Rating: 
Summary: Star Trek - The Motion Picture: One Man's View
Review: This movie is producer Gene Roddenberry's vision of what Star Trek and the future ought to be. It is not unfortunately, the Star Trek that fans and movie goers want. Roddenberry paints a cool, streamlined landscape of an idyllic computer assisted life, albeit one in which mankind is still driven to explore the unknown and face the hazards of deep space. Perhaps confronted by the challenge of presenting his story in a feature length format, Roddenberry conceived a monumental storyline in which Earth is directly confronted, thereby elevating the status of his heroes. Ironically,because their adversary is so powerful, the crew is forced to retreat in front of it throughout the film. As would be expected from Mr. Roddenberry, the threat is eliminated not by force (not one phaser is fired in the entire movie), but by reason, deduction, and in the finale, by sacrifice. The characters are largely confined to the bridge of the Enterprise, resulting in a motion picture that is more talk than action. Interestingly, the actors were restrained, playing their roles far more seriously than they ever did on TV. Given the some of the cast's abilities to overact (which may be forgiven considering the material they had to work with), this may be viewed as an advantage. Despite these constrictions, the film opened up Roddenberry's TV Star Trek universe by introducing new technology, space stations, and space craft, all wonderfully portrayed in vivid detail. The accompanying music by Jerry Goldsmith, though loud and ponderous at times, is to be greatly admired. There is a fine storyline underlying the main theme regarding Mr. Spock's understanding of the roles of logic and emotion in his life. Star Trek - TMP appears to be one man's best effort to show off his creativity. To his credit he produced something far different from Star Wars with its simpler and shallower story. However, Roddenberry failed as he did with his Star Trek TV pilot "The Cage,"to tone his ideas down to the majority of movie goers who seem to value action over ideas.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as bad as everyone says
Review: OK, we Trekkers know all the knocks against this movie by heart. Dull sets, wooden dialogue, bloated budget, costumes that show off Stephen Collins' 'package', too many shots of the Enterprise, etc, etc... But what about the GOOD features of this film? First, it's amazing how much the actors - save Nimoy - feel at ease with one another. DeForrest Kelley, in particular, is a delight to watch. Too bad he wasn't in more scenes. And the visual effects, particularly VGER, are outstanding. To this day, VGER is entirely convincing, and an amazingly well-executed "alien" ship. And the movie does succeed in a way - as a kind of revisionist 2001 exercise. And it DID bring Trek back. For that we can say...huzzah.
Rating: 
Summary: The Worst Trek Movie
Review: This film has 2 things going for it: (1) Shatner is in better shape than he ever was or ever would be again and (2) the film features an attractive bald alien woman (perhaps related to Picard) wearing a short dress that makes Uhuru's miniskirt look downright modest. Otherwise the film stinks. The Enterprise bridge is white, like an operating room. Ugh. Where'd those nice colors go? The arms of the Captain's chair close in on him during battles to protect him, making him look like a wimp, and the plot, did I mention the plot? Here's spoiler so don't read it if you care. The voyager space craft has gathered all sorts of extra parts during its voyage and become very intelligent, but despite its great intelligence it thinks its name is "v'ger". You want to know why? Because soot on the outside of the Voyager satellite covers up some of the letters in its name! Apparently, V'ger only knows its name from reading the print on its hull! Do plots get more stupid than this? Thankfully, no they do not, and every subsequent Trek film is better than this.
Rating:
Summary: What, no 0?
Review: I mean it, I give this film a zero. It's dull, it's silly, it's meaningles, it's long and it's boring. The biggest film of 1979? Better off watching Time After Time. The film goes nowhere fast and ends with some of TOS dialog, but it's to little to late. I don't care what people say about the Final Frontier, this movie is worse. For non-Trek fans, skip this one and start with The Wrath of Khan, the greatest Trek film ever.
Rating:
Summary: This isn't Star Trek
Review: Captain Kirk gets back control of the Enterprise and goes to investigate a mysterious cloud making its way towards Earth. Though this film stars all the crew from the original '60s series, it is more akin to an Arthur C.Clarke film than Star Trek. Okay, so it might please fans of 2001, but as somebody who enjoyed the original Star Trek series I was bored rigid. The special effects are faultless, true, and there is a superbly ominous soundtrack, but nothing much actually happens for most of the film. And some of the dialogue is pretty silly - "It disappeared down what they used to call a black hole". Who talks like that? Fans of special effects or 2001-type science-fiction might enjoy this, but fans of the Star Trek series would be better off watching 'Wrath of Khan' onwards.
Rating: 
Summary: Rediscovering the widescreen version
Review: I've always been a fan of Star Trek and have found the feature films to be a mixed bag of goods. However, the first film has always had a special place in my heart and I've recently rediscovered it's many virtues when I recently purchased the widescreen version. I've owned the pan and scan version of the first feature for many years and enjoyed it a great deal. The extra footage that ABC cut back into the film helped in spots but in others, the additions were superfluous. I decided to purchase the widescreen version of the ST:TMP a couple of weeks ago and was astonished by what I've been missing for twenty years! The current pan and scan version is based on the ABC broadcast version and the print is soft and the colors are extremely dull. The widescreen version is sharper but more importantly, the colors are much deeper and more beautiful. Anyone who has seen the film knows how monochromatic the color scheme is but at least the widescreen version has much deeper hues and tones. Plus you can see how interesting the framing of each and every shot is. It feels very much like the epic film they set out to make. The widescreen version is the same version that was released in the theatres and does not include the additional scenes that ABC cut back in. Looking at the film in it's original format and in a bright new print made me look at the film in a objective light once more. Certainly both versions could have done without the five minute fly-around of the Enterprise and without the overly long voyage through V'Ger but I have a newfound appreciation for this wonderful film. It makes me want to go get the widescreen versions of the other films too.
Rating:
Summary: A dull plodder.
Review: Astonished humans watch as three Klingon battle cruisers are destroyed in a huge cloud which is on a direct course to Earth. And so James T.Kirk and crew are sent to deal with the threat. Unfortunately, for most of this film very little happens. It seems to be aimed more at '2001' fans than 'Star Trek' fans. The characters are rarely allowed to show character and some of the dialogue is pretty stupid ('it disappeared down what they used to call a black hole'). Who exactly talks like that? Good special effects and a wonderfully atmospheric score save this film from being a one-star. Thank goodness the makers of Star Trek 2 onwards knew what the series was supposed to be about.
Rating:
Summary: I wanted it to be good. Dear God, I wanted it to be good...
Review: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... The STAR WARS phenomena took off in 1977. At that time, STAR TREK: PHASE II was in early design for the television return of the Starship Enterprise. Welp, STAR WARS was the biggest movie of all time at that time, and the powers at Paramount Pictures decided that STAR TREK would be a movie. What no one remembered was what WAS STAR TREK? In the 1960s, STAR TREK was the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. It was the expanding of the human knowledge and wisdom, and it was a mirror on our society. STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE is none of this. We're treated to so many beauty shots of the newly re-fitted Enterprise, that there are actually whole passages where you can go buy popcorn and not miss anything. STAR TREK in the 60s was also action-adventure. This movie is sssssslllllllloooooowwwwwwww, about 45 minutes too long. Luckily, there are more STAR TREK incarnations to watch that are much better.
Rating:
Summary: BIG BUDGET+STAR TREK=mediocrity
Review: Being a fan of Star Trek,I've seen TMP when it was first released.The thrill to see my heroes Kirk,Spock,& Bones was a joy in itself.I guess after 20 years,repeated viewing,eight more movies & the newer shows,I started to realise what a bore this film is.I think the producers wanted to compete with Star Wars in terms of special effects & budget.And like all effects laden films the script gets diluted.The whole V'ger revalation may've looked good on paper,but we have to go through a long drawn out build up that makes you feel it should've been a better 90 minute movie,let alone an episode.Star Trek has always been about the story &the characters.I think the chemestry between the crew, a little rusty since its been a decade since they've acted together,is always a saving grace.Star Trek from the git-go has always worked on a low budget. From the Classic series on down. TMP should've been an example to the Berman-era movies(especially Insurrection),big budget never equals better movies.
Rating:
Summary: Effects are good but it gets real slow at times
Review: Star Trek-The Motion Picture is a pretty good movie but at the beginning they waste a lot of time showing off the new Enterprise.When I watched this movie I got a headache when they showed the interior of VGER.For you who haven't seen the film and don't know who VGER is VGER is actually Voyager 6.The story is that VGER(Voyager 6)was lost when it was sucked into a black hole and came out at the other end of the galaxy where a planet of living machines think he is one of their own kind yet primitive.The living machines find out that VGERs programming is to collect information and send it back to earth.They equip VGER with hi-tech technology and send him to find his creator or something like that.VGER collects so much information that he becomes a living being,he is curious and go's searching for his creator.I think it go's something like that but I find it hard to understand at times.If you want to see an exciting Star Trek movie though this is not the one.I think Star Trek II THe Wrath of Khan is a far greater movie.
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