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06 August 2014

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)


If you don't want to read it all:
Score: 4/10
Verdict: It's fine but takes TOO MUCH TIME.



Yeah well... I had a chat with my cousin a few weeks ago and we both realized we don't remember most of the Star Trek movies any more. Such blasphemy for people who call themselves nerds. So I decided to re-watch them all in the upcoming weeks/months, as long as it takes. In correct order of course, since anything else would be illogical. I also want to make it clear: I have seen ALL the movies and ALL the episodes of ALL the Star Trek TV shows!


It's not easy to review a movie that was released 35 years ago, trust me. It is impossible to put yourself in a position of a person going into the cinema back in 1979 and watching a movie that might have been a real wonder of that time. Some things may have been truly magnificent back then, things that seem so normal (or even below average) in a present day. When I first watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture back in late eighties (hey, I was born just a few months after this movie premiered!) it looked great, even when compared to the ongoing The Next Generation. In 2014, it really looks like an old movie and no longer has the benefit of a jaw-dropping looks that it may have had in 1979. Again, I can't really say how this movie may have looked like to the viewers, all I can do is guess. Although... Star Wars was released 2 years before this one and it looks better. But hey, it's Lucas and it really is hard to compete with ol' George.

To the movie itself. It's a story of an unknown and devastating force that is on its way to Earth and USS Enterprise is the only starship that can get to it and investigate before it's too late. Admiral Kirk takes over the control over Enterprise, gathers his old crew and heads to the unknown to save humanity once again. You could say it is a typical story without a lot of imagination, but I liked what they found out once they got to see what was threatening Earth. 


However... ST: The Motion Picture is 130+ minutes long (duration depends on the version you get to see; there seem to be 3 of them and they are 132, 136 and 143 minutes long) and that is just too much. Honestly, it could easily have been a single 45 minutes episode and save a lot of time. There are just too many scenes where we get to see long periods of space, Kirk's travel to Enterprise on a shuttle since transporters are malfunctioning etc. The story IS more or less fine, but it's so stretched it kinda gets watered down. That is my only, but really big complaint on The Motion Picture.

I don't think I ever talked to a Trekkie about this film so I have no idea how they feel about it. Comments would be great so I could hear other opinions of a movie that restarted the whole Star Trek franchise and spawned 10+ movies and 4 TV shows (so far!).

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