Review of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) by Mark D — 19 May 2009

After the cliffhanger ending of The Wrath of Khan, I was pumped to see how the 3rd entry to the Star Trek franchise held up. Leonard Nimoy steps out of the spotlight and into the director's chair for this one, which picks up right where the last film left off and does a fine job of maintaining a strong focus on character development.

Shatner stands above and beyond the rest of the cast with his fantastic performance, bringing the same level of emotional depth to the role of Kirk as he did in the previous film. I found the plot to flow quite nicely out of the remains of the last film, and while there isn't a whole lot in terms of story, Nimoy does a good job of keeping everything grounded and exciting.

Unfortunately, there are some shortcomings, the most obvious of which is Christopher Lloyd's campy and schizophrenic performance as the evil Klingon leader, who is never truly menacing and pales in comparison to the charisma of Khan.

There are also a few moments where the film drags on unnecessarily. Overall, The Search for Spock exceeded my expectations by continuing to treat these characters seriously, and thus remains an excellent follow-up to the best of the Star Trek films.