Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

'Star Trek: Beyond' is now in theaters, but before I go and see the new crew, I thought I would check in with the old crew...which also happens to be the same crew...moving on...

'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' was released in 1979 to enormous fanfare and love. The original television series had by then been off the air and syndicated, leaving many fans of the show with no new material or new stories for almost a decade. Then the film came out and now...it's looked upon with very little praise or love and I'm sad to say you're not going to hear much love from me either, so I guess if you're bummed about that I guess you could wait for my 'Beyond' review...

Anyway, no more joking I promise (for now) the painful truth is 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' is just not a good movie, watchable sure but nowhere near good. Remember when I said people were waiting almost ten years for a new story? You don't get it with this movie. The film rehashes an episode from the television series 'The Changeling' which features a space probe from long ago being discovered and causing danger to the Enterprise crew. The film not only copies this, but other and better science fiction films of the time as well such as '2001: A Space Odyssey', 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind', and even some of 'Alien' which just leaves you feeling sour the entire time you're sitting in the theater chair.

 

Even when the film takes scenes from these better films, Director Robert Wise and crew manage to make them a bore to watch. It feels longer and longer the more you watch, stretching the film into what seems like four hours wasted (I don't think it was that long). Now, after all my griping I don't completely hate the film and I have seen far worse than this but I mostly wanted to get all of that negativity/nitpicking out of the way first. The film is very visually stunning like you would expect of a 'Star Trek' film, the characters are all still great as always and are nice to see come back after their television debut. The special effects, while clearly dated are still the highlight of the film with the picture above being my personal favorite shot in the whole thing.

Is there anything really new that the film adds to it? Sure, they add on the usual extra characters and subplots you've come to expect in 'Star Trek' by now but neither addition is really worthwhile or interesting to pursue further in this review sorry to say. I saw that there is a 'Director's Cut' of the movie and this is likely the only edition of it left on Home Video since the producers were pretty bummed about the turnout at the box office. I saw both cuts and really I found no sigificant difference other than some better character development that doesn't save it from being rather boring (Batman V. Superman Extended Cut rings a bell here...).

 

Could you do worse than 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'? Of course you can, but even the most die-hard fans can't prove to me or convince me that this movie isn't mediocre, tedious, and boring to sit through and I had to do it twice with both editions to do this review. You should just skip to 'Wrath of Khan' instead and be sure to see the new 'Beyond' in theaters tomorrow.

D