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Summary: Good-bye, Enterprise
Review: At least the freshly refitted but fictional USS Enterprise meets a noble end in combat. In the real Navy, the mighty USS Independence, CVA-62, was recently sent to the Mothball Fleet despite its multi-million dollar Service Life Extension Project overhaul here in Philadelphia.And you've got to admit, watching the Big E burn through the atmosphere is still thrilling, especially on a modern big-screen TV.
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Summary: "The Search for Spock" Could Have Been Better
Review: Hoping to cash in yet again on the heels of the hugely successful second "Star Trek" film, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn" (1982), Paramount Pictures produced a third film for the franchise entitled "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock". This third film took on a new dimension by being directed by the actor who had played the character of Spock for over 10 years, Leonard Nimoy. This was not Nimoy's first time in the director's chair as he had previously directed two episodes for two different TV series, but it was his first directorship of a big-screen motion picture. Joining Gene Roddenberry again for writing was Harve Bennett, who had helped to write "The Wrath of Kahn", as well as Leonard Nimoy, whose writing was not credited. Though Spock's character was killed at the conclusion of "The Wrath of Kahn", the door remained open for his potential return since his body was left on the Genesis planet, which was a living planet created out of lifelessness. Still mourning Spock's death was the U.S.S. Enterprise crew: Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Commander Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott (James Doohan), Commader Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), Commander Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Commander Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). Kirk is visited by Spock's father, Vulcan Ambassador Sarek (Mark Lenard), who inquires about Spock's soul. After a mind meld that confirms that Kirk doesn't have Spock's soul, the two review the events just prior to Spock's death and realize that Dr. McCoy has Spock's soul. Sarek explains Dr. McCoy must be brought to Mount Seleyah on Vulcan along with Spock's body in order for both to have peace. Placing his friends above everything else, Kirk and the other primary Enterprise officers decide to steal the Enterprise to return to the Genesis planet, which Starfleet Command has made a forbidden destination. Having been heavily damaged in the battle with Kahn in the previous film, the Enterprise was decommissioned, but Scotty manages to secretly prepare the ship for departure. Meanwhile, the Genesis planet is under study by Kirk's son, Dr. David Marcus (Merrick Butrick), and Lt. Saavik (Robin Curtis); but a determined Klingon captain, Captain Kruge (Christopher Lloyd, known more being the 'Doc' in the "Back to the Future" films), wants to obtain the Genesis technology for the Klingon Empire. The development of the Genesis technology by David Marcus and his mother, Dr. Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch), was a feature in the previous film "The Wrath of Kahn", but Bibi Besch did not appear in this third film. Also, Lt. Saavik, whose character was introduced in "The Wrath of Kahn", was played originally by Kirstie Alley (best known for her character of Rebecca Howe in the long-running TV series "Cheers"). The most memorable scenes in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" include Sarek's visit with Kirk, McCoy's occasional Vulcan behaviors, McCoy's conversation with an alien (Allan Miller) in a bar, Lt. Uhura's conversation with 'Mr. Adventure' (Scott McGinnis), the Enterprise leaving space dock, David's fight with a Klingon (David Cadiente), the abandonment of the Enterprise, the end of Kirk's fight with Kruge, and Mount Seleyah with T'Lar (Judith Anderson). With Leonard Nimoy absent during most of the film, much of the action depended primarily upon William Shatner, who is not the greatest actor. The best acting in the film came from James Doohan, DeForest Kelley and Mark Lenard. Sadly, the sets used for the Genesis planet were not very realistic and much of the action that takes place on its surface was not particularly memorable. The unexpected Vulcan boy who ages rapidly was played by four different actors: Carl Steven, Vadia Potenza, Stephen Manley and Joe W. Davis. Overall, my rating of for "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" is only 3 out of 5 stars because of the lackluster acting during much of the action scenes, poor set design, and anticlimactic ending. The film does have some good points and is worth watching, but could have been much better in my opinion. I don't necessarily recommend purchase of the film on DVD, but it does fill in the gap between "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn" and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home", which are two of the franchises best films that were ever made.
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Summary: I thought this was pretty good.
Review: I'm not a Kirstie Alley fan, but I thought that 'Search for Spock' was a decent follow up to 'Wrath of Khan' (Which had me in tears the first time I watched it - I was eleven). A few of the parts were sort of slow (like when the planet is breaking up), but overall I thought that 'Search for Spock' was an acceptable film, if only to find out what exactly happened to Spock after 'Wrath of Khan'. Worth a rent.
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Summary: Spock Returns in Third Trek Film
Review: After the success of Nicholas Meyer's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, it soon became apparent that the Trek franchise could continue, with or without Spock. Despite rumors to the contrary, Leonard Nimoy had never stipulated in his contract for Star Trek II that Spock be killed off. According to Nimoy (as revealed in a "the making of" featurette), the actor really did think that the second film would be the finale of the Star Trek movies, so why not have Spock go out in a blaze of glory? However, even before production ended on The Wrath of Khan, Nimoy and producer Harve Bennett decided that "there were always possibilities" for the future, both for the franchise and Spock. Thus it came to pass that Star Trek III: The Search for Spock had its, pun intended, genesis. With a subtle scene here and a more upbeat ending there, several plot strands were left unresolved....what did Spock mean when he gave Dr. McCoy a mind meld with the word "Remember?" Why was he left on the Genesis Planet? Those two scenes, coupled with Nimoy reciting "Space: The Final Frontier" at the end of the second movie practically screamed "Sequel Ahead!" As it happened, Star Trek III would also mark Nimoy's feature-film directorial debut. Although he was given a modest budget - which does, unfortunately, become obvious in many scenes - Nimoy fared fairly well his first time out as a director. As in the movie that follows (The Voyage Home), Bennett and Nimoy give us a mix of adventure, suspense and even moments of comedy in the continuation of a three-movie story arc. The setup is simple. After the events depicted in Star Trek II, the USS Enterprise has been ordered back to Earth. Spock is dead, the Enterprise's trainee crew has been reassigned, and Starfleet has quarantined the Genesis planet. Only a science vessel, USS Grissom, has been assigned to survey the forbidden world. Little does the Federation know, however, that the Klingons have found out about the Genesis device. Fearing that the Federation has plans to destroy the Klingon Empire, Commander Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) is determined to obtain its secrets. At the same time, upon his return to Earth Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) discovers that Spock has somehow placed his "katra" in Dr. McCoy's (the late DeForest Kelley) body. Kirk is urged by Sarek, Spock's father (the late Mark Lenard) to retrieve Spock's remains from the Genesis planet. After that, Kirk is to go to Vulcan with McCoy and Spock's body, where both of his friends will "find peace." When Kirk requests permission to take the soon-to-be retired Enterprise back to Genesis to retrieve Spock's body, Starfleet Command refuses, saying that the science ship (where Lt. Saavik and Kirk's son David Marcus are now serving) is the only ship allowed by the Federation to investigate. As usual, Kirk takes matters into his own hands and, assembling most of his bridge crew, steals the Enterprise and warps off to Genesis, setting up a sequence of events that Kirk will find to be more costly than he bargained for. The Collector's Edition DVD set, unlike the previous two Director's Editions, has no added scenes or director's cut version. The theatrical version of the film (with a running time shy of two hours) is featured here with director's audio commentary by Nimoy and text commentary by Michael Okuda. The movie will delight some Trek fans, satisfy most fans, and disappoint others. (This being an odd-numbered film, it seems to prove the theory that even numbered Treks are great, while odd-numbered ones are either just okay or just plain bad!) The extra features disc includes the usual mix of "making of" documentaries, interviews, and the theatrical trailer (which, unfortunately, gave away a crucial plot device).
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Summary: Find Spock NOW!!!! ....as kirk commanded
Review: This is one of my favorite trek movies as it center around the search for Spock who died to save the enterprise and it's crew. Did you recall the many is greater then the few, or in this case, the one. Spock is my hero and i would try to find him too. In reality, how can he comes back to life once he is passed away....only in star trek could that be possible. So watch it and see how :) Enjoy!!!
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Summary: In Search Of...Spock
Review: I have to admit that Leonard Nimoy's directorial debut left me a bit impressed. Especially when he handled the stealing of the 'Enterprise' scene in a very exciting, capable, and funny way. However, as soon as Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and company embarks on a voyage towards the Genesis planet to look for Spock's body, the movie starts losing its pace. Although, there is a moment of excitement when our heroes confront a Klingon Bird Of Prey, concluding with the destruction of the 'Enterprise' -a moment that I consider the saddest after Spock's death at the end of "Star Trek II-The Wrath Of Khan".
"Star Trek III-The Search For Spock" is a fine film, as well as an OK debut of Nimoy as a director, but I think this movie should have needed a bit more energy. But then, this collector's edition has a very interesting number of documentaries -the one about the visual effects is my favorite -that makes this movie a nice pick to any DVD collection.
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Summary: They were finally making Star Trek again....
Review: A period of 11 years passed between the end of the Star Trek TV series in 1969 and the First Star Trek movie in 1979, and it was clear from the start that the actors needed some time to really get into these roles again and find a balance where the humor and the serious story elements could blend in the most effective way. The first two movies that they made, Star Trek; The Motion Picture and Star Trek II; The Wrath of Khan, were quite different in the stories that they told and in the scale of the production. One was very much a take on the 2001 style of epic film making, and the second was done on a cheaper budget and scaled down art direction. But in each case, it was highly debated wither either movie was really Star Trek, they had a look all their own, but it was somewhat inconsistent with how the Star Trek universe was done on the shows. With Star Trek III, Leonard Nimoy was in the director's chair and he finally showed everyone how to do these movies the correct way. From the story to the performances of the actors, this film really brought back the fun and the sense of wonder that the original series had, and it also set the standard for how they would do Star Trek IV, V, and VI. Keep everything as faithful to the series as they could, while doing much better movies at the same time. It was well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Nice, but unnecessary
Review: When Spock died, at the end of Star Trek II, did anyone REALLY expect him to stay that way? Probably not - although the movie was intended to be his swan song. Think about it - Kirstie Alley was added as the Vulcan Lt. Saavik ( to fill the missing Vulcan need), and Kirk's son David Marcus, a scientist, was introduced to take over Spock's science role (and it makes sense - you really would need two people, if not more, to take the place of such a major character like Spock. I liken it to the late Eighties, when Lindsay Buckingham left Fleetwood Mac and was replaced by two guitarists. Notice you haven't seen any calls for that version of the Mac to reunite and tour. Replacing Spock would probably have gone over about as well.) This all happened because Nimoy was pretty unhappy with the whole Star Trek - The Motion Picture experience. He was lured back so that he could finally put his character to rest with a spectacular death scene. Only. . .he had a great time making the movie. A few shots were added to "keep the door open", as it were, just in case a deal was finalized. And sure enough, it was - with Nimoy agreeing to come back if he could direct the next movie. And here you have . . . Star Trek III - The Search for Spock (TSFS). How I feel about TSFS depends on how I choose to interpret it. If I look at it as simply a Star Trek movie, it's well done, features some good character interaction, and some genuinely poignant moments. If you choose to interpret it in the light of the superior ST II, which made a lot of changes, then it begins to seem like TSFS is intentionally trying to remove any of the weight created in Star Trek II. Although I won't go into all the changes for the sake of not revealing spoilers, here's one: in ST II, Spock sacrificed himself to save the ship and the crew. He gave his life so that others might live. All religious overtones aside, what good is that sacrifice, and the subsequent mourning (basically, what good is the last 20 minutes of ST II) if it's a well-known fact that Vulcans can just transfer their consciousness to someone else's body? Since Spock knew that, why didn't he ever tell anyone? It's just frustrating the more you look at it, and while retrieving Spock makes for a nice movie, and it does shed more light on Kirk's dedication to his friend, it's all so unneccessary. And the changes made to the David Marcus and Lt. Saavik characters are uneffective, also. But, as a movie featuring our favorite Star Trek characters, this works pretty well. Leonard Nimoy knew the material and handles it like a pro. The characters all act believably and show a tremendous love and dedication to their friend. The darker tone suits the movie nicely, and this is probably William Shatner's last understated Kirk performance. But it just feels like the whole movie is a gigantic formality to get the whole crew back together.
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Summary: Nice to see a good Star Trek Transfer
Review: After being mildly disapointed with ST:II Wrath of Khan's transfer, (the quality of the picture, in a nutshell, for those of you that don't know...) I was happy to see Star Trek Finally get a good DVD treatment. Sure, Wrath of Khan was a much better movie, but the picture quality lacked at times, and the additional scenes sometimes didn't quite match up. While ST:III has no extra scenes added, I quite enjoyed the overall viewing experiance of this one, and hope the Special Edition films that I hope will follow continue to improve the quality of the transfer. The extras on the second disc are mostly so-so, nothing that really impressed me too much, but are nice none the less.
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Summary: A nice bridge between Wrath of Khan & The Voyage Home
Review: Taking place after the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock finds Admiral Kirk and co. stealing the Enterprise to go to the unstable planet of Genesis to rescue a reborn and rapidly growing Spock. Leonard Nimoy directed this third feature film outing in the Star Trek series, and it shows that this is a series in transition, up to and including Kirk's willful destruction of the Enterprise, and an interesting look at Vulcan rituals. The Search for Spock isn't the best film in the series, but it isn't the worst either (Star Trek V Anyone?), and it serves as a nice bridge between the best films in the series: Wrath of Khan and the hugely sucessful The Voyage Home. The Special Edition DVD is worth noting as well, and is lightyears beyond Paramount's original DVD version of the film which had no extras at all. The commentary from Nimoy and co. is intriguing, and the short on creating the Klingon language is a must watch for Trekkies.
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