Why does The Final Frontier get so much crap?

[drazzz52923849]

I have noticed the trash talk about Star Trek V and i disagree with all of it. I really liked TFF and i would like to know why so many hate it. And i am aware that SOME of the special effects are bad but none movie breaking and the ones that needed to be good(the enterprise, center of the galaxy, ect.) were good. I will admit the rocket boots were terrible.

 

[Brikar99]

While I like this movie a lot, I can recognize that it's a very flawed film. It has pacing issues, the effects are subpar compared to movies made years earlier, a lot of the jokes are lame and the climax is a bit of a mess. But it has a great score from Jerry Goldsmith, a couple really cool action sequences, and a lot of great character work from main cast.

I think it's easy to see the movie's potential, it just doesn't come together like it should.

 

[DonIago]

^What were the cool action sequences?

TFF is still the only Trek movie that I've never felt the urge to pick up on DVD, which is pretty telling.

Among other things (FX, poor humor) I found it a bit "offensive" that one brush with Sybok and Kirk's comrades will happily betray him. Spock's failure to tell Kirk of his relationship with Sybok doesn't help either. The ease with which the E penetrated the Great Barrier after the big to-do about it was similarly unhelpful.

It probably doesn't help matters that I also read the novelization (before seeing the film I believe) which filled in a lot of the story's blanks.

 

[number6]

TFF seemed like a by the numbers caricature of a "typical" Star Trek episode or movie.

There were a lot of stupid jokes at the expense of the characters. It was embarrassing to watch.. And I brought a date to the premiere.

Measured against the rest of the films, TFF is the weakest story.

 

[Solarbaby]

Becuase it was written and directed by William Shatner. Nuff said

 

[Shon T'Hara]

It's fanfic with Kirk as William Shatner's Mary Sue. A cult leader with mind control powers subverts an entire planet then takes over the Enterprise, but Kirk can resist because he knows he turned left when he shoulda gone right. Then he goes down to a planet to meet God, and everyone's all, "Whoa, God! Cool!" but Kirk's like, "Hey, God dude, why ya being such a bitch?" and then everyone realizes Kirk is right and this isn't God.

Plus, even in 1989, the idea of the Enterprise reaching the center of the galaxy in a couple hours was a stupid idea.

 

[Satyrquaze]

Basically, TFF tells a story that no one was clamoring to know and it's delivered in such a way that no should want to see it twice.

EDIT:
Oh, and I'll add that it made me hesitate before seeing TUC, which is my favorite original crew movie.

 

[SchwEnt]

in no particular order:

*** A cult leader and his band hijack the Enterprise in their quest to find Sha-Ka-Ree, Eden, Paradise. So TFF is a re-make of TOS "The Way to Eden". Seriously?

*** Yes, the FX sucked. Gotta admit it.

*** The humor. The horrid, horrid humor.
Yeah, it was great in the previous movie. But just because of that, the humor in TFF is blatantly [insert joke here] humor. Awkwardly tacked on to the script,
whether it's appropriate or not, whether it fits or not. Not only in the humor ill-advised and out-of-place, it is also BAD.

--a few other nitpicks here and there, but those are the big three for me. Fix those major problems, and TFF isn't so bad.

 

[Warped9]

Almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong?

Seriously when you like a film then you often can excuse some if not most of its missteps. But if there isn't much to like in a film (even if what there is to like is notable) then all the flaws leap out at you.

At heart TFF has a good story to tell, but it feels like they copped out when it came to really telling it. There are some good character moments and a fair number of lame ones, too. Much of the humour is cringe inducing. Like TVH before it the humour seems invoked to make you laugh at the characters rather than with them. And, yes, most of the f/x were subpar lending the whole film a "made on the cheap" look.

Things would have been better overall if TPTB had coughed up the money to show off the story better and allowed Shatner to tell the story he wanted to tell. And the writing as a whole needed some editing.

In the end it's the performance of the main cast that makes it tolerable just as it was in some of the less-than-stellar episodes of TOS.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

Shatner's direction was actually quite good IMHO - at least on a par with Nimoy; and perhaps more lively and engaging sylistically.

I like this film as it stands, but with the excision of the ill-conceived humour - I know this ship like the back of my hand etc., a few fixes on some of the VFX and a decent ending - I truly think there's a great movie just waiting to be discovered.

 

[DonIago]

I'd settle for an adequate movie.

 

[sonak]

It's an OK movie that suffered from a fandom "bandwagon effect," whereby what had been merely a mediocre disappointment got transformed through hyperbole into THE WORST STAR TREK EVER ON SCREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1



Seriously, it has its flaws, many of them mentioned here, but it basically gets picked on because it's the "cool thing" in Trek fan circles to make fun of TFF.

 

[Joker]

It's an OK movie that suffered from a fandom "bandwagon effect"...

No it didn't.

It was a lump of dogshit.

 

[sonak]

er, no. Not by any serious reviewing standard. It's maybe a two or two and a half star movie. I could see one and a half if you were feeling particularly ungenerous.


But for it to be "a lump of dogshit," as you put it, the story would have to be worthless, the acting terrible, there'd have to be few redeeming aspects, etc.


Far from that though, the acting is pretty good across the board, the plot, though derivative of some TOS episodes is hardly terrible, the music is actually very good, and there are many touching moments and good lines.


The effects aren't great, some of the humor is forced and awkward, the resolution is a disappointment, I'll grant all that and more.


But to my mind, it's simply no worse than OK.

 

[sbk1234]

It's an OK movie that suffered from a fandom "bandwagon effect," whereby what had been merely a mediocre disappointment got transformed through hyperbole into THE WORST STAR TREK EVER ON SCREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1



Seriously, it has its flaws, many of them mentioned here, but it basically gets picked on because it's the "cool thing" in Trek fan circles to make fun of TFF.

I agree completely.

Flawed? yes. There were problems. But I can't get past the fact that I liked it, and it had good parts.

Ironically, I've heard the complaint about the TOS movies being too different from the series, yet this flick was the most like an original episode, including focusing on the trio of Kirk/Spock/McCoy.

 

[DonIago]

^^You're more generous than I.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

Flawed? yes. There were problems. But I can't get past the fact that I liked it, and it had good parts.

Yes, I feel much the same way.

 

[Satyrquaze]

Sorry, I simply can't give TFF a pass with all the crap that "fans" dole on Star Trek (2009).

TFF is shit. Pure and simple.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

^ Good point.

All in all, the rocket boots were the least of my worries.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

Sorry, I simply can't give TFF a pass with all the crap that "fans" dole on Star Trek (2009).

TFF is shit. Pure and simple.

I don't agree, but it's great we're all able to voice our strong opinions on this board.

For the reasons already quoted - the score, "big three" character moments, "show your pain" sequence etc. - I just can't understand how "shit, pure and simple" could apply to this movie.

I love JJ's superb entry in the franchise, a marvellous and highly enjoyable film - a long overdue proverbial shot in the arm for the franchise.