Posted by Shawn M. on May 31st, 2007
Hello again, fellow geeks! Instead of talking about video games this time, I’d like to tackle one of the cornerstones of Geek culture: Star Trek. In this series, I’ll take a look at each Trek movie, give it a brief rundown, and share my thoughts on what works and what doesn’t in each particular film. In this post, I’ll be talking about the first two Trek movies, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan. Keep in mind that there’s a good chance spoilers will pop up in this and future installments, so if you’ve not seen the movies yet, but plan to, you might want to skip these.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Released December 7th, 1979
Directed by Robert Wise
In the very first Trek Movie, an alien presence called V’Ger is going around wrecking up the universe. The Enterprise, under the command of Captain Decker, sets out to investigate, but it’s not long until Captain Kirk takes control of the situation. They eventually make contact with V’Ger, and ultimately come to find that it’s a conglomoration of advanced technology built around the wreckage of an old Earth satellite, Voyager. Captain Decker then sacrifices his own life so that V’Ger will end its unintentional reign of destruction by logic only wizards and elves can understand.
The Good: Actually, not much. Compared to Star Wars, which was released 2 years earlier, ST:TMP looks like unfresh butt. Stephen Collins, in the role of Captain Decker, holds his own and at times is better than the actors reprising their Trek roles. Plus, this got the movie franchise rolling, so that’s gotta count for something.
The Bad: Where’s the action? Nearly every bit of this movie is spent watching the crew of the Enterprise react to the strange stuff they see while they’re flying through V’Ger. It’s a very long and boring movie — I’ve never been able to sit through a full viewing of it yet. The costumes and sets are awful, and the story is absurd. Kirk is a man of action, dammit!
Final Rating: D. It’s not a good start for Star Trek. It barely broke even at the box office, was widely panned, but somehow Paramount saw fit to greenlight a sequel — the only thing saving this turkey from getting an F.
* * * * *
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
Released June 4th, 1982
Directed by Nicholas Meyer
On a scientific mission, Pavel Chekov, formerly of the Enterprise, investigates a seemingly dead world that is showing life signs. It turns out that this world is home to the banished Khan Noonien Singh, a genetically-engineered super-human who has a history with Captain Kirk. Using his superior intellect, Khan hijacks Chekov’s ship and begins his search for the Genesis Project, a Starfleet-sponsored experiment in high-level planetary terraforming and creation. Captain Kirk receives the distress signal from the station where Project Genesis is being developed, and must save the day once again. Kirk faces down his old enemy and eventually gets the better of him by playing dirty — and discovers his adult-aged son in the process. It’s not a happy ending, though, as Spock sacrifices himself to save the Enterprise and its crew. In a moving final scene, Spock is laid to rest on the newly created Genesis Planet.
The Good: This movie is often argued as being Trek’s best, and there’s good reason. The story is top-notch, action-packed, and brilliantly acted. It’s quite possibly William Shatner’s finest performance as Kirk — he’s getting older, and he’s caught between accepting this fact and trying to run from it. Ricardo Montalban delivers a stellar performance as Khan, making the character memorable and menacing. It’s also the beginning of a trilogy that is solid and one of Trek’s better story arcs.
The Bad: Not much, thankfully. Some might say Montalban’s turn as Khan was overacted, but I think it suits the character just fine. Kirk’s enraged cry of “Khan!” has become one of the most widely parodied movie scenes in history, so much so that it takes some of the gravity away from this emotional scene. It also set the bar incredibly high for future Trek movies, a bar that the next eight never quite reach.
Final Rating: A+. It doesn’t get better than this, folks. This is a great movie to introduce non-Trekkers to.
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