How is this stinker rated higher than the Motion Picture?

by Richard_Chesler » Fri Jul 19 2013 13:01:26
IMDb member since March 2007
My rating
Search for Spock - 4.5/10
The Motion Picture - 7/10

I don't understand the appeal of this one. It seems to be a poorly directed character reunion with a lame story in order to undermine Wrath of Khan by bringing back Spock.

I couldn't disagree with you more. I think this movie should be at least a 7, although I personally rated it a nine. This movie is magnitudes better than The Motion Picture, the first problem of which for that movie is that they went and hired a director who knew NOTHING whatsoever about Star Trek. Great director, granted, but not for Star Trek.

Search for Spock is intriging, and is loaded with great lines. The best thing about it is that it was written and produced with what made Star Trek great in the first place -- character driven stories and keen drama.

"What is necessary is never unwise." -- Sarek.

While TMP has its moments, they are few and far between, and to top it all off it's just a rehash of a TOS episode. It doesn't offer up a new plot or improve on the old one in my opinion, the characters don't really develop all that much (in fact they seem a little out of character), it didn't break any new technical ground (though you'd think they were from the extended effects shots), etc. It's not Star Trek being Star Trek, it's Star Trek trying to cash in on Star Wars. But once they broke back into the market they were able to do their own thing, albeit to varying results. To me it's just a thrown together, "that'll do" movie that played an important role in bringing the franchise back but just isn't all that entertaining.

I'll admit, TSFS was a hard pill for me to swallow. I didn't like it the first time I saw it, and continued to skip over it for years. It's biggest weakness is the lack of Spock, or at least as we know him. But while this is sort of a hindrance, it does make for an interesting story. It probably cements the Kirk/Spock/McCoy relationship more than any other episode/film in the series. It's the focus of the movie really, how far they would go for each other. Except Spock, who proved that in the previous film. But Kirk loses everything: his ship, his rank (presumably at the time maybe even his place in Starfleet or his freedom) and his son. It's not really representative of the film/tv series, it's kind of off-beat for a Star Trek movie, but that also makes it kind of interesting.

See you guys at the 10 year prison reunion - Ben Richards

I think the Search for Spock works better when viewed as part of the II/III/IV trilogy. One it's own it's pretty mediocre. Great VFX work, but because of that the sets seemed to suffer. As big and grand as the space dock looked, the interior sets, particularly the bar McCoy goes too looks like a Space 1999 reject.

There just isn't enough story to justify this as a standalone entry.

The first is a very nice-looking film with some top-notch effects, but it lacks an actual story and obviously tries to cover this problem by featuring progressively longer effects shots. The 70's jumpsuits make my eyes bleed regardless.

III has a few of the best lines in the series. "It's his revenge for all those arguments he lost" was a hoot. The characters get a little more depth added because we get to see them out of their element for a change (without getting all preachy as IV does). This is the same aspect that works for the NG cast in First Contact (and again fails in Insurrection, because it gets preachy there too).

HA!

Stinker my buttocks! This is the 2nd best Trek movie, after Wrath of Khan!!

TMP has scenes of people looking at things ("Oh look the Enterprise", "Oh look an alien spaceship"). It has some bad science.

III has action. It has lots of bad science.

On balance, III wins.

http://nostalgiarush.blogspot.com/2016/06/five-things-i-hated-in-star-trek-iii.html