Review of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) by Amybenevento — 09 Dec 2022

Some viewers say that this movie is boring with its endless panning of the ship and other scenes. I agree that scenes are way too long, but I did not find the movie boring. However, I would like to edit out about 30% of the movie. There are too many long pauses between dialogue, and the camera drags along a scene way too long.

While I prefer movies that are too slow (this one) than too fast ("action–action–action" millennial movies), this was the slowest movie I ever saw in my life. I could leave the movie and go to the bathroom, and when I came back, the screen was still showing the same thing. Heck, I could take a shower… go shopping… take a weekend trip, and still, same frame.

The movie left me cold. Something didn’t work right with the characters. It was like they were all constipated and uptight. Kirk lacked his typical backbone and seemed confused throughout the show. He didn’t take command. They didn’t show how awesome he was as a Captain.

What I *did* like was how they introduced the cast, one at a time. They showed what each character was like during the 5-year lapse before they each re-enetered Starfleet. For example, when asked, “What are you going to do now?”, Kirk responded “I’m just going to go home.” He seemed defeated.

Spock was first shown with long hair on Vulcan, entered the Enterprise with a haircut, but still wearing his Vulcan attire, a black cape.

Bones came on with a full beard and civilian clothes, well dressed.

Scotty unfortunately grew a mustache.

I didn’t understand Spock's yo-yoing. When he was a young adult, he was more emotional (with Uhura as his girlfriend). During the Original Series, Spock was, well… the Spock we all know. Then, in “The Motion Picture”, he’s emotionless, even after he refused the “Be Emotional-less and only Logical” ritual on Vulcan. In the later movies when he got older, he was much more emotional. When he’s an old man and visits his younger self, he made peace with his human side, and even embraced it. However, in this movie, Spock was funny when he finally was his old self and said to McCoy, “As typical, your ramblings are insignificant” after McCoy insulted him.

McCoy was the only character who was himself. Maybe Scotty was too.

When they showed the ship’s red alerts, I was surprised it was now in English. In the original series, it was just a red light, which I would think is more advanced than English in a multi-cultured and diverse crew… and not just multi-cultured or multi-global, but multi-galaxy-ed! English, really?

The transporter malfunction was an intense scene. The sound of the screams were well done, very creepy. Cool how the visual was left to imagination, similar to the awesome effects that Hitchcock used to do. Now days, they would show it—a glob of flesh and blood melted in a pool on the transporter floor. I did like when they revealed that “V-ger” was Voyager. When Kirk rubbed the dust off the “ova” in the word VOYAGER that was on the 1977 ship, that was cool. It reminded me of the scene in PLANET OF THE APES when it was revealed they were in a NYC subway.