Review of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) by Harry W — 08 Jul 2013

The intro of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was confusing, before the opening credits came in and I was uncertain as to what it meant and what the intentions of the characters were. But what happened was it became the worst film in the Star Trek series so far.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier does have mild benefits, namely the fact that the musical score is good and that there are occasional laughs in the story, but it's overshadowed by shoddy direction. Since Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home proved successful and entertaining at the hands of skilled direction from cast member Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner thought he could take on the same challenge. But since William Shatner is not in fact a good actor, his grip on what he should be doing is weakened and it leaks over into his role as director combined with, among other things a weak screenplay written by David Loughery leaves Star Trek V: The Final Frontier as a film that jeopardized the production of further Star Trek features.

But the worst part is the fact that this isn't even the worst feature of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. The fact is, the worst part is that on a budget of $33 Million, nearly 3 times the budget of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the makers didn't spend the money on any decent visual effects and so the visuals within the film are some of the worst since Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. The Golden Raspberry award for worst visual effects deserves to be resurrected to "honour" Star Trek V: The Final Frontier alongside its Razzies for Worst Picture, Worst Actor and Worst Director. Although I'm sure there were worse films in 1989 along with many nominations I disagreed with, Worst Visual Effects should have been brought back again for the 1989 ceremony to "honour" the terrible visual effects of the worst Star Trek film of the series so far.

More on key with the plot, the story of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is incongruent while full of confusing dynamics, baring too much similarity to the unpopular Star Trek: The Motion Picture, as well as crossing religious themes with science fiction themes in a derisively weak manner with little comprehension of either genres in a valid manner which leaves it as an unbalanced film with little to enjoy. There was also no balance between the serious and unserious tones of the film, featuring a serious, albeit stupid plot and an unserious script. Although the script is occasional entertaining, mainly with the comedic antics of Scotty, it's consistently cheesy. The lighting in the film is poor as well.

But last of all, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is too much like Star Wars in terms if locations, dynamics and sound effects to be deemed a standalone project, and essentially there is just a negative sense of nostalgia since the film is from the Star Trek franchise, one completely different to Star Wars in many ways, and this brings their similarities closer and misleads the viewer to what Star Trek is really.

So Star Trek V: The Final Frontier isn't the worst film around, but it's the worst Star Trek film so far and has the visual effects of slightly higher calibre than an Ed Wood film.