Star Trek: The Motion Picture Reviews

(OK) Too serious, almost naif in its metaphisic in a hop on hop off planets ride. In one stop , enters Dr Spoke Nimoy) the best and enigmatic character of the series. The rest is as somber as the film....

When three Klingon battle cruisers are destroyed in the midst of a big blue cloud StarFleet is immediately blamed for the destruction of these ships. although that obviously isn't that case. So James Kirk(William Shatner returns to his one and only memorable role in which he , indeed overacts) Kirk who, is no longer the captain the of Enterprise is called into battle once again. Despite the fact that he surprised StarFleet with his request to return to the Enterprise.once Kirk is sent to active duty there is a scene that literally takes up half of the film and that is Kirk just plainly looking at the outside of the remodeled Enterprise in all of it's glory. Elsewhere on Vulcan Spock( the ever impressing Leonard Nimoy) is putting himself through a Vulcan test/achievement called Kelinarh(pronounced Kohl-in-ar). Which is the Vulcan mind reaching and fully understanding logic, this is no doubt what the film is all about. What happens when all that is logic and knowledge aren't enough? However, there is hope for the crew of the Enterprise when Kirk and crew travel to the cloud that killed the Klingon Battle cruisers. They encounter an entity called V'ger (in the original Trek episode that gave this movie life "the changeling" called Nomad). This Entity Learns quickly and doesn't react well to human emotions, because it simply doesn't have the ability to understand why they are or how they are logical. what happens in this film is priceless and very simple ,
so Star Trek the Motion Picture not only holds true to its origins and we finally get to see the halls of StarFleet for the first time and shows its still very relevant today and is very entertaing and very thought provoking , This is probably the bible (alongside the original series for old Trekkers) and recommended for new Trekkers to see how it really started.

In many ways, this movie is the forgotten step-child of the Trek movies. It does not get a lot of credit for being as good as it was. Most Trek fans prefer the sequel, The Wrath of Khan, and give this an unfavourable comparison. On it's own merits, it's a very good, if not exactly great, sci-fi movie, made in the grandest traditions of sci-fi.

We already knew the characters very well, so there's not much need to go into character development. Still, a considerable amount of time is spent in the re-introductions before we get into the main plot. The story is familiar, a strange alien force, destroying everything that clashes against it, headed towards Earth. The Enterprise is to go and intercept the alien and to try and stop it.

Before we get to the climax, we go through a lot of philosophical questioning about the meaning of life, the value of emotions and other human frailties. There is very little action in the movie, I can't seem to recall even a single phazer being fired.The writers weren't looking to make a space adventure, they were looking to make a space opera, the next 2001: A Space Odyssey. Just for that, I give this movie and it's makers a lot of credit. The musical score is also fantastic, giving us a great atmosphere.

It's not roses all the way though. The movie plods along too much in the second half. The special effects are also dated but don't really detract from the story. Saving time from all the re-introductions in the beginning and better pacing in the second half, and focusing on the 'alien' a little more would have made this a better movie.

In the end, I admire the grand scale on which this movie was conceived, even if the execution did leave something lacking.