Score : 4/10
Year : 1979
Country : USA
Language : English (Klingon. Vulcan)
Duration: 2h12 (theatrical) ; 2h16 (director's cut) ; 2h23 (TV-USA)
Star Trek first movie continues the space adventures of the Enterprise crew for the first time on screen since 1968 when TOS ended. It is, by no means, a good movie. Actually, it's a quite bad one!
I'm a trekkie, and I believe the truth has to be said, with a logical and pragmatic way, and not let the emotional ''oh I love Star Trek and everything in it is great'', because it's not the case and never were. There were many duds in Star Trek original show, and there will be a few in the spinoff shows as well, but the motion picture surely takes a high seat as a very badly done feature.
There are 3 cuts, from the theatrical 132' to the longest, made for TV edition, with a total duration of 143. There are a few changes between each version : scenes and dialogues to explain what is happening, cosmetic changes, or duration. None of these edition make up for the many flaws the motion picture is cursed with :
There is absolutely no sense in the costuming ; the crew changes suits quite fast from scene to scene, when mere hours are supposed to have passed. There is no guideline in the colors to represent rank, even more so than in TOS.
The story resembles closely an episode from TOS ; yet, no one even mentions ''oh we had something like this before, maybe it's...and maybe we should try the same solution as then''. In the end, however, the same solution is indeed tried. The entire story wasn't a good idea, in spite of the different spin in the final result and ''moral of the story''.
The ''motion'' part from the title isn't really present, in the sense that almost nothing happens in the first hour!
There are just too many, very long drawn scenes with ''ship-porn'' showcasing the money spent on the Enterprise model, slowly leaving its space port, and before that even happens, there are long, slow motion scenes with a shuttle bringing Captain Kirk to the Enterprise, docking ohhhh so slowly!
The writing is crippled with bad dialogues, or lack thereof, and the director didn't even compensate, leaving actors and actresses looking high on drugs as they try to convey their awe as they discover the core of the space around them. This is a compounded issue by the editing, not filtering anything through a sieve, and thus we get a 132+ minutes movie which could've been summarized in an hour...
The scene with Kirk's spelling of the ...(no spoilers ?) is staggeringly embarrassing... perhaps more than Sulu & Uhura looking doped...
There are very few positive points to mention :
The ''picture'' part is definitely present with gorgeous views in space which must have been a real visual treat on the big screen - and the special effects were quite stunning- especially in 1979.
Jerry Goldsmith's score is beautiful, with a personality of its own, which is always a strength for any movie.
However, these positive traits don't make up, even by far, for the numerous flaws (which I didn't completely list), and one must accept that this big dud of a movie isn't good and never will, so might as well make fun of it on the rare occasions one watches it for the mere sake of completeness, such as my current project of watching Star Trek in proper chronological order.
In other circumstances, I tend to skip it, even though I ''pray at the altar of Roddenberry''.
Starring : William Shatner, Neonard Nimoy, Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Majel Barret-Roddenberry, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Grace Lee Whitney, Persis Khambatta, Stephen Collins, at al.
As a completist, I had original bought each of the movies in double dvd, limited editions here in France.
For the motion picture, the EAN is 3333973120138. It was released in 2002 and limited to region 2.
The first dvd proposes the director's cut (2h16 duration), optimized for 16/9, full screen, and divised into 32 chapters.
The sound is 5.1 dolby digital surround in English, as well as dubbed French, Italian and Spanish.
The only subtitles are French & English.
Bonus material on first dvd :
audio commentary by Robert Wise, Jerry Goldsmith, Douglas Trumbull & John Dykstra (special effects) & Stephen Collins (Will Decker).
Text commentary by Michael Okuda , covering details not mentioned in the audio commentary.
on second dvd:
- Phase II: The Lost Enterprise - A 13 minutes documentary about Star Trek: Phase II, the second live-action Trek TV series that Paramount almost produced and which gradually became the Motion Picture instead of a show. It includes interviews with Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Jon Povill, Harold Livingston, Michele Billy-Povill, and David Gautreaux.
- A Bold New Enterprise - A 30 minutes featurette giving an insight into the creation of The Motion Picture, featuring interviews with John Dykstra, Richard H. Kline, Harold Michelson, Douglas Trumbull, Todd Ramsay, Robert Wise and Richard Yuricich.
- Redirecting The Future - A 14 minutes documentary focusing on the making of the enhanced Director's Edition, and the changes between the Director's Edition and the original movie with scene-by-scene comparisons. Includes interviews with Daren Dochterman, Sherry Hitch, David C. Fein, Adam Lebowitz, Michael Matessino, Stephen W. Pugh, Lee Stringer, Ron Thornton and Robert Wise.
- Also present are a teaser trailer, a theatrical trailer, the new director's edition trailer and 8 tv commercials, as well as 5 deleted scenes from the 1979 theatrical edition, 11 deleted scenes taken from the 1983 tv-edition, promo for Star Trek enterprise.
- There are 3 storyboard archives : the planet Vulcan (15 images) ; departure of the Enterprise (30) & V'Ger (29).
The 2 dvds have interactive menus, and direct scene access for the movie.
More recently, I bought the UK ''Stardate collection'' bluray boxset (EAN 5051368245935), which includes the 10 original Star Trek movies in full 1080P HD, offering stunning image quality for each.
The motion picture in 2.35 aspect ratio in its original 2h11 theatrical edition and upgraded sound to 7.1 Dolby TrueHD (for the original english) and 5.1 Surround for the dubbed French, German & Italian, whilst Spanish is limited to ... mono.
Subtitles : 13 languages including French, and English (as well as English SDH)
Bonus :
- Commentary (in 5.1) by Michael and Denise Okuda, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Daren Dochterman
- Library Computer
- Production
- The Star Trek Universe
- Deleted Scenes
- Trailers & TV Spots
- BD-Live - Star Trek I.Q.
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