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Star Trek - The Motion Picture (The Director's Edition)

Star Trek - The Motion Picture (The Director's Edition)

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Star Trek - 1st Motion Picture Deserves 2nd Look from Fans
Review: For being a S.T. fan since the late sixties, I'm ashamed to admit that I've only just watched this feature -- somehow it slipped through the cracks. Despite all the negative fan press I've read about it through the years, however, I must admit that the bulk of this film is compelling and works on a rather high level.

Sure, there's little action, and the big problem here is that the human interaction is limited and rather cold. But the overall story is very well constructed, and manages to capture a sense of adventure quite well. There are some odd dangling sub plots -- the film starts out with someone being killed in a transporter accident, only to have the crew beaming up the ship's doctor only minutes later as if nothing happened. It would have also been nice if there had been the addition of two additional scenes to more 'humnaize' this picture: a scene of dialogue between Decker and Ilia; and a scene of the big three getting reacquainted in the Captain's quarters. All in all though, the direction by Robert Wise, combined with Dykstra's and Trumbell's special effects, give this film an expansive, cold eerieness that hasn't been seen in the Star Trek universe in a long time. All this film essentially needed was for a final edit, to delete about 20 minutes of unnecessary reaction shots, and it would be easily moved up a notch on most critic's lists. All in all, a solid effort that was worthy of the franchise. Now I want to see a followup explaining whatever happened to Decker. Stephen Collins deserves that much, and so do hard core S.T. fans.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An epic adventure! ...but is it any good?
Review: Star Trek: The Motion Picture - When I first saw this film, I thought it was the second coolest Trek film ever. After I've seen it about 8 times, though, I decided it is pretty far down the list, not because it's bad in itself, but because the others are cooler.

The film starts out with one of my favorite sequences ever, where the *awesome* Klingon cruisers are patrolling and get destroyed (?) by V'Ger. This made me have high hopes for the film, but after that it gets fairly slow. The plot is quite good mostly, but it is not handled well (the story behind it explains a lot about how it is so stilted). Some of Shatner's performances are very good for a "realistic" naval ship in space, but they're not quite the "jump in and who cares if we lose a few crewman" brashness of the TV series. Oh well, the movie isn't about action, and if you take it for that, it is pretty good.

The special effects: some of them are AMAZING, and some are incredibly bad. I don't know why there is so much difference. The Enterprise shots are boring now, but they are neat if you never saw the movie ship before.

The score is incredible, one of the top few of all time! Much better than the movie.

Overall, you should see this film at least once. The first time I saw it I was up beforehand for 36 hours and I kept dropping off. I figured it was because I was so tired. The next time, though, I kept falling asleep. You should see this film, but probably should spread it out over a couple of evenings.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Star Trek - TMP :A Brilliant Sci-Fi
Review: A famous author once remarked about a "rose by any other name is still a rose....." Those words come to mind when I think of the first transition of Trek to the big screen.The plot of this science fiction film is indeed worthy of Kubrick and Clarke, and yet because it is the familiar pop-icons of Star Trek who play out this space opera that somehow makes the viewer more comfortable about what is going to unfold on screen. It is a rather complex plot with a lot of techno and spiritual babble that will no doubt confuse the young who view this for the first time(as it did me when I was 11 and saw it at theatres for the first time!)yet it works because we are all too familiar with maybe how Kirk will deal with that gigantic cloud, or how Spock will interpret meanings beyond what any human could grasp.Some felt that Star Trek TMP was too slow and cerebreal, that in its transition from t.v. to bigscreen it had somehow lost the wonder of the series.I disagreed as I sat there mesmerized by the stunning visuals,Jerry Goldsmith musical score, and all-too-familiar t.v. icons.It is still a rose however you look at it!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Starts out well, then bogs down
Review: This movie has been heavily criticized over the years by fans and even by the people who created and starred in it, but "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" does have it's strong points. The first half of the movie is actually pretty good. The story is interesting and the characters have things to do. But the second half of the film is really slow and boring. Talk, talk, talk. This is the part where the Enterprise discovers the V'Ger system. During this segment, Spock even has a brief scene where he cries over V'Ger! Oh, brother. So, in rating "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", I'd give the 1st half an A-, the 2nd half a C-, for an overall grade of B-.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Make sure you watch the right version
Review: If you're going to watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture, make sure it's the expanded 143 minute, widescreen version. It's much better than the version shown in theatres. This movie has fine special effects and a fairly intersting plot. I will agree the principal actors are stiff at times, and perhaps the producers should have added a bit more humor and action. I think you have to be a Star Trek fan to really enjoy this; otherwise too much of the characters and storyline are blurry. Still, Star Trek: The Motion Picture isn't as bad as many people make it out to be, especially the longer, widescreen version.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: An insomniacs cure incredible effects but slow ploit.
Review: In 1979 people lined up to a film that was destined to become legendary for it name alone Star Trek the crew that we have love for years is now in a major motion picture for the silver screen and major isn't even the word as 55 millon went in to the making of this film, it set a record of being the most expensive film of its time.

Incredible Visual effects , incredible use of models but unfortunately Robert Wise focuses to much on the effects and makes the ploit to long and to laking in depth to make it intresting to watch in stead the movie plays out like a poster child for insomniacs because the movie is far to long and overblown for it's own good the ominous cloud that threatens the universe , that the enterprise must stop before it's a threat to earth.

Vger the ship is named is in constant search for its creator sending out signals for it to answer and in one point of the movie it takes them 20 minutes of the movie till we finally see what VGer is. Star Trek 2 is an ultimately more superior and awsome Star Trek unlike this lagging excuse for a movie to bloated for it's own good and very dull a dud.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The Worst of the Star Trek films
Review: If you aren't a Star Trek fan, don't even touch this movie. It is the absolute worst Star Trek film. After making this film Leonard Nimoy told Paramount to kill Spock off in the next Star Trek movie -- after watching this film, I don't think anyone could blame Nimoy for wanting out.

This movie is slow and derivative. The plot is basically a rip-off of the original series' "Nomad" episode. The "Nomad" episode is worth the money of buying the tape, but this overblown, ponderous mess of a movie sure isn't.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Long
Review: Although overlong and dull, 'ST:TMP' is an often-fascinating, odd approach to filming 'Star Trek'. The key words are 'Motion Picture' - whilst the subsequent 'Star Trek' were often better, this was the only attempt to make a truly 'cinematic' 'Star Trek' film.

The story behind the making is probably more interesting than the film itself. In brief, it grew from an aborted 'Star Trek: Phase Two' television series, and was produced with a large budget by Paramount's motion picture division. A troubled production, marred by an aborted initial set of special effects, led to a production that was delivered at the last minute, and over budget to the tune of 30 million dollars - a lot in those days, and twice the expected cost. Coupled with a bad critical reception, it almost killed off the franchise, despite eventually turning a profit.

The good things - Douglas Trumbull's effects are striking, dark and mysterious, much closer to 'Alien' than subsequent 'Star Trek' films, and space seems a much more dangerous place. Jerry Goldsmith's music is the exact opposite of his 'Planet of the Apes' work - lush and melodious, it has to do an awful lot, as Robert Wise's direction is often very slow and ponderous. There's a memorable, loud 'twannng' noise in there that became a cliche in subsequent sci-fi films. Furthermore, the opening sequence, as Klingon battleships are knocked out of the sky by a malevolent force, is fantastic.

On the other hand, the plot is very thin for the two-hour running-time (Kirk and Co. inspect new Enterprise - Kirk and Co. fly towards giant energy cloud - Kirk and Co. deal with giant energy cloud - end), the costume designs have dated horribly (if they were not dated already), and the film spends so long pondering supposedly deep questions of life, the universe and everything that the people seem to get lost.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Unbelievably bad acting.
Review: When Star Trek the Motion Picture was first released in 1978 it was the most expensive movie ever made (over 40 million dollars). However when viewing the picture quality, one wonders where all the money went? The quality is even worse than films that preceded it.

The story and premise is quite facinating, but ideas are a dime a dozen. Even a mediocre story could have been rescued by good acting.

STMP suffers from an acceptable story made infinitely worse by some incredibly bad acting.

The entire original cast seem stiff/awkward and new comer Persis Khambatta is particulary BAD. Some of the fault admittedly is due to the badly written dialog.

The only aspect of the film that merits praise is the musical score by Jerry Goldsmith. Even so, the triumphant soundtrack is not enough to save this film.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Long, a little slow but it captivated me...
Review: "Star Trek The Motion Picture" didn't exactly captivate movegoers and Trek fans alike when it was released in 1979. But you know, as a kid, for some odd reason, this film really interested me. I've seen it 300 times over the years, (well, maybe not that much but I've seen it a lot), and I really like it. The reason why I don't give it a higher rating is because I too agree that it's a little schlocky and filled with new age jumbo mumbo and mumbo jumbo. But visualy it's so impressive. The Klingon battle crusiers being "erased" and logged into memory, the Starfleet spacestations, a futuristic San Fransisco spaceport and finally the ultimate effect for me, the Cloud. I was so awed by this huge alien force filled with these multi-chambered "rooms" that it blew me away as a kid and still does. Seeing the Enterprise drift through veils of color, dark tunnels and sparkling lights was very cool. According to one individual in the film before he was killed, the Cloud was "82 astronomical units in diameter" when it was mapped as it approached Earth space. That's a big alien! Star Trek has never really been GREAT sci-fi, but I'll always have a soft spot for this movie.


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