The Salvation of the Final Frontier

[Gojira]

I actually do like this movie. I give it a C+ but I think it could be much better. I read once that Paramount turned down Shatner's desire to fix the movie..even if he were to pay for some of the new special effects.

While the special effects are not the best they are the least of my worries.

I think with some good editing the movie could be improved.

I was recently watching the movie and I could see some parts where the humor has not aged and could be taken out.

Just one example: In the scene where Kirk & Spock et al. have stolen horses and are raiding Paradise City. Kirk tells Spock to be "one with the horse" those words are spoken but you only see them riding the horses in a group so those lines could be cut yet still retain the scene.

The same with what happened when they enter the compound. Spock tells Kirk to 'hold his horse" while he is scanning. Yet because they are wearing a mask you don't see him say that line so that dialog could be cut and still retain the scene.

Those are a few to get us started.

How would you save the Final Frontier?

 

[Peter Q Taggart]

Take out the turbo shaft scene. 75 floors?

 

[Gojira]

Take out the turbo shaft scene. 75 floors?

Cut it or edit it?

 

[MasuPu'a]

Take out Uhura's naked fan-dance.

 

[Gojira]

Take out Uhura's naked fan-dance.

Agreed!

 

[Harvey]

Take out Uhura's naked fan-dance.

It's silly, but it fulfills a story function, so it would have to be replaced with something else, and I don't think any alternatives exist.

The nerd in me would like to use CGI to fix the number and order of floors in the turbo shaft scene, though.

 

[Maurice]

...I read once that Paramount turned down Shatner's desire to fix the movie..even if he were to pay for some of the new special effects...

Read where? That sounds highly unlikely.

 

[Harvey]

I believe they did turn down Shatner's offer to produce a Director's Edition of the movie, but one where the studio would assume the costs, not Shatner. It definitely sounds unlikely that he would invest his own money in the project.

 

[Trek Survivor]

Eh, I LIKE "The Final Frontier". Oh sure it's not a great movie, but it is much better than its lowly reputation suggests. Like "Nemesis", it seems to be often cited as the "worst" simply because that's what fandom demands.

Well, I like it! I've said many times around here before, that the Kirk-Spock-McCoy friendship has never been better portrayed, the premise is interesting, Sybok's a good character and those perpetually-moaning co-stars (Koenig et al) all got at least a couple of decent-ish scenes.

The scene where Kirk stands up to Sybok was fantastic.

Nevertheless, what would I do to improve it? Probably tone down the humour a little (though truthfully, I find some of the forced "humour" of Trek VI - e.g. Uhura with the Klingon dictionaries, Chekov and the crewman's webbed feet etc - far more painful to sit through). I also feel the grand finale is a letdown; I'm fine with the evil alien, but there's something about the scene and Sybok's sacrifice which just falls flat. I don't think the SFX help, but there's something more fundamental. Not sure how I'd rewrite it.

But that's about it. A perfectly serviceable Trek film, no worse than some of the others.

 

[Gojira]

Eh, I LIKE "The Final Frontier". Oh sure it's not a great movie, but it is much better than its lowly reputation suggests. Like "Nemesis", it seems to be often cited as the "worst" simply because that's what fandom demands.

Well, I like it! I've said many times around here before, that the Kirk-Spock-McCoy friendship has never been better portrayed, the premise is interesting, Sybok's a good character and those perpetually-moaning co-stars (Koenig et al) all got at least a couple of decent-ish scenes.

The scene where Kirk stands up to Sybok was fantastic.

Nevertheless, what would I do to improve it? Probably tone down the humour a little (though truthfully, I find some of the forced "humour" of Trek VI - e.g. Uhura with the Klingon dictionaries, Chekov and the crewman's webbed feet etc - far more painful to sit through). I also feel the grand finale is a letdown; I'm fine with the evil alien, but there's something about the scene and Sybok's sacrifice which just falls flat. I don't think the SFX help, but there's something more fundamental. Not sure how I'd rewrite it.

But that's about it. A perfectly serviceable Trek film, no worse than some of the others.

I actually agree with you and as I said in my OP that I really like the movie but would love to see some of the humor toned down.

 

[Gojira]

I believe they did turn down Shatner's offer to produce a Director's Edition of the movie, but one where the studio would assume the costs, not Shatner. It definitely sounds unlikely that he would invest his own money in the project.

From what I read Shatner tried to sweeten the deal for Paramount by saying he would put some money up front for the special effects but not the entire director's edition.

 

[Brikar99]

I took a shot at a 'fan-edit' of this flick a few years ago. I cut some scenes, a line here or there. In all, I think I ended up removing something like 7-10 minutes of the flick, and the whole thing moved much faster and was more serious. I created some new effects in Lightwave, too. I never finished the project, but ultimately I felt that even though it still wasn't a great flick, it's still one that I would watch more often if it had been tinkered with a bit more.

 

[Brikar99]

I believe they did turn down Shatner's offer to produce a Director's Edition of the movie, but one where the studio would assume the costs, not Shatner. It definitely sounds unlikely that he would invest his own money in the project.

From what I read Shatner tried to sweeten the deal for Paramount by saying he would put some money up front for the special effects but not the entire director's edition.

I recall reading this, too, and being disappointed when it didn't happen.

 

[Gojira]

I took a shot at a 'fan-edit' of this flick a few years ago. I cut some scenes, a line here or there. In all, I think I ended up removing something like 7-10 minutes of the flick, and the whole thing moved much faster and was more serious. I created some new effects in Lightwave, too. I never finished the project, but ultimately I felt that even though it still wasn't a great flick, it's still one that I would watch more often if it had been tinkered with a bit more.

I would love to see your version of the film!!!

I believe they did turn down Shatner's offer to produce a Director's Edition of the movie, but one where the studio would assume the costs, not Shatner. It definitely sounds unlikely that he would invest his own money in the project.

From what I read Shatner tried to sweeten the deal for Paramount by saying he would put some money up front for the special effects but not the entire director's edition.

I recall reading this, too, and being disappointed when it didn't happen.

I was/am disappointed to. I still would love to see a director's edition.

 

[Robert D. Robot]

I would get rid of the bit where Spock throws his arms up over his head, flips over in mid air and shoots earthward (reminded me too much of something that was swiped from a Wiley Coyote & Roadrunner story board) to rescue Kirk from his fall.

I found myself groaning at most all of the attempts at humor in the movie. It was mostly too forced & too hokey. For weeks afterwards the non-Trek friends I dragged to the theater didn't let me hear the end of what a corny movie it was.

 

[Gojira]

I would get rid of the bit where Spock throws his arms up over his head, flips over in mid air and shoots earthward (reminded me too much of something that was swiped from a Wiley Coyote & Roadrunner story board) to rescue Kirk from his fall.

I found myself groaning at most all of the attempts at humor in the movie. It was mostly too forced & too hokey. For weeks afterwards the non-Trek friends I dragged to the theater didn't let me hear the end of what a corny movie it was.

Yeah, the whole scene of Kirk falling and Spock rescuing him like Superman is a bit too much.

 

[Harvey]

If you start to get rid of these scenes, though, what do you have left? There's really no fixing the movie in post-production here. This is all stuff that should have been eliminated at the script stage.

 

[Gojira]

If you start to get rid of these scenes, though, what do you have left? There's really no fixing the movie in post-production here. This is all stuff that should have been eliminated at the script stage.

I don't want to get rid of some scenes...but you could edit them, cut out some dialog that could improve the film.

Take the scene of Kirk falling...sure you can't eliminate it but you can edit it so it isn't as corny. You could shorten the length of the fall to make it more dramatic and eliminate Kirk's line to Bones "mind if we drop in?"

The scene in the elevator shaft can be similarly edited.

 

[Brikar99]

Indeed; a lot of little edits here or there end up making a big difference.

 

[Brikar99]

I took a shot at a 'fan-edit' of this flick a few years ago. I cut some scenes, a line here or there. In all, I think I ended up removing something like 7-10 minutes of the flick, and the whole thing moved much faster and was more serious. I created some new effects in Lightwave, too. I never finished the project, but ultimately I felt that even though it still wasn't a great flick, it's still one that I would watch more often if it had been tinkered with a bit more.

I would love to see your version of the film!!!

Alas, as I said, I never finished it. This was in 2005 or 2006; I don't even have that computer anymore, though I might have the hard drive sitting in a closet somewhere. All I have now are a couple of still images I rendered from Lightwave (in 480p... why, god, whyyy)