoid of anything else inherently interesting. Both Kelley and Laurence Luckinbill (Sybok) are great in the scene, and it was at that point in which I almost thought the film would turn around. Hmm. (I actually don't mind Laurence Luckinbill's Sybok as the main antagonist, but I think he could have been more effective if the script was kinder to the film's storyline.)

    Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is a cash in. There is an interesting idea buried somewhere deep within, but the script fumbles anything that could have been. After the film was finished, I gave a long thought if I could actually give a Trek film lower than a mediocre score - and after some time - I finally decided that I could.

    Oh, and as a footnote: God bless Nichelle Nichols for not quitting on the spot when she first read that seduction scene.

    1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Director's Edition) (1982) - 8.5/10
    2. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Director's Edition) (1979) - 7.5/10
    3. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) - 7/10
    4. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) - 6/10
    5. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) - 4/10

    Up next....

    Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
     
  4. SJK91

    SJK91 Ensign Red Shirt

    Joined:
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    The Final Frontier. How original, right?
    Continuing my very first trek into the films of Star Trek...

    [​IMG]
    Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

    I was only 20 minutes into The Undiscovered Country when I realized how happy I was that the Star Trek filmmakers once again had their head on their shoulders. It is almost inconceivable how improved the sixth Star Trek installment is over its immediate predecessor. As a matter of fact, I was surprised to find Star Trek VI to be one of the stronger Trek films.

    While The Final Frontier suffered from a frustratingly lazy and lame script, The Undiscovered Country gives us a very interesting storyline involving murder, politics and mystery. I was worried that the parallel to the Berlin Wall was to come across as dated, but I was relieved to see that the story still is nearly just as relevant as it likely was in 1991. The return of The Wrath of Khan's Nicholas Meyer as the film's director is also a welcome addition to the film, as The Undiscovered Country is (like Khan) tightly paced.

    The newcomers to the cast are all welcome additions. I thought Valeris served very well as the film's Benedict Arnold and was certainly an improvement over Robin Curtis's wooden interpretation of Saavik. Also, Spock's mind meld with Valeris makes for one hell of a scene. Christopher Plummer's sniveling, Shakespeare quoting character of General Chang is the second best Trek villain to Montalban's Khan for me. The Klingon trial scene is certainly a stand out not only for Plummer but also for the film.

    I was relieved to see that the visual effects were once again under the control of ILM, and were much improved over the cheap looking effects of The Final Frontier. Cliff Eidelman's haunting score fits perfectly with the film's generally darker tone and Hiro Narita's cinematography is (thus far) the best in the entire series. From a technical aspect, The Undiscovered Country gets just about the highest marks I can give it.

    However, if I had to give one main gripe to film, it would be its occasional inappropriate silliness. For the most part, The Undiscovered Country is a more serious affair than The Voyage Home and The Final Frontier yet, there were occasions when TUC had some jarring tonal shifts. For example, Kirk's confrontation with the shape shifter is a little too wacky. Particularly Shatner's suddenly silly delivery of, "I can't believe I kissed you!" I understand where they were coming from, but I think the script (and Shatner) should have showed a little more restraint. Another example would be the entire bridge crew trying to translate Klingon. Wouldn't Uhura, being the ship's communication officer, be able to translate the language of the Federation's biggest threat? Finally, that scene with Valeris disintegrating the pot in the kitchen is such a mess (from a plot and tone perspective). I was almost worried that the film would lose it at that point, but I was happily proven wrong.

    The final scene of the film hit all the right buttons for me. Spock's final line, while a little out of left field, is pretty great and the crew's final moments are effectively captured within the small final instant of The Undiscovered Country. It was a fulfilling ending to an occasionally flawed, yet very satisfying Star Trek entry, and very satisfying film series.

    I feel I am going to miss the original series crew when I begin The Next Generation films. I have grown to love the camaraderie between the original crew of the Enterprise and it always shocks me to know that many of the actors never got along with one another in real life. Regardless, it has been a great adventure with the original members of the USS Enterprise with these six films (yes, even the lousy one).

    But like all things in Hollywood, the show must (and will) go on.

    1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Director's Edition) (1982) - 8.5/10
    2. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Director's Edition) (1979) - 7.5/10
    3. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) - 7.5/10
    4. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) - 7/10
    5. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) - 6/10
    6. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) - 4/10

    Up next....

    Star Trek: Generations
     
    Last edited: Jul 18, 2013
  5. SJK91

    SJK91 Ensign Red Shirt

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    The Final Frontier. How original, right?
    Continuing my very first trek into the films of Star Trek...

    [​IMG]
    Star Trek: Generations

    I tried to like it. I really did.

    The truth of the matter is that Star Trek: Generations is more of a mess as The Final Frontier was. I was also unfortunately grounded in my fear that I would miss the original crew of the USS Enterprise. And the plot. Oh man, the plot.

    First things first. I have never, up until this point, seen anything in relation to Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV show or film). This means that Generations is the first contact (heh) I have had with The Next Generation cast. With that in mind, I will tell it how I see it. Captain Picard is a strong willed character with an incredible voice and played very admirably by Sir Patrick Stewart, but I do not find him as oddly interesting as Kirk. Data is a Vulcan-wannabe babbling idiot who does not even hold a candle to Spock (I suppose I have the emotion chip to thank for that). I guess there is a doctor on board the Enterprise-D (Crusher?), but let's be honest: it wouldn't even be fair to juxtapose her to McCoy. Same goes for Riker - he seems to be a force to be reckoned with, but his interplay with Picard is not half as fun as Kirk and McCoy's interplay. There just is no competition in my eyes.

    Perhaps all this negativity comes down to the fact that Star Trek: Generations has one of the sloppiest plots I have ever seen in a major motion picture. There are so many plot holes and questions that I almost don't want to list them. I'm sure I missed a few, but here I go anyway:

    What exactly is the Nexus? Where did it come from? Why is it moving throughout the universe in the way that it does? How did Guinan get transported into Picard's Nexus? How did Picard travel from his Nexus to Kirk's Nexus? Kirk has been living in his Nexus for nearly 80 years if we go by the subtitle - does the film assume that he is blindingly stupid enough to believe he is living in reality when all it takes is a horse jump to convince him the Nexus is not real? How did Kirk and Picard escape the Nexus? How does the Nexus allow one to go back in time when the Nexus itself is a fake reality? If the Nexus is 'what you desire', does that mean the entire ending of the film (and subsequent TNG films) are all Picard's hallucinations and the crew of the Enterprise is actually dead? (That would be pretty interesting though.)

    Generations' plot is so incomprehensibly convoluted that I just gave up. I honestly could not understand, nor did I even want to understand what the movie was about. Because after all, it ended up being about stopping a missile from blowing up a star and killing a bunch of stuff. That's what I got out of it - and it was still lame.

    I actually dug the beginning of Generations perhaps only because it still felt like an Original Series film. I was not as off put as I thought I would be about Kirk, Scotty and Chekov coming back despite getting a more than proper send off in The Undiscovered Country. I didn't even mind that a more hammy than usual William Kirk was used as a plot device later in the film. What really disgusts me is how Generations treats the eventual fate of Kirk.

    Kirk's death scene mentally hurt me, and it will likely haunt me into my next life if there is such a thing. I thought David's death in The Search for Spock was stale, but my God, Kirk's death in Star Trek: Generations is a flat out insult to fans of the Original Series. I just don't understand who's idea it was to portray Kirk as some old, senile cowboy inexplicably bent on having just one last hoorah. Kirk's line, "It was fun," is so damned stupid that I have to stop typing about it. I actually don't even mind Kirk's final words of, "Oh my," but everything that preceded it was so painful that I can't commend it as much as I normally would.

    Star Trek: Generations is the worst Star Trek film, bar none. It has actually made me appreciate The Final Frontier a little more, as I now know how truly bad it can get.

    And to think that I was happy at the end of The Undiscovered Country.

    1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Director's Edition) (1982) - 8.5/10
    2. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Director's Edition) (1979) - 7.5/10
    3. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) - 7.5/10
    4. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) - 7/10
    5. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) - 6/10
    6. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) - 5/10*
    7. Star Trek: Generations (1994) - 4/10

    Up next...

    Star Trek: First Contact - and it had better be as good as people say it is.

    *Footnote: Upon viewing Star Trek: Generations, I have realized that despite The Final Frontier's MANY shortcomings, there were at least one or two scenes that stood out. And I miss the Original Series cast, so sue me. I've added one extra point to Star Trek V.
     
    Last edited: Jul 18, 2013
  6. bbailey861

    bbailey861 Admiral Admiral

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    Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
     
  7. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Admiral

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    The studio wanted it to be The Voyage Home: Part 2. :techman:
     
  8. SJK91

    SJK91 Ensign Red Shirt

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    The Final Frontier. How original, right?
    Haha amen to that - I stand corrected!
     
  9. You_Will_Fail

    You_Will_Fail Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Enjoying your reviews SJK91, personally my favorite is STVI and then First Contact, looking forward to seeing what you think of it!
     
  10. SJK91

    SJK91 Ensign Red Shirt

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    The Final Frontier. How original, right?
    Hey, I appreciate that. I have to be honest and say that I am slightly burnt out on the Trek films for the time being - and I firmly believe it is because of Generations major suckage. I just had to take a break after that one.

    I'll be continuing my film trek through Star Trek in the next couple of days for sure, though.
     
  11. Anika Hanson

    Anika Hanson Captain Captain

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    Into darkness
     
  12. LOKAI of CHERON

    LOKAI of CHERON Commodore Commodore

    Star Trek: Nemesis

    Umm, I got through to the end, and liked it a little better than my antecedent and subsequently aborted attempt to sit through the movie. On a good day, it almost comes within striking distance of the just about passable(ish) ball park.

    Nevertheless, it's quite easily the weakest Trek film. HATE, HATE, HATE Doofus Data, and don't have too much time for Space Vampires and "Evil Picard". Replacing Doofus Data with Lore, removing the vampires and having Stewart play his own clone would have improved the movie immeasurably right off the bat.
     
  13. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Admiral

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    But would you have believed Lore being the simpleton the movie needed him to be?
     
  14. LOKAI of CHERON

    LOKAI of CHERON Commodore Commodore

    A re-write would have been in order I think, some kind of subterfuge on Lore's part maybe?
     
  15. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Admiral

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    I think the problem there is you're adding another plot thread that would have to be explained more in-depth than "the android is slow". Not that I'm a fan of B-4, but Lore just doesn't seem like a fit for the story they were telling.
     
  16. LOKAI of CHERON

    LOKAI of CHERON Commodore Commodore

    I know where you're coming from. Maybe the excission of the Remans would have provided enough breathing room for the development of a plot featuring Lore scheming with the Romulans?
     
  17. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Admiral

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    I like the Remans. I thought they were an interesting addition to the Romulans. It's too bad we didn't get some more stories fleshing them and their relationships with the Romulans and Vulcans out.

    You could ditch the wedding? Those scenes were just painful to watch.
     
  18. LOKAI of CHERON

    LOKAI of CHERON Commodore Commodore

    Agreed!!! :lol:
     
  19. Reanok

    Reanok Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Startrek 3 The search for Spock
     
  20. Hoshi3

    Hoshi3 Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Star Trek: Insurrection
    Great landscapes, great music, great movie. :)