Review of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) by Lee R — 21 Jul 2009

Its sadly very true, all odd numbered Trek movies are shit! But this effort isnt quite as terrible as the search for Spock but its not alot better. Gone though is the cheese and wobbly sets from the series as the producers obviously wanted a realistic approach to their sci-fi and decided to ride on the coat tales of Star Wars (released a couple of years previous).

The special effects are much better, betraying the shonky style of the series but the camera spends so long lingering on them that they start to become boring, (for example it takes Kirk and Scotty 4 passes of the Enterprise from inside their shuttle so the viewer gets to take in this spectacle untill it gets a bit annoying).

The pacing is also a problem, not the story itself, which I actually quite like. The whole big reveal centered around the first Voyager mission is a pretty nice touch but the film just plods along at a suicide inducing pace.

Still there are some nice performances to be had from the main cast. Thankfully The Wrath of Khan came along not long after this and saved the series because this film should have been much better than it was.