Review of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) by Liam C — 16 Jun 2014

When I first read the plot for this movie I thought it was a joke, at least to me, on paper it looks like it won't work at all and feel completely out of place, so who would've known that it would have turned out to be one of the most funniest, lighthearted, enjoyable and all around best movies, right behind Wrath of Khan, to come out of this series.

The Voyage Home completes the story arc that started in II and ends it well, with a very odd scenario. Our heroes have to go back to the 1980s to retrieve two whales... I mean, who thought of that?! It's very interesting to see everyone in a 'modern' setting, or as modern as you can be when you're coming from the 23rd century.

Being a fish out of water story of sorts it does run the risk of running into the cliches of people from the alternate time saying things that are out of place or one of the characters that the heroes befriend from the different time not believe them when they say who they really are.

But the movie so carefully either diverts from some of these or embraces them that it's just a joy to watch, seeing Kirk and Spock, especially Spock because he has just been 'reborn' as it were, interact with the 1980s San Francisco.

I found myself laughing quite a number of times during the movie uncontrollably even if a joke hadn't hadn't been told just simply because of how outlandish and strange the whole concept is. While the humor has always been a strong point in this series, the humor here takes it up a level and many of the insults Spock and Kirk dish out are very funny, I'm sure there were hundreds of takes in this movie, I don't know how anyone ever managed to keep a straight face while filming this.

The acting definitely helps elevate the humor, these are iconic characters going back in time and having a good laugh, each character has a very funny scene where they mistake one thing for another and each one works.

While the film is no doubt good I have to question what the Academy is smoking, this film received 4 Oscar nods, which is not a bad thing but one of them was for cinematography? Given the escapades of journeys prior and the excellent camera work going on there, I have to ask what they saw in this one in particular.

Most of this movie is set in a city and shows our heroes going around to try to get a couple of whales and get out of some sticky situations, as opposed to giant space battles of before, but its not like it matters.

If the next two movies hadn't have been made and the first movie hadn't either, this would have been a perfect set of films. All 3 go together so well and the fact that this one takes what the other two established and still incorporate it in some way but take a much more lighthearted spin on it all just increases the fun.

The whole ordeal feels like a final farewell movie. It feels like the final effort in an epic series where everyone is just having fun and relaxing after putting in hard work over the years, everyone still commits to their roles and dont slack off in any departments but it wraps everything up so well, with a huge sense of fun while they're doing it, that it's the final hurrah before they go into retirement.

Leonard Nimoy does an excellent job continuing the theme and style of the last movie and ends the arc in a satisfying manner, thats different from previous entries but never looses focus. Whenever I look at this poster I just get a big fat smile on my face and it makes me happy that this was made and it is now my favorite out of the classic series.

Its amazing that a series that was running this long was still able to create a good movie, even at the fourth installment, most series' go off the rails after 2. Well done, everyone.