Since When Is The Motion Picture A Good Trek Film?

[Too Much Fun]

I asked the exact same question when I first joined this forum. People were appalled that I said it was my least favourite next to "Star Trek V" and "Star Trek: Nemesis". Now, after all these weeks of seeing it kick ass in that best movies poll and reading all the posts praising it (and again expressing disgust at my dismissal of it), I really want to see it again. I never imagined it could be so popular and didn't feel bad about writing it off after my first attempt to watch it. I'm curious now. To be honest, I've never made it through the whole thing because it was too boring to me and I've never seen the director's cut.

 

[Myasishchev]

Man, you'd think people were accidentally watching Tarkovsky's Solaris or something. TMP is no racehorse, but if you want slow, try watching a scene of a man being driven around freakin' Moscow in silence for about eight solid minutes.

 

[Gepard]

I'm almost done watching it, and I think it's great.

Um...rose-colored glasses and...stuff. Nyah.

 

[RoJoHen]

It's definitely slower-paced, but I love the way it reintroduces all the TOS characters, especially Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

 

[Gepard]

It's definitely slower-paced, but I love the way it reintroduces all the TOS characters, especially Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

Oddly, now that I think about it, my issues with TMP and ST are very similar, namely that the writers did a good (well, competent-if-dull in the case of TMP) job of introducing the characters for a new audience, setting up character arcs and introducing an interesting if underdeveloped villain in a giant weird ship...and then utterly failing to capatilize on any of that in the final act.



...Man, I can't get off this ST-bashing kick, even in unrelated fora. Maybe I need another dose of sombrero.

 

[RoJoHen]

It's definitely slower-paced, but I love the way it reintroduces all the TOS characters, especially Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

Oddly, now that I think about it, my issues with TMP and ST are very similar, namely that the writers did a good (well, competent-if-dull in the case of TMP) job of introducing the characters for a new audience, setting up character arcs and introducing an interesting if underdeveloped villain in a giant weird ship...and then utterly failing to capatilize on any of that in the final act.
.

Maybe, but I enjoy the V'Ger ending. However, I watch all the TOS movies for one reason: the Kirk/Spock/McCoy friendship. I've kind of allowed plot to take a backseat to that. It's one of the reasons I actually really like The Final Frontier. The story is kind of retarded, but I think it does the best job capturing that friendship compared to the rest of the movies.

 

[Deckerd]

In answer to the OP: the moment I realised how great ST:TMP was when TGT told us to.

 

[Therin of Andor]

What has shocked me, is how many people are putting TMP not only in the top 3 but sometimes as Number 1.

* bows *

TMP is my favourite film of all time! Not just ST, of any genre!

I knew TOS only from about five repeat episodes in 1975, plus random b/w episodes of TAS. I became intrigued by TMP, at age 21, as a reunion movie of an old TV show, read the novelization first, and loved the movie!

I love Decker and Ilia, love the Starfleet uniforms, the music and the glimpses of all those expensive aliens!

It was very confusing to meet all the diehard ST fans in my local club over the next few months/years who hated TMP with a passion and called it an "alternate universe" movie. Strangely, after about 15 years, more people seemed to start appreciating it. Even more after the DE DVD came out.

 

[TheGodBen]

I think it is a better movie than Star Trek because Star Trek succeeded in creating mediocrity while TMP failed in creating greatness.

Wow, that's good stuff. Maybe if I ever see the Abrams thing on dvd, then I'll be able to ask you to borrow that as a signature line.

I probably stole the line from somewhere, but I can't remember where.

 

[B.C.]

I watched it last night for the first time in years, while it is VERY slow it's a beautiful film. The color and lighting is really amazing.

 

[trevanian]

Man, you'd think people were accidentally watching Tarkovsky's Solaris or something. TMP is no racehorse, but if you want slow, try watching a scene of a man being driven around freakin' Moscow in silence for about eight solid minutes.

Try DEATH IN VENICE, why doncha? I got through it (spread over two nights) but I still don't know how. 2 hours of an old guy lusting at a distance over a teenaged boy in a city starting to rot. Even with Dirk Bogarde giving a tremendous performance, it was still hardly preferable to watching paint dry.

 

[Myasishchev]

^

Yet I loved the uncut version of Das Boot and watched in one sitting, although that film is literally almost five hours long. As always, it's all in execution.

TMP barely breaks two hours, and a fair amount of stuff happens during that rather brief duration. There are only a couple of scenes that go on distractingly too long--the long drag over the Enterprise is, as people have pointed out, one of them, and probably the worst offender. But it's really only about two minutes.

Maybe it only seems interminable now, when we've seen the 1701 refit a billion times already...

It's not the best film, but it might be the most theatrical of them.

 

[RyuRoots]

There are only a couple of scenes that go on distractingly too long--the long drag over the Enterprise is, as people have pointed out, one of them. Although maybe it only seems like that now, when we've seen the 1701 refit a billion times already.

Trust me, that's not the issue. The Ent-E is probably my favorite ship in all of Star Trek canon. I think it's a thing of beauty, and I would be annoyed if they had a scene like that with the Ent-E. I know I don't necessarily speak for everyone, but that crap would be annoying with ANY ship.

 

[Myasishchev]

I do agree that enjoying that series of shots is more like a question of patience than a question of attention span. I think I would've liked an E-E scene like that though.

 

[Falcor5]

The Director's Cut of TMP is fantastic, has better pacing, and is far more enjoyable to me.

J.

I agree I like the Directors cut alot more. I hope they release that version on Blu-ray someday!

 

[TheGodBen]

There are only a couple of scenes that go on distractingly too long--the long drag over the Enterprise is, as people have pointed out, one of them. Although maybe it only seems like that now, when we've seen the 1701 refit a billion times already.

Trust me, that's not the issue. The Ent-E is probably my favorite ship in all of Star Trek canon. I think it's a thing of beauty, and I would be annoyed if they had a scene like that with the Ent-E. I know I don't necessarily speak for everyone, but that crap would be annoying with ANY ship.

I know this probably has no bearing on you (or me), but Star Trek had been cancelled ten years prior, people had given up hope years before that they would ever see the Enterprise again. Yet here she was after ten years on the big screen, and she was looking better than ever; it was more than just a ship, it was a triumph for the fans who had spent so much effort trying to bring Star Trek back from the dead. This was their moment, not ours. I can only imagine what it would have felt like to be one of the die-hard fans viewing that in the theatre, but I can forgive the filmmakers for being so self-indulgent.

 

[Jeyl]

The Director's Cut of TMP is fantastic, has better pacing, and is far more enjoyable to me.

J.

I agree I like the Directors cut alot more. I hope they release that version on Blu-ray someday!

Here's hoping. All it needs is time and money.

As a kid who grew up with Star Trek and it's movies, I find that The Motion Picture, while not my favorite of the bunch, is the one I re-watch the most.

I'm not a big fan of movies that keep jumping on the action sequences like JJ's Star Trek. I like the movie that take time off and give the story a cadence. Even Star Trek II had moments where we took time from the story to get to know the characters better (Even more so in the Director's Edition which I also want on BluRay!).

 

[cmdrbolly]

Man, you'd think people were accidentally watching Tarkovsky's Solaris or something. TMP is no racehorse, but if you want slow, try watching a scene of a man being driven around freakin' Moscow in silence for about eight solid minutes.

Solyaris is a real science fiction film. STMP is a wannabe.

p/s: they were driving around in Tokyo and it was because it was the closest thing they had to 'sci fi modern' compared to what they had to work with in the USSR.

 

[JustKate]

It's funny - sometimes when I say, "Gee, I quite like TMP" (which I do), I am greeted with incredulity, and other times I find all these people who talk about how much they like/love TMP, too. I never quite know what to expect.

But I do quite like TMP - I don't love it (I am generally not a major fan of any of the movies - we'll see how I feel after I see the new one on Sunday), but I like it a lot. I know it has flaws but it has a grandeur about it and the plot is grand, too - yes, I know, because people keep telling me this, that it's derivative of Nomad, but I still like it, and unlike a lot of the movies, it is at least a plot worthy of the extra time a movie allows. And I like the character interaction, and I loved seeing the Trek characters again on the screen doing something I hadn't seen 11,000 times.

As GodBen noted, you young people (she said, brandishing her cane) have no idea what a thrill it was to see new Trek again. So part of it is definitely nostalgia, at least for me.

But I watched it again a couple of years ago, and you know, there's still something a bit special about it. I don't know if I'd put it first because I haven't seen most of the movies in a long time, but I'm pretty sure I'd rate it fairly high.

 

[ncc-1017-e]

I absolutely love TMP! My favorite Trek film hands down and the only true classic trek film along the same lines as Forbidden Planet,2001, The Day the Earth Stood Still!