So a few months ago I gave myself a challenge. As you know I like to do articles where I take bad movies and find five good things in them. So I decided to do it with one of the biggest disappointments ever! A little movie called….
I sat myelf down and watched it. No fast forwarding or anything, actually watch it straight through. And at the end, I had nothing. There is really that little good in this movie. I mean even the damn uniforms are awful! But I had to talk about this one because last year was a big milestone (that I overlooked). This movie came out in 1979 making it 40 years old! It’s hard to believe how excited people were for this, it was the first Star Trek they had gotten in 10 years! That’s probably why people didn’t realize how awful it was at first (the same thing happened with The Phanto Menace 20 years later).
The Music
I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about Jerry Goldsmith much before. Star Trek was never known for groundbreaking music. No offense to Alexander Courage, but while there were exceptions the music for the show was never much to praise. Goldsmith turned that around by doing almost all new music for the movie. His theme for this movie would later be the theme for The Next Generations, and I still get chills at that fanfare. Of course he also did music for a few other movies as well Voyager
Ilia
One of the reasons this movie failed is because there were hardly any new characters introduced. And that would have been fine, if they had done anything interesting with the established characters! We got Xon, who was pointlessly killed off before we could even figure out who he was. Decker, who was boring as hell (is it canon that he was Matt Decker’s son?). And finally, Persis Khambatta played Ilia, the only character who was sort of interesting. It’s to bad the movie didnt do more with her (as Ilia or the probe) since there was something cool about her and would have liked to see her story explored more. Just what did she mean with that celibacy line? And yes I know it’s eplained elsewhere, thank you expanded media.
That Beauty Pass
Most of the special effects shots are intolerably slow and boring. Not helped that we had no idea what in the heck we were supposed to be looking at! But the one that gets a pass from most people is the beauty pass showing the refitted Enterprise. Yeah, a little less music and more talking may have been nice but Shatner expressesd Kirk’s feelings really well without that. Another thing to rememvber is that when this came out, all fans had seen are the shotty 60’s effects of the ship (years befire CGI enhancements) so this really was the best look a the Enterprise fans had ever scene! Why not give it a little attention? To bad the rest of the movie does it to, how can movie have action in it but still be so dull?
Getting the Band Back Together
While the movie failed to acknowledge that time had passed, it was only two tears later in universe rather than the ten years in reality, the movie did a decent job reuniting our characters. Our first shot of Kirk is awesome. Everyone is happy to see Spock when he arrives (even if he’s a jerk about it). That first time Kirk arrives on the Bridge and is greeted by everyone is one of the few good scenes in the movie. As is the later one where Kirk, Spock and McCoy have a scene together. The writing isn;t perfect but it’s close. And of course, McCoy gets his own special re-introduction as he complains he was drafted and is pissed,until Kirk explains why. Its one of the better scenes in the movie. On top of all that Chapel is also there and they even gave Janice Rand a few lines as the transporter operator. That final scene, if you make it to it, is pretty solid.I’m glad the next film fixed another fail of this one, a villain who was interesting!
What it began…
Ok this is a cheat but I got nothing else. When this movie came out it had been 10 years since anyone had seen Star Trek. Aside from the animated series which I don’t think most people really counted. I think most people know how the movie was originally going to be a new TV series. Until a little film called Star Wars made Paramount decide a feature film made more sense. After this movie premiered, suddenly Star Trek mania was back. People wanted more, which led to Star Trek II (one of the best sequels ever made), three more movies and then Star Trek:The Next Generation. That of course led to Deep Space Nine, Voyager and more movies. Not to mention the explosion of conventions and expanded media (some more official than others). So my point is, while The Motion Picture is a flawed, flawed movie you have to give it credit for getting the ball rolling that got people excited about Star Trek again. And some things did last from the movie. I already mentioned the music. Set designs were used and reused, the new Klingon make-up introduced would basically stick (with modifications over the years), Decker and Ilia’s relationship bears a striking resemblance to Riker and Troi’s, and two scripts for the aborted new series would become episodes of Star Trek-The Next Generation. It wasn’t until the JJ Abrams reboot in 2009 that Star Trek moved away from this world into a new universe. Whether that is good or bad is debatable (FYI, Picard is ok). Finally, as I said before, the movie isn’t so bad if you watch it with a fast forwad button and skip the ridiukously slow nonsense.
Agree? Disagree? Comment and let me know
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