Star Trek: The Motion Picture is one of my favorite examples of a movie that starts out promisingly but builds up to nothing. The premise, if nothing else, has sometimes been praised even by people who don't like Star Trek. The real trouble is, it doesn't do enough with said premise, building up to nothing. Anyhow, the good:
-The opening scene gets the movie off to a misleadingly fast start. It's ominous, and it's a trip. Plus, we get the first glimpse of the redesigned Klingons.
-The first glimpse of the Enterprise. Many people think it's such a lousy scene because it goes on a bit more than it ought to, but the first minute or so of it was the first time we ever saw the refitted Enterprise, and on the big screen.
-The transporter accident. Some of us can't help thinking it might have been prevented, but it was disturbing, sound and all. It may have even been there to try to keep the film going, but that's actually a good thing.
-The wormhole. Another Enterprise glitch that briefly jump started the movie. After that is when it gets the most boring, as the movie lumbers to a stop.
-When (SPOILER) Chekov agrees wholeheartedly not to interfere with V'Ger hacking the ship's computer. A friend of mine once said that one moment was the only good part in the whole movie. Shortly before that was when I officially got bored.
-The "Spock Walk." Most of what this movie's supposed to be about is here, though many viewers were asleep by then. Easily one of the most fascinating scenes in the film. Not sure how many people wrapped their heads around it, instead of just expecting a space battle or something.
Star Trek TMP isn't as boring as almost everyone thinks, but it is boring. The V'Ger flyover could have been edited at least a little, and Robert Wise still could have gotten the point across. Ditto for the scene with the Enterprise in drydock. It's great that the movie isn't just another shoot-em-up space cowboy movie, but it didn't have to be just the opposite. At least (or maybe at most) space operas are fun (witness the Trek reboots), though stereotypical.
The climax didn't make sense to everyone, but I understand what happened. It just wasn't powerful enough to justify sitting through the whole movie.
So all in all, I liked Star Trek: The Motion Picture in some ways, but it's hard to believe that it took so much preparation and rejected, in some cases better, scripts to end up with what we finally got. Just lucky The Wrath of Khan got things on track.
-The opening scene gets the movie off to a misleadingly fast start. It's ominous, and it's a trip. Plus, we get the first glimpse of the redesigned Klingons.
-The first glimpse of the Enterprise. Many people think it's such a lousy scene because it goes on a bit more than it ought to, but the first minute or so of it was the first time we ever saw the refitted Enterprise, and on the big screen.
-The transporter accident. Some of us can't help thinking it might have been prevented, but it was disturbing, sound and all. It may have even been there to try to keep the film going, but that's actually a good thing.
-The wormhole. Another Enterprise glitch that briefly jump started the movie. After that is when it gets the most boring, as the movie lumbers to a stop.
-When (SPOILER) Chekov agrees wholeheartedly not to interfere with V'Ger hacking the ship's computer. A friend of mine once said that one moment was the only good part in the whole movie. Shortly before that was when I officially got bored.
-The "Spock Walk." Most of what this movie's supposed to be about is here, though many viewers were asleep by then. Easily one of the most fascinating scenes in the film. Not sure how many people wrapped their heads around it, instead of just expecting a space battle or something.
Star Trek TMP isn't as boring as almost everyone thinks, but it is boring. The V'Ger flyover could have been edited at least a little, and Robert Wise still could have gotten the point across. Ditto for the scene with the Enterprise in drydock. It's great that the movie isn't just another shoot-em-up space cowboy movie, but it didn't have to be just the opposite. At least (or maybe at most) space operas are fun (witness the Trek reboots), though stereotypical.
The climax didn't make sense to everyone, but I understand what happened. It just wasn't powerful enough to justify sitting through the whole movie.
So all in all, I liked Star Trek: The Motion Picture in some ways, but it's hard to believe that it took so much preparation and rejected, in some cases better, scripts to end up with what we finally got. Just lucky The Wrath of Khan got things on track.