The Motion Picture
- Thread starter Captain Zog
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Watching for the second time in as many weeks.
I think once I get into writing more seriously, I'd like to write something
with a style very similar, with a quicker pace. I love the feel it presents
that space is... well BIG. Though I am a fan of all Trek and am in no way
disgruntled about any of the future approaches, I have recently become
a big fan of the way the Federation, Stafleet and the Galactic community
as a whole are portrayed in TMP and the rest of the original films.
P.S. Practical models will always rule. :P
I think once I get into writing more seriously, I'd like to write something
with a style very similar, with a quicker pace. I love the feel it presents
that space is... well BIG. Though I am a fan of all Trek and am in no way
disgruntled about any of the future approaches, I have recently become
a big fan of the way the Federation, Stafleet and the Galactic community
as a whole are portrayed in TMP and the rest of the original films.
P.S. Practical models will always rule. :P
Here's part of an offf-the cuff review I did of The Director's Edition off of another website:
The idea of redoing aspects of a movie because the technology has finally caught up with ones vision makes me cringe, post-Star Wars special editions, but this one's a bit different, primarily because the director in question is Robert Wise, who was the editor of Citizen Kane, and because TMP was adhering to a very strict release date, and the movie was not finished when it was released.
This new cut is not a just a bunch of new special effects tacked on, it is a new cut. Wise cuts dialogue out and re-edits certain scenes to make a lot of it flow more freely. And the added special effects do not seem to be out of place at all. Particularilly welcome is the new Vulcan background, which is more akin to previous and later incarnations of the planet. Also included are an actual establishing shot of V-Ger, and a cleaned up wormhole sequence. Everything added and cut, makes for a better movie.
Unfortunately, there is only so much one can do with this movie. Wise was setting out to make his 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the recut makes that even more clear. And while in some places visually stunning, he did not succeed in his goal. The pacing is soooooooo slooooooowly. I kept thinking, wow this movie must be about half over then, and in reality only 20 minutes had gone by. The famous drawn out shot of the Enterprise goes on way too long. The commentary explains that Gene Roddenberry wanted to show a ship that looks real and looks huge and with that, it succeeds, but the scene just keeps going on and on and sets a standard for the rest of the movie for a whole bunch of scenes that are essentially, people looking at special effects. The acting is very wooden, (Shatner gives his worst performance here, mostly because he is given very little to do. (According to the commentary, the wormhole sequence took 3 weeks to shoot. After that, I'd probably phone it in, too)
The Decker/Ilia romantic sublot is wasted. Later, Gene would rehash it (and waste it again, for the most part) with Riker/Troi in TNG.
The idea of redoing aspects of a movie because the technology has finally caught up with ones vision makes me cringe, post-Star Wars special editions, but this one's a bit different, primarily because the director in question is Robert Wise, who was the editor of Citizen Kane, and because TMP was adhering to a very strict release date, and the movie was not finished when it was released.
This new cut is not a just a bunch of new special effects tacked on, it is a new cut. Wise cuts dialogue out and re-edits certain scenes to make a lot of it flow more freely. And the added special effects do not seem to be out of place at all. Particularilly welcome is the new Vulcan background, which is more akin to previous and later incarnations of the planet. Also included are an actual establishing shot of V-Ger, and a cleaned up wormhole sequence. Everything added and cut, makes for a better movie.
Unfortunately, there is only so much one can do with this movie. Wise was setting out to make his 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the recut makes that even more clear. And while in some places visually stunning, he did not succeed in his goal. The pacing is soooooooo slooooooowly. I kept thinking, wow this movie must be about half over then, and in reality only 20 minutes had gone by. The famous drawn out shot of the Enterprise goes on way too long. The commentary explains that Gene Roddenberry wanted to show a ship that looks real and looks huge and with that, it succeeds, but the scene just keeps going on and on and sets a standard for the rest of the movie for a whole bunch of scenes that are essentially, people looking at special effects. The acting is very wooden, (Shatner gives his worst performance here, mostly because he is given very little to do. (According to the commentary, the wormhole sequence took 3 weeks to shoot. After that, I'd probably phone it in, too)
The Decker/Ilia romantic sublot is wasted. Later, Gene would rehash it (and waste it again, for the most part) with Riker/Troi in TNG.
I don't care what anybody says...
I love Star Trek: The Motion Picture for a variety of reasons.
Despite my criticisms of it, I love it too. I saw it in the theater on the rerelease in 1980 when I was very young and it stuck with me. It was my first exposure to Star Trek in any form. And anyone has to look at it as a product of its time. Trek Fans got to see the Enterprise looking huge and real. And it is by far the most Roddenberry than any of the others, (For good or ill) so it must be appreciated for that.
By that I presume you mean actual physical spaceship models as opposed to CGI, in which case I couldn't agree more. Although CGI has come a long way, I still like the look of the Big E in TMP.
TMP is a pretty decent film, though it doesn't accomplish some of its goals nearly as well as it could have. It definitely relied on too many SFX at the expense of story and character development; those effects still look great, but some parts slow the movie down way too much.
I love the pacing, I love that there isn't a need to constantly have someone
yapping about this or that, or having this drama or that drama. Just having
long moments in awe of what's happening in front of the crew, and having
character moments and dialogue only when needed was nicely refreshing.
People can say what they want about the pacing and such, but I think it
to be one of the best parts.
CGI nowaday is pretty spectacular and I am a fan, but nothing beats having
a real object being shot. There's always a more real sense of mass and size
and the texture and detail is always more real. It's kind of like having a real
actor on screen or a CG animated one. No matter how cool some of the CG
may be, having a "real" ship on screen will always be the best option IMO.
Supplement it with CG effects and enviroments, but have "real" ships and objects.
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