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

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

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $14.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A Nice Try
Review: Over all I was disappointed with this Director's Cut of the film. While the remixing of the soundtrack was an imporvement (the addition of the classic bridge sounds was an especally nice touch), I found it un-necessary to edit or "shorten" any of the scenes from the 1979 theatrical release, and the story once again suffers from the lack of plot explanation scenes from the 1983 television version. Further the replacement in the soundtrack of several background effects (the original computer warning "red alert" system is replaced with the serine from the original series) is awkward at best. While the new special effects shots were a nice touch they add little to the overall feel of the film. I still find I enjoy the 1983 "Special Edition" (yes, even with the scene of Kirk on the set) best. My ratting: A for intentions but a C for overall effect.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow be sure to get this one
Review: This is a must have DVD, the added scenes and new effects are so seamless and flow so well you will think it was like that from the very begininng at the cinema. But the documentaries show
how they improved it, and it does make a difference. The only complaint I have is that the interviews consist of recent interviews with William Shatner, Stephen Collins, Walter Koenig, Majel Barret, XON (forget the actors name), no other members of the cast were interviewed. WHY wasn't all the hours and hours of interviews that Paramount must have from Entertainment Tonight not featured on the discs also?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Decent Star Trek Film Transformed Into Classic SF Cinema
Review: I salute Robert Wise for having the courage and determination to transform "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" into one of the finest science fiction films made in the latter half of the 20th Century. More than any of the subsequent films in the series, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" has an epic, grand quality to it. Furthermore, it is the only film which truly pays homage to Gene Roddenberry's optimistic vision of humanity's future. Wise does a a splendid job editing the film so the pace is quickened; yet it does suffer slightly from some of the wooden dialogue said by the likes of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. However, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley do a fine job portraying these three principal characters. Yet I must also commend both Nichelle Nichols and James Doohan for their acting. Both Stephen Collins and Persis Khambatta are excellent respectively as Captain Decker and Lieutenant Ilia. The special effects are a vast improvement over both the original theatrical and television releases; they strongly emphasize the alien nature of V'Ger and its immense cloud of energy. Jerry Goldsmith's exceptional score is now the soundtrack to a splendid film.

Other director's cuts have had theatrical releases too. I earnestly hope Paramount Pictures shall follow suit and release "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" soon. As much as I enjoyed watching the DVD, I realized that this a film which ought to be seen in film theaters across the globe. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" should now be regarded as one of Robert Wise's finest cinematic achievements.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Buy this DVD
Review: This is the digitally remastered Star Trek: The Motion Picture. There is so much in here !!! Besides everything looking better because they redid the film and the effects look awesome. But whats really great is the deleted scenes and all the bonus material. Its great !! Start your Star Trek collection off with this or even if you own it....throw the old copy away and pick this up !!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Director's Edition and a Excellent DVD
Review: Star Trek: The Motion Picture I have to admit was a good film but it really took things too slowly, slow devloping plot, slow developing characters, and more dialouge bore. There was some good things about it had a good story, great SFX (they would use better ones in later films), and solid acting. I have the T.V. version which runs a 143mins which great but still was slow. So now Paramount has released a 2 disc edition which i got on my birthday and also i got a 60watt Subwoofer. So after i got all that plugged I got ready to pop open the case and stick the DVD in. I was quite amazed of how it was done the picture was good but could better. The 5.1 Surround was really marvelous its been remixed and sounds different. I enjoyed the commentaries Robert Wise was very informal about that movie. I was surprised that i heard it never got a test screening because they were still trying to finish the film so they barely made it and I understand how much work they had to go through because they didn't get the visual effects they wanted and now thanks to Paramount we get to see them. The new effects shot are quite excellent my favorite is the wormhole and the new exterior shot of V'ger's ship and also exploding at the end. I think new effects really do help out because they add to the atmosphere of the movie and helped out some of the scenes that didn't quite made sense. Overall its a good Director's Edition movie and Excellent DVD. Below is the ratings of both the movie and DVD

Movie Ratings:
1979 Version: *** of *****
1983 T.V. Version: ***1/2 of *****
2001 Director's Edition: **** of *****
DVD Rating
Picture Quality: 2.35:1 Widescreen Anamorphic 4 of 5
Sound Quality: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround 4.5 of 5

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bitter regret over the road not taken...
Review: I must confess that, like many other Star Trek fans, I would've placed this film on the bottom of my list. When I heard about this "Director's Cut" version I was a little suspicious. How could a film so ponderous be better edited so as to improve it? To my surprise, this motion picture has been given a radical overhaul - not just with brand-new special effects, but also with better pacing and editing.

The special effects have definitely been updated - although it's difficult to tell since the new sequences have been given the same grainy, visual quality of the old film. One sequence that comes to mind is the first full shot of the outside of the Ve'jur spacecraft. We really get a sense of the massive size of the creature, and just how much of a threat it really poses.

The acting is still a bit too wooden for my taste. However, the faster pacing of the Director's cut turns what was once bearable into something that's actually enjoyable to watch. I now understand a little better what approach Wise was trying to take with his characters.

The only criticism I have is with the extras. The documentaries are more of a PR exercise for Paramount Pictures than anything else. When the commentator starts discussing "the Star Trek franchise", you know you're onto a bad thing. The commentary is also not very good - it's obvious that Robert Wise was reading from cue-cards, and that none of the commentators were in the same studio together...in fact, you wonder whether they're actually watching the film at all.

Still...despite the dearth of "quality" extras, the movie itself is definitely the main attraction. In the end, I enjoyed Robert Wise's more mature take on Star Trek. There's a sense of grand, epic adventure that's definitely missing from today's current incarnation. You can only sigh with nostalgia for what might've been.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This DVD saves the film
Review: I've seen this movie several times on TV and i never thought of it as being one of the better trek films, but the new director's cut DVD version has raised the status of this film in my eyes. The new effects added to the feature are designed to look spectacular but also to look like they could have been produced during the time of the original production. The new visuals, along with a snappier cut of the original footage, give this film the grand cosmic scale it should have had from the start.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Poor print...
Review: I love the movie but is there something wrong with Robert Wise's glasses? This 40 million dollard movie is full of speckes and scratches all along. The restored scenes are fine the sound is very good, but the rest looks like an old "BETA" print!! I also wonder why the Klingon battle music theme was cut at the beginning?? The score is one of the most beautiful score ever written for a movie, why cut it? Most of the scenes that were added for the TV version are cut. Weren't those scenes requested by the fans at that time? I would have liked both versions on the same DVD. Look at Fox's ABYSS and ID4, and what about the French track?? I guess I was expecting too much! I'm very disappointed and Paramount's DVD's are still too expensive.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Star Trek: More Garbage
Review: Why does Star Trek even exist? Many people claim it as a life, but if you need this tripe for a life, you don't really deserve whatever satisfaction you get from watching movies this bad. This movie never goes anywhere. The approximate running time feels about 5 days. There are only interminable plot machinations intermingled with simple special effects. Melies could have done better with the effects. Even for people like Trekkies, this movie is a stretch. I say that even with an incredibly low regard for Trekkies. This movie has taken hours of my life that I can never have back. For that I say, damn you and your girdle Shatner.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, but could have been better
Review: One would think that, given some 20 odd years to work on it that when they decided to issue a director's edition they would make certain that they had all of their ducks in a row before releasing it.

Yes, the new special effects are superb. Yes, unnecessary elements have been removed. However, most of the original backgroud sound effects, voice overs, etc. have also been removed. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, in several instances it was a bad move.

Two scenes in particular stand out for this reason: each of them was better with the original voice overs simply because they contained key information that is important to the plot. In one instance, Kirk asks a question; in the original version, he receives a voice over reply to his question, in the new version he is apparently being ignored. Another example is a scene in which the original features a voice over informing Kirk of a ship appraoching. In the new version, Kirk is apparently responding to nothing at all and Uhura is referencing something that the viewer would not know about unless they had seen the original.

All in all, B+. Good, but could have been better...


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