I've been trying to delay this, but a voyage to the dark side of the franchise was already scheduled...
What does he mean "No Vulcans allowed"?Alright, I guess people on this board will have good things to say about "The Voyage Home". I know I don't. Leonard Nimoy's direction is - from a technical point of view - serviceable, but that doesn't solve the movie's biggest flaw, which it is that it is the most silly entry in the series. Yes, even sillier than "Star Trek V", but I'll et there later.
I can buy the crew of the Enterprise doing time travel, I can buy the whole "let's save the whales" angle. What I don't buy it's the entire comic tone of the adventure. The Earth is in danger, people! Let's abandon the comedic tone! It's not even funny to watch Scotty talk to an Apple II! Or to watch Bones cure chronical diseases with pills!
I'll give to Nimoy this: As unfunny as these events are (some of them are even painful to watch), the film is so briskly paced you don't get much time to complain, and the movie even picks up some steam by the climax time.
BTW, I don't know if this was intentional, but I found the whole Kirk - Amanda romance absolutely hysterical. I mean, she constantly berates him, jumps onboard the spaceship without permission, won't apologise for considering Kirk et al. nutjobs, gets a free ticket for the future... and all Kirks gets at the end is a "I'll call you". Man, she's ripped you off, canĄt you see it?
Tired of being defeated by Kirk, the Klingons retort to high seas piracy.And now, yes... it's time for "Star Trek V".
You had to direct a movie instead... you...Alright, let me say this loud and clear: As bad, even excruciating this film is, I think it's an improvement over "Star Trek IV" (ducks to doge the tomatos and diet coke cans). Thank you.
I know it's bad. The direction is so-so, the attempts at humour are even worse than in the previous movie, and the ammounts of spirituality are not well handled by the script or by Shatner. And yes, this is the film where the Enterprise crew deliver their worst acting ever. It doesn't help that the "guest star" Laurence Luckinbill overacts like he's on heavy drugs.
So what? This film at least has a decent story. The idea that God may phisically exist and may live in a distant planet is quite daring. It's the mix of ingenuity and genuine philosophical interest that made the series interesting in the first place. And the setting of Nimbus III allows for some westernish action, which is sort of refreshing. I know that all this is later poorly executed, but it certainly makes for a more interesting setup than "Star Trek IV".
If only Shatner had been aware of the lackluster scripting and his own limited skills as a director we may have something good here... but the attempts at fleshing out the Entreprisers by showing their inner pains is hinted and then completely abandoned, the cat and mouse game between the crew of the Enterprise and Shylock's men needed a more lively execution, the westernish action at Nimbus III ends up as a setup for a silly series of action scenes ruined by the rushed camerawork and phony stunt work.
Even the race to the misteryus planet is another disapointment. For all the setup we are given about how dangerous the "Great Barrier" is, it only consist of a few seconds of CGI. Huh? And this is what prevented Federation ships to explore what was beyond? And what about the spaceships the reportedly went missing in the zone?
The events on the final destination are a bit better, though. The God-like creature is well designed, and is interchanges with Shylock and Kirk do a good job at hinting its evil nature. Even the climax is OK, although Shatner's poor direcvting skills fail to extract more suspense from the situation. If only we were given more information about who the creature is and how it ended up stranded in that planet...
So all in all I have to admit it is a badly made movie, but it had a few good things going on. If only Shatner had insisted on a better script or the director's chair had been given to a more skilled director, we may have one o the best Trek films here. Instead we end up with one of the worse entries in the series.
Oh, God, made my men forget they saw Uhura's dance.