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DVD : Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) |
- Now this is what Star Trek should be...In a way this was the end of a great story arc. Much like Return of the Jedi ends a trilogy, Star Trek Part IV ends a trilogy of sorts that started in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. And boy does it end it in style and brilliance.
Our favorite Star Trek officers lead by Admiral James T Kirk, Captain Spock and Dr. McCoy have to face a pending court marshal for their stealing of and destruction of the Enterprise when we last left them. On route back to Earth with the crew in a borrowed Klingon warship, they are alerted to a problem that the blue planet is facing. A strange alien probe approaches Earth sending out weird sounds as if it is awaiting an answer to something. The probe has energy draining effects making all starships and space stations powerless as the probe orbits the planet. Our favorite Starfleet crew figure out that it is the sound of a humpback whale that the probe is looking for and unfortunatly for 23rd Century Earth, the whales are long extinct. Meaning the planet will be too if they don't find a way to get the whales to answer the probes calls.
Kirk and crew decide that it is up to them to retrieve whales from Earth's past in the hopes to save their present. They slingshot around the Sun and wind up back in 1986 Earth and have a limited amount of time to bring back a pair of whales, fix the power crystals that power the Klingon ship and even rescue one of their own who gets captured while they are sneaking around.
This movie is a real joy to watch everytime. Probably one of the best films ever made that has the Star Trek title attached to it. The film is very light hearted and very humorous, taking a drastic change from Part III before it. There are many classic moments found and as time moves past the 80's this film just seems more and more nostalgic and creative.
Moments like Spock dealing with a punk listening to loud music and using the neck pinch to knock him out cold. The crew dealing with the curse words that people spoke with in the 80's. McCoy in a modern day hospital dealing with the primative medicine techniques that people of the 80's did compared to his knowledge. And on and on.. there is no slow moments found in this film. Some of the other Star Trek films have moments that come to a crawl or just seemed to be silly and ridiculous at best. Every moment of this movie comes off as either, creative, funny or enjoyable.
The best part of this movie is the fact that any person can jump right into it and follow along. Even those who aren't into Star Trek can watch this movie and see it as just a time travel story dealing with some future space explorers dealing with an 80's society. And those who are into Star Trek will love how the characters were used in this movie as all of them finally get moments to shine, where as in the past it was mostly about Kirk or Spock getting all the screen time. And for a change the acting was great. They weren't over doing their roles but were just acting natural. Finally everything just came into place with this movie. The right script, the right characters, the right acting and the right feel.
The only downsides I would mention is that the music really is a minor part of the film. It isn't as stong a soundtrack that we find previously. Also the forced love story with a women who is a whale expert that Kirk meets in the past could have been handled better. The whale story even can be seen as a bit silly as well but the reason for them going to the past wasn't really important, just getting them into the past to interact was what this movie's goal was and it accomplishes that perfectly and then some.
This is easily my favorite of the Star Trek films and especially with this special edition version that has a few extras like interviews and commentary now is the time to relive the fun and magic again that is found here. Some fans may not like that it is not the serious, Trek like situation that you found in the three films that came before this one. But I look at the big picture, that a film like this is enjoyable for more reasons then just appealing to Trekies, but that fans who weren't into the series can get into it through a film like this and learn about the characters they are enjoying.
I really can't recomened this film enough. I enjoy it every single time I watch it and will probably always hold it in high regard and as one of the best. If you haven't seen this movie in awhile now is the time to relive the magic again with the special edition version.
Rating:
- One of the 3 best Star Trek movies!! For good reasons!This movie begins in deep space where a probe making strange sounds is draining the power from any ship or space station it passes on its way to Earth. The ships are reporting to StarFleet and the United Federation of Planets for help but no one can decipher the messages and the probe is not responding to any other types of communications. We also have the Klingon Ambassador "venting" about Admiral Kirk killing the Klingon crew from the prior movie (In Search of Spock) and "stealing" the Bird of Prey ship. He wants Kirk extradited to the Klingon home world. Ambassador Sarek, Spock's father, tries to calm things but he is accused of being not objective since Kirk saved his son.
We also go to the planet Vulcan where Spock is recovering his memory and undergoing testing while the former crew of the Enterprise are renaming the Klingon ship (USS Bounty) and preparing to go back to Earth to face trial. Spock decides to go with them. As they near Earth, Uhura is picking up on the communications about the probe and the crew begins listening as well. Spock has an idea and they have Uhura alter the probe sounds to mimic how it would sound under water. Spock then identifies the sounds as the whale song of humpback whales that are extinct on late 23rd century earth.
As Kirk and crew get close to Earth, Earth is in crisis as the probe has arrived and is literally stirring up the oceans in its search for an answer to its communications. Clouds cover nearly 90% of the planet's surface and power outtages abound. Time for the old "slingshot" around the sun back to late 20th century Earth and a search for humpback whales.
As Kirk and crew split off and have their various both funny (Scotty trying to address a 1986 Apple computer and then picking up the mouse to talk into!!) and dangerous (Chekov accidentally falling and being critically injured) adventures, the viewer feels like they are back watching some of the best of the TV series episodes as their is comic relief, action, danger and all the really fun elements that make up Star Trek.
A MUST SEE!!
Rating:
- Excellent MovieMy favorite out of the bunch. San Francisco is the most beautiful city in America.
Rating:
- the dialogue cracks me upTrekkies who are into the preservation of timeline and continuity probably had kittens when they watched this movie, but this movie worked because it highlighted the interplay of the cast - our favorite fictional characters.
Any two bit sci-fi director can make a movie with spaceships and any bean counter can keep a timeline straight, but we don't watch Star Trek for these reasons, do we? We watch them because only Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelly can play Kirk, Spock, and Bones.
The scene where they're talking about Italian food in the pickup truck still makes me laugh today like the first time I saw it.
Rating:
- Part Of A Series, But UniqueThis is a lot lighter hearted than the previous movies of the Star Trek series. It continues the story started in "The Wrath Of Khan", but it is a unique movie. Both this and the previous one were directed by Leonard Nimoy, but there is nothing in common between the two pictures aside from the director and the cast.
A lot has been made of the "Save The Whales" theme of this picture. It also, though, shows why Trekkies love Star Trek. True, we enjoy the imagination of science fiction, but the best part is the characters and their interaction. Can anything match Russian Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Uhara (Nichelle Nichols) on the streets of San Francisco asking where the nuclear weapons were? Or Scotty (James Doohan) making a deal with a businessman for some plexiglass? Or Spock (Nimoy) asking if it was time for another colorful metaphor?
This movie does have the worst language of any of the Star Trek movies, but in context it is easy to laugh at even if you disapprove. I would highly recommend this movie.
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