Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

An Exercise In Nonsense

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I'm a more recent Star Trek fan and have recently moved onto the movies. I have to say, this one was a bigger disappointment to Star Trek I for me. After the how brilliant 'The Wrath of Khan' was, I was hoping Star Trek III would be a worthy follow up, but even the title seemed a little unimaginative now I look at it. The story takes forever building up, has some great moments during that, for example, the Klingons are brilliant but it just lacks some imagination much like how 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' often felt. It's like the franchise took one huge step forward, Star Trek II was an exciting film but still about morality at the end of the day, but this film offers none of it.

I loved the TV series. I was a child when it ran in the Sixties. Then, as I grew up in the Seventies, they invented UHF stations that ran "old" series in syndication, and Star Trek was on every day. So I was delighted that, in the Eighties, as a young adult, it came back, via the movie screen. Some of the space effects in this film were excellent, even viewed now. Some, like the planetscapes the characters trod and fought through, not so much. In the inevitable comparisons, this film is not as good as II and IV. But, as these three films were a serial in a way, the events of all three combined taking place in the space of a few weeks, one must see it with the others. Don't get me wrong, it isn't bad, but it may suffer a bit by comparison. (I've never seen any of the other Star Trek series or the movies based on them, so I cannot compare this to them)

Never seen the Stat Trek franchise and heard so many negative things about it I must say that I was again surprised by the outstanding effects that are still working today. Directed by Leonard Nimoy (Spock) himself I must say that he did a great job.The story starts exactly where part 2 ended so you must have seen part 2 to understand it all even as it starts with the last 5 minutes of that particular part. Where as part 2 (The Wrath Of Kahn) did had a lot of action here we do have more of a psychical story. There isn't that much action going on but when the enemy shows up it do works out fine. The effects of the dog is well done. Pure latex but still it works.Maybe the only negative thing is the fact that it is sometimes a bit too long on parts but not as boring as the original movie had. Worth seeing and even as I, not a Trekkie, I did like it even as I had my doubts about the acting of William Shatner (Kirk)Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

It feels a little strange to say, but this film may be worse than the first Star Trek movie. At least the first film was creative and slightly intriguing, even if it did not translate to the big screen. But The Search for Spock contained little mystery, a prolonged and obvious outcome, and continued the same flawed subplot (and basically the only negative aspect of) The Wrath of Khan, that being the Genesis Project. This unlikely Federation project was at least a bit on the afterburner in the previous film, compared to Khan's quest for vengeance against Kirk. Now it's the main story as it gives Spock his rebirth, but this time there is hardly any thought to the moral dilemma of the project.There are some positives in this film; I don't think it is a disaster. It was nice to see the rest of the crew given a little more of the spotlight, such as Uhura putting the young Federation member in his place (then she disappearing for basically the rest of the film…) and Sulu taking out the Federation MP's (his hand-to-hand combat is much more believable than Kirk's; more on that in a bit). Also, while it is a little strange to see Christopher Lloyd as a Klingon, he made the character sinister and interesting.But my main criticism with Search for Spock is that we always know Spock will return, and the child version of the character is found early on. The film could have been so much better if the Spock regeneration was settled during the first or second act, then we can move on to a new Star Trek adventure with the crew back together. There is a sense with this film, especially since it was directed by Leonard Nimoy himself, that Kirk got his movie with Wrath of Khan, now let's explore more about Spock's nature throughout this entire film. But it all just comes across as a lackluster, immediate follow-up to the previous installment. With Wrath of Khan, it felt like a reboot to the franchise, not a sequel. But this film exemplified exactly what most of us don't like about sequels: trying to wrap- up loose ends from the last film and taking it up a notch from there, but failing.Final thoughts: Please, no more hand-to-hand combat from Kirk, it doesn't work anymore. The character plays so much better as a captain outwitting the enemy, as he does with the destruction of the Enterprise. And are you serious with that Ponfar scene? I know Kirstie Alley said she didn't want to be typecast, so she chose not to continue her role as Saavik, but I have to think that this scene with post-adolescent Spock had to really push her over the edge. Plus, do we really think that these characters who are pushing 50 could walk up all of those steps on Vulcan carrying a comatose Spock? Scotty must have been freaking out. And what is Bones regular "poison"? Gotta be Romulan ale.*My film rating follows the soccer player rating measure of 6 as a baseline: you did what was expected of you. This film is a 4 because it fails to intrigue and shows essentially nothing new. It is simply a sequel trying to continue the excitement of its predecessor, but utterly failing.