Do you agree with me that this film should have a better reputation than it does? I feel that yes, while it drags in places, it at least tries to do something new and ambitious with Trek. I love the costume design and the sets as well - it really feels like a true science fiction film. It's cerebral with a great message. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the later TOS films. But this one, and IV, are my favorites. Both films, I feel, capture the two sides of the original series the best. TMP I feel captures the philosophical subtext of many of the episodes and expands upon it - it's a sci-fi film that is also a rumination on life; The Voyage Home is a homage to the series' less serious episodes and harkens back to the more fun episodes such as The Trouble with Tribbles. While I truly enjoyed Wrath of Khan earlier in life, I know feel it is kind of a run of the mill action sci fi film. It works for what it is, but while a more accessible film than TMP, and while more serious than The Voyage Home, it doesn't feel much in common with the TV series.
Despite its bad reputation this is by far my favourite Star Trek movie. Plot is interesting, clever, I think it gives an epic touch to the Star Trek franchise. Sets look good and I do like costumes also. The views of the V'jer cloud are a real beauty. The Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack is outstanding, wonderful music, the best score Star Trek has ever had. Yes, I also feel is an underrated movie.
The theatrical cut was a bore, but Robert Wise's 2001 director's edition is a much better film even though it runs about four minutes longer; the editing and pacing is tighter, effects shots are finished, etc. It's still a flawed film but at least a noble effort to attempt something more cerebral than the myriad of Star Wars clones flying about at the time. The director's cut turns an altogether meh film into a reasonably good one. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but at least I rate them for the effort, and the fact it still looks spectacular 37 years later is a testament to the genius of Douglas Trumbull...
I personally would have like to have seen the originally planned for tv series Star Trek Phase 2, But we got TMP instead. The series would have used the original series uniforms and weapons, Along with the Enterprise that more resembled TOS ship slightly refitted. (The downside is, Leanard Nimoy would not be involved in another Star Trek series.) But Star Trek TMP is probably my favorite of the original series of movies. The story was good, the cast was still young, and we got the beautiful Persus Khambata ! I didn't like the new uniforms, but were better than the heavy millitery uniforms from Khan on up. It was great to see the original cast in a new adventure again regardless of the flaws!
Watching it again during treadmill runs this week. It seemed to work very hard at reintroducing everyone to the program: for example the extensive shots of the Enterprise at to beginning and the first warp jump, which some may see as boring. Not me. The only place where it drug for me was the long FX before the arrival at v'igr. But I was so happy to have Star Trek back I didn't mind...
I was so psyched to see this and saw one of the first showings when it was released, but found it a colossal bore. Felt like it spent 10-15 minutes slowly panning around the model of the ship. That's entertainment? Yeah, it is a much prettier model than they used on the TV show. But the TV show generally had more plot in 23 minutes than this had in 2.5 hours or whatever it was.
Sheldon Cooper: "Star Trek I is orders of magnitude worse than Star Trek V. ... [It] fails across the board -- art direction, costuming, music, sound editing."
While everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion, criticizing the music in this film is hard to fathom. Not only is Jerry Goldsmith's score the best Trek score ever, it's often acknowledged as one of the finest science fiction scores ever. Given how often it's been emulated, I'm surprised anyone would actually write that! As far as the topic itself, I would agree that it's underrated. Not every sci-fi film has to whiz by with gratuitous explosions and eye candy every couple of minutes. While it has its flaws, it's an ambitious film, and like it or not, without its success there never would have been a Trek film franchise in the first place. I agree that the later Director's Cut improved it in several ways, and wish we could get that version on Blu-ray someday!
I enjoy the film and I think it was done well enough. But it didn't fit the Star Trek "brand". It had little action compared to the normal run of S/T franchises.
It always amazed me that the Star Trek movies were the genesis of the careers of stars who were in the TV show "7th Heaven". Of course, Stephen Collins is now disgraced, but he and Catherine Hicks were pretty prominent stars of the Star Trek movies.
It's too bad that the concept of "The Borg" wasn't around when Star Trek: The Motion Picture was made. V'Ger was a product of a machine intelligence that could have been "the Borg"....
I'd say TMP is by far my favorite of the series, especially the director's cut as pointed out upthread. It's the only film in the series that felt like TOS to me (except the Decker and Ilia characters). I've always felt that in each subsequent film, the main characters became parodies of themselves and that ruined it for me. I suppose after TMP I'd say II and VI are O.K., but I really don't care for III, IV, and V at all.
I used to trot out a copy of "ST:TMP" every few years and watch it again. "It can't be as boring as I remember, can it?" Yup - it doesn't get better with repeated viewings or age. It just remains El Grande Snoozerito: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Original Motion Picture Collection) [Blu-Ray] (1979) »
I like it. A bit gratuitous with the long, slow pace of the film, but it's a really engaging plot. The only other Trek film that I like is Khan, which is more of a traditional sci-fi action flick and less like a "Star Trek for the big screen" film.
I forgot to mention and give due credit to visual effects whiz John Dykstra in the above post; his starship sequences in that film still look incredible today by any standard. What a pity he didn't stay on and finish the effects shots in David Lynch's Dune he was originally supposed to work on, it would have looked magisterial if he had...
Its my favorite of the entire series. I think it effectively captured the mystery, imagination and spirit of discovery that the original series had.
The directors cut I thought was a big improvement. Best music of any of the movies. Jerry Goldsmith did an excellent job on the score. Khan first and maybe a tie with 4.
Can you explain what changes you think helped? When I watched the DC in 2001, I wanted to find improvements, but I thought it remained as slow and turgid as ever...
