Review of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) by Jon T — 25 May 2012

After two successful sequels by Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner got a chance to direct his own STAR TREK movie. Unfortunately, the resulting film, STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER, turned out to be what is now infamously known as the worst of the STAR TREK films (I personally would argue that everything after the subsequent STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY save STAR TREK 2009 were even weaker).

I don't know whether the blame lies on Shatner (who, in all fairness, tries, but never quite seems to get a good grasp on the atmosphere of STAR TREK in the same way Nimoy did) or on the poorer production values (the special effects are obviously cheap and shabby -- ILM was unavailable to produce them -- and the editing is unforgivably choppy), but either way, this is a major disappointment after a fantastic triad of films.

It's not all bad, though; Laurence Luckinbill is well cast as the film's interesting antagonist, Spock's half-brother Sybok, and the climactic confrontation with a mysterious entity who claims to be the God of Sha-Ka-Ree is the highest point of the film.

Jerry Goldsmith's music is also top-notch. However, there are too many instances of character derailment (at one point, Scotty becomes goofy and bangs his head and Uhura does a nude dance), failed attempts at humor, and ridiculous implausibilities (how can someone like Kirk climb something as high as El Capitan without ropes?) to recommend STAR TREK V over its superior peers.