This one is going to be tough.
Nevertheless I intend to take a good old crack at it, because I am
forced to admit that I have a serious soft spot for this movie. I
can't remember when exactly I first watched it, but probably
somewhere around 1989 or so, definitely after I first watched Wrath
of Khan; though I was young enough that the two probably didn't
register in my mind as being part of the same franchise – certainly
the films have a very different look and feel about them.
I'll start with the elephant in the
room and then fight my way back up from it. The Motion Picture is
boring. It is part of the received fanbase wisdom, and for once there
is a significant amount of truth to it. Paramount took a look at the
success of films such as Star Wars and Close Encounters, and decided
to make a film harkening back to 2001. Half an hour could certainly
have been cut from this movie without affecting the plot
significantly at all; the director admitted that a lot of the effects
sequences were just dropped into the movie whole without proper
trimming – not his fault, he didn't have the time before the
studio-imposed release date. The film is slow, it drags, and there
are an awful lot of shots of actors looking out of the screen in
amazement.
And yet...and yet...those effects shots
are all worth the price of admission by themselves. (Heck, if there's
one Star Trek movie you are going to buy on Blu-Ray, it really needs
to be this one.) That shot of Admiral Kirk flying towards the
refitted Enterprise for the first time is a love letter to the most
iconic spaceship in movie or television history. Perfectly executed,
perfectly shot, and Shatner does his job magnificently well. (We're
at what in my opinion is the height of his acting career here –
Treks I through III. We'll get to 'why I think Star Trek III is the
best Star Trek movie' soon.) The shot when the ship leaves Spacedock,
also great. These were technical triumphs in their day, but that's
not what makes them great. What
makes them work is that they look real, that the shots are well
chosen, perfectly poised, and perfectly paced. (Someone needs to do
an 'effects only' version of this movie.)
The
actors...well, mixed here. I'm going to focus on four here – not
that I don't have a high regard for the other ones, but Takei,
Koenig, Doohan, Nichols et al don't really get anything much to do
but sit at their consoles. Understandable, if unfortunate – there
is only so much time on screen. (Read Chekov's Enterprise if you want
a picture of what this movie was like from the trenches. Hell, read
it anyway, it's a good book, and Koenig's work is worth the price of
admission.)
Taking
them in order – we'd best start with Shatner, I suppose. He's got a
rather thankless role here for the first half of the movie at least,
because he is portraying a Kirk whose love for the Enterprise is that
of a stalker for his target. Frankly, it's downright scary at times,
and it really doesn't synch in with Kirk's usual attitude. Yes, he
wants command, he revels in it, and it bitterly regrets giving it up
– but this is too far. Fortunately, by about the middle of the
movie – after the rather contrived 'asteroid in the wormhole'
moment, this is pretty much forgotten and we're back to business as
usual, which is Kirk as Commander. His biggest role in the plot is
over by this point, and he can concentrate on a good, solid
performance.
Thank
Christ Nimoy agreed to come back. Originally he wasn't going to make
the movie; if he hadn't, we'd have been in serious trouble, because
he is bringing the humanity to the piece. Never mind that he is
playing an alien, he gives the connection with the V'Ger probe that
the rest of the movie sorely lacks; that this was a
Shatner/Nimoy-conceived moment is somehow not surprising. His
transformation from uber-Vulcan to taking the best from both sides of
his heritage, and accepting that his humanity is an important part of
him is perhaps a little rushed, but that's an artifice of this being
in a movie rather than a show. (Imagine if Phase II had happened, and
this had been a season-long character arc. That would have been worth
watching.)
DeForest
Kelley was always a good, solid actor, and here he has a very
important job; he has to play the straight man to both Shatner and
Nimoy. He has to be the one to bring Shatner back down to Earth and
end Kirk's slightly psychopathic desire for command, and he has to
support Spock's role as well. Usually Star Trek focuses on two
relationships: Kirk/Spock and Spock/McCoy, and this is definitely
truest of the movies. In this
one I would argue that it is really Kirk/McCoy – something that we
saw far more in the series than we did in the movies – that comes
to the fore.
Finally
– Stephen Collins, Commander Decker. We're all aware that this is
Riker Mark I, and what is missing is, well, character. He accedes to
Kirk's command of the Enterprise with only mild petulance,
essentially shrugging his shoulders and getting on with his job, and
faced with the loss of the love of his life, Dea...Ilia, again, there
just isn't much in the way of emotion there. I suppose what I'm going
to say is...that this is really a non-character. I suspect the script
just didn't give him that much to work with, and faced with Kirk in
full 'MY SHIP, MINE!!!' mode, he was always going to have problems. A
script that should feature him doesn't, largely because he isn't one
of the key characters of the series. He's a guest star, and not who
the fans have come here to see. (Want something bigger – give the
'Decker' role, lost love and all, to one of the supporting
characters. Give it to Sulu, or Chekov, or Scotty. Even if it means
losing that character at the end of the movie, it would have given it
a hell of a lot more drama and a great end for that character that we
would actually care about.)
I have
a feeling that I'm going to be doing all the Star Trek movies at some
point, aren't I. Which probably means rewatching Nemesis. So, that
being the case, lets start some sort of ranking. Given that I have
only done a single one at this point, the current scoring is pretty
obvious:
1:
Star Trek I
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