Star Trek: The Motion Picture

An *Opinionated Trek Film Guide* review.

Review of the first feature film with the cast of *Star Trek (The Original Series)*.

## Film information

* **Film series:** TOS era films
* **Installment no.:** 1
* **Premiere:** 7 December 1979
* *Star Trek: The Motion Picture* at StarTrek.com, the official website
* *Star Trek: The Motion Picture* at Memory Alpha, a canon *Star Trek* wiki
* *Star Trek: The Motion Picture* at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
* *Star Trek: The Motion Picture* at the Internet Movie Database

## Review information

* Review link
* Published:

## SF Debris synopsis

*Opinionated Trek Film Guide looks at Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which sets whole new records for putting nothing on screen. Kirk and company must deal with the perfect human replica clone of the alien ship, which is difficult because the perfect replica speaks like a 1980's answering machine. Plus, silly Klingons, silly space stations, and even sillier uniforms.*

## Follow-Up

### Final Score: 4

***A Story Smothered to Death by Its Own Effects***

" Paramount produced ten Star Trek films, every two or three years, before the long break until the Abrams' 11th. For that reason, each of the first ten scores is relative to the other nine, since all scores are relative to their series.

Thus, the final score for *Star Trek I: The Motion Picture* is 4 out of 10.

A plot that, when you get down to it, is more suited to a television show than a film. The massive budget is the only thing that make it seem epic. There's some definite good direction to it, the special effects are nice, the music is good and the acting is fine. But the story is simply not very strong, and the editing seems to be non-existent. I think Atreyu might need to come into this film and stop the nothing, which has filled up so much of it...

At the time, *Star Trek: The Motion Picture* was a financial success, but a critical failure, because of all that. The effects shots were brilliant, and so was the music. The problem is, there was just way too much too much devoted to both, so that it's not so much a *Star Trek* film, as an audiovisual art presentation, with *Trek* stars as the bumpers. It was caused because the original effects house produced real shit, and so they went massively over-budget, having two other special effects studios working day and night to get the film done on time, and so there was little time to edit it.

The Director's Cut does remove a lot of the problems, but not enough, and it doesn't really solve how the story, for all the depth of the concept, is fairly shallow compared to the film it was supposed to be so much like - *2001*. V'Ger achieves its goal, so the Earth is saved, Spock resolves his minor plot thread, yet Kirk's obsession with the *Enterprise* isn't resolved here and his conflict with Decker is only really resolved in that Decker disappears in the end. And with over two hours in length, it just runs too long, even with the improved editing.

Many people like the atmosphere, and I concur, it has a nice atmosphere. The problem is, it's all atmosphere, short on substance... In a way, though, this all worked to *Star Trek'*s advantage. The massive box office return ensured there's strength for a sequel. But the reaction to the film itself caused Gene Roddenberry to get kicked upstairs and out of the way. As much as we may love his ability to create universes, he wasn't a very good writer, and his vision for what *Star Trek* should be differed from what many of the fans had fallen in love with. And we're not talking about special effects stuff. It's just, he seemed to like things that differed from the fans had come to love about the original show. These things would lead to greater successes to come.

The films would be handed over to Harve Bennett. And many feel that, as blasphemous as it may sound, that was precisely what the franchise needed. That, had it remained on the same course, what happened in the mid-2000s with the franchise would have happened then, and likely spelt the end of *Trek* for good. *Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan* would build upon the financial successes of the first, to keep the franchise alive, so that Gene could eventually do *his* version of *Star Trek*, with TNG."

### Annoying Character

***"I have superpowers... well, bye !"***

"Annoying character goes to Ilia. I don't care about having sex with your hairless ass. Why wait until a doctor with pain medications shows up to cure Chekov's pain. And why coudln't you have cured my pain ?! Do you know how much I'm paid for this movie ?!"

### Lazarus of the Week

***Damn, Dirty Lazarus Mutant of the Week***

"We have our first Damn, Dirty Lazarus Mutant of the Week, also for Ilia, who dies, but comes back, because of bastardization of science... and then... possibly dies again."

## See also

* Opinionated Trek Film Guide
* Star Trek TOS movie reviews