Review of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) by Ryan W — 06 Mar 2008

Where should I begin? Well, The Search for Spock is the second in what amounted to the closest thing you could get to in a trilogy for the Trek Franchise. This film doesn't get made without Star Trek II ending the way it did.

Basically this film had a focus that was all about friendship. Friends, doing crazy stuff, to redeem a friend. The cast as usual does their usual job, but a couple other actors bear noting. Mark Lenard comes back to Trek to reprise his role as Sarek, and does a great job of it.

Lenard is really a talented actor and is a fun watch. Christopher Lloyd appears as Kruge, and does an alright job of it. Lloyd will always be more of a comedic actor, than a Klingon unfortunately, but he does bring some new insight to Klingons, and it benefits the franchise nicely.

The additions in Klingonese that are introduced in this film would establish a lot more the Klingon language in future films and episodes. The sets in this film are sub-par, especially when Lloyd is stranguling slimy creatures, and the planet is falling apart.

But the graphics are decent and do a successful job. This films biggest redeeming aspect is the introduction of the Klingon Bird-of-Prey, which becomes the standard for the rest of the films and tv series for Klingon ships.

The music was a ripoff of The Wrath of Khan and was a bit dissapointing. But the redeeming factor for the film was the focus on the friendships between the crew members, and the amount of humor that was infused into it.

Some of the quotes from the movie are fantastic. An important event in this film was the death of Kirk's son, David, which would set up a unique point of interest in films to come. On a whole, a decent addition to the Trek franchise.