Normally, I've very vocally against remakes. They tend to just copy what came before but like a copy just isn't as good as the original. But every once and awhile, there will come one that takes the same premise, but rebuilds the film from the ground up and at the same time strengthens and improves on what came before. Pete's Dragon, without a doubt, is one of those exceptions.
Pete (played by Oakes Fegley) is an orphaned boy who lives deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest with only the companionship of a large, friendly dragon he named Elliott, who saved Pete when he was the lone survivor of a bad car crash that killed his parents. He is discovered by a Park Ranger, Grace (played by Bryce Dallas Howard), who is overseeing logging in the area by a company owned by her boyfriend Jack (played by Wes Bentley) and his brother Gavin (played by Karl Urban). She and Jack take him back to town, shocked that a young boy could survive so long in the woods while apparently being alone. Elliott is distraught when he finds Pete missing and while searching, Gavin catches sight of him and goes hunting for him in the woods with some of the other loggers.
Meanwhile, Grace talks with Pete, wanting to know more about where he came from and how he was able to survive on his own for so long. Pete tells her about Elliott and shows her a drawing. She recognizes it immediately as matching the dragon her father (played by Robert Redford) used to tell her stories about (and stories he continues to tell the neighborhood kids). When she matches the drawing Pete made to ones her father made years earlier she realizes that the tales both her father and Pete have been telling may be true after all. Around this same time, Gavin and the hunters discover Elliott. After initially being scared off by Elliott, Gavin begins to scheme to capture dragon for himself.
This new rendition of Pete's Dragon was directed by David Lowery, who also co-wrote the film with Toby Halbrooks. They took the basic premise of the original film and carefully updated it with style, intelligence and a lot of heart, crafting a set of three dimensional and fully formed characters as well. The cinematography was fantastic and may well be the best looking family film I've seen since The Black Stallion. There were shots that literally took my breath away. I also have to single out the musical score by Daniel Hart, which complimented the film quite well and I found myself really digging it and how it strengthened the film.
They managed to assemble a great cast, with Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, Wes Bentley, and Karl Urban all doing solid work. Oakes Fegley as Pete is quite a find, acting wonderfully alongside the CGI dragon. The effects work is top notch as well as they created the utterly convincing and endearing title character that not even once had me thinking I'm looking at a CGI creation, which is high praise indeed. The design of Elliott is quite unique and is the most adorable dragon this side of Falkor from The NeverEnding Story. The design choices make sense since Elliott's type of dragon is indiginous to Northern parts of the U.S and Canada (if not further north), so given that climate it makes sense he would be fuzzy.
Overall, the new version of Pete's Dragon is a definite improvement on the original, with a reworked and stronger story backed by great performances and some stellar effects work supporting the story of a boy and his loyal and protective dragon. I sat there in the dark, popcorn in hand, tears of joy welling up in my eyes and a big dopey grin on my face as this fantastic and heartwarming film unfolded before me. There's some real magic here.
It's been at least a good twenty or so years since I last saw Pete's Dragon, but it was a film I certainly held some fond memories of from my childhood as it had been a favorite of both mine and my brother's as kids. With the new remake coming out this weekend, I found myself with an overwhelming urge to revisit the film and see if it still held up. Riding a heavy, heavy wave of nostalgia, I did enjoy rewatching it but at the same time wondering if an adult who hadn't seen it as a kid would enjoy it as much.
In early 1900's New England, a young boy named Pete (played by Sean Marshall) is on the run from a hillbilly family named The Gogans, led by matriarch Lena (played by Shelley Winters) to whom he was sold to as essentially a child slave. He has escaped with the help of a dragon, Elliot, who can turn invisible, but when he's visible is an adorable 2-d animated creation of Don Bluth. Pete and Elliot are able to avoid the pursuing Grogan clan of dimwits and stumble across the small New England fishing village of Passamaquaddy. After an invisible Elliot unwittingly causes some chaos around town and is briefly spotted by the local Lighthouse keeper Lampie (played by Mickey Rooney), Pete and Elliot retreat to a local cave off the beach by the Lighthouse. There, Pete is discovered by Lampie's daughter, Nora (played by Helen Reddy). She takes him in and although she doesn't believe his stories of a dragon, she plays along. Soon after, a snake oil salesman, Dr. Terminus (played by Jim Dale) and his assistant Hoagy (played by Red Buttons), arrive in town. Catching wind that there is a dragon and discovering all the supposed medicinal purposes that dragons carry, the two conspire to catch Elliott for themselves. When the Gogans also hit town, Dr. Terminus and Hoagy team up with them, with the intention of using Pete as bait to capture Elliott.
Pete's Dragon was another in a line of movies Disney made in an attempt to recapture the magic of Mary Poppins. The thing with this particular film is when you really start looking at it, it's a strange duck of a film. On one hand, it fits in with Disney's usual brand of peppy, golly gee whiz musicals that they got really good at making and at the same time it's dealing with some really dark subject matter, in particular Pete's past (it's made blatantly clear he was abused severely by the Gogans) as well as Lampie's alcoholism, which is mostly played for laughs. Both Elliott and Nora's fierce protectiveness of Pete from the Gogan's does provide a lot of heart to the film though. It's just narratively the two different sides don't mesh together all that well. The songs in the film, by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, are reasonably good with the Oscar Nominated "Candle on the Water" being the clear stand out.
The effects really have not aged that well, but were probably impressive for their time. Still, Don Bluth's animation on Elliot is incredibly expressive and does a great job in creating an endearing character that still held up for me watching it again all these years later, as long as you can get on board with an animated dragon interacting with live action characters. The human performances do vary a bit. Both Sean Marshall and Helen Reddy do quite well in their roles. Everyone else on the other hand are quite over the top, mugging left, right and center. This is to be expected from Mickey Rooney, for whom it was a bit of a trademark, but even he is doing it more than usual. I didn't mind it, exactly, but I can see how it would get old fast for contemporary audiences.
Overall, I had a fun time revisiting this childhood favorite. I got chills as songs I had long forgotten about began, especially "Brazzle Dazzle Day" or "It's Not Easy", and seeing the film from beginning to end as memories of watching it as a kid came flooding back. Would someone who never saw it as a kid enjoy it as much as I did? If the YouTube video by Cinema Sins, "Everything Wrong With Pete's Dragon" is anything to go by, then no, probably not.
With the third of the Next Generation films, Star Trek: Insurrection, we have what may quite possibly be the worst of the Star Trek films. With an illogical and confusing plot, a serious lack of action and a rather bland villain makes this a rather unremarkable entry in the series.
Lt. Commander Data (played by Brent Spiner) has been temporarily reassigned to a Federation project observing the peaceful Baku people on a planet in a system referred to as the Briar Patch. Data begins to Malfunction and in the process reveals the Federation's presence observing the Baku. Admiral Matthew Dougherty (played by Anthony Zerbe) contacts the Enterprise to get Data's schematics but states the Enterprise does not need to come to the planet. Suspicious, Picard (played by Patrick Stewart) ignores the order and the Enterprise goes anyway.
After managing to fix Data, Picard becomes even more suspicious at Admiral Dougherty's attempts to get them to leave. They discover that the unique make-up of the planet and it's rings emit a radiation or "metaphasic particles" that continuously rejuvenate all life living on the planet, effectively making it's inhabitants immortal. As they spend more time on the planet, the crew begins to feel the effects of the planet. Geordi (played by LeVar Burton), who had been blind since birth, has his eyes naturally healed and able to see naturally for the first time in his life, Riker (played by Jonathan Frakes) and Troi (played by Marina Sirtis) begin feeling the urge to rekindle their romantic relationship, unfortunately Worf (played by Michael Dorn) begins going through the Klingon version of puberty again, and Picard finds himself falling for a Baku woman, Anij (played by Donna Murphy). As Picard and Data continue to investigate, they discover that Dougherty has been plotting with the leader of the Son'a race, Ahdar Ru'afo (played by F. Murray Abraham) to forcibly remove the 600 strong members of the Baku and take the planet and it's rejuvenating radiation for themselves. Picard is angered by the deception and becomes determined to expose the corruption to Starfleet and rescue the Baku people.
Jonathan Frakes returned to direct this film but unlike First Contact this one was more of a mixed bag. While the film looks great and the performances are generally good, it has some narrative problems that are hard to get past. The script by Michael Piller has some unique ideas and an intriguing setting with this planet that is essentially the Fountain of Youth and setting two different groups against one another over it. The problem is in the execution. We have the quiet and peaceful Baku, a group numbering roughly 600 who have shunned technology and live in a commune setting that looks like Tuscany by way of L.L Bean. Then there are the vain Son'a race, who through decades of cosmetic surgery in an attempt to cheat death have left them decaying and dying, all one billion of them apparently. There are a couple problems with this issue.
One, the Baku, with such a small population, are supposed to be the good guys in this story. However, them wanting to keep the entire planet all to themselves and deny a literally dying race a place on said planet makes them look like a bunch of galactic assholes. Yes, there is a plot point about the Baku and the Son'a at one point being friends but then there was some sort of ideological falling out and they parted ways. It's all barely mentioned and glossed over pretty quickly.
The second problem is a far bigger one. These two people are not fighting over a small town or a country or an island, they are fighting over an entire planet that looks like the love child of Earth and Saturn. Surely, there is room for everyone. Of course, there is a plot point about the Son'a wanting to basically vacuum up the radiation from the rings around the planet and take it with them, which seems extremely short sighted on their part. Why not spend some time on the planet instead and let it cure your ills. Stick to one side and the Baku stick to the other in their Hippie Tuscany commune and they never have to speak to one another. Geordi gained eyesight after being on the planet for a day! Whatever is ailing the Baku should clear up over roughly the length of a spa weekend at that rate. And if it begins to reoccur after they leave, just come back for a refresher. Problem solved. But then there would be no movie.
Overall, Star Trek: Insurrection has it's moments. The romances between Riker and Troi and Picard and Anij were sweet, as were the scenes between Data and a Baku boy (played by Michael Welch), who teaches Data what it's like to be a boy. Those were all sweet and fun moments. I get that they wanted to go for something deeper and with a more moral quandary here but the narrative as a whole has some rather large plot holes that are difficult to overcome and the film falls apart because of them.
"You're all astronauts on some sort of...star trek."
Star Trek: First Contact is the best of the Next Generation cast films, with two parallel storylines and a genuinely frightening villain. It makes fantastic use of it's characters, especially Picard and his fight against his mortal enemy, The Borg.
Captain Picard (played by Patrick Stewart) picks up a distress call from a ship under attack from the Borg, a vicious cybernetic collective that mindlessly assimilates other societies into the Borg. Starfleet specifically orders Picard to stand down though, feeling he would be an unpredictable element in the battle. Picard, with the full support of the crew, ignores the order and they respond to the distress call anyway. Picard uses his previous experience having been assimilated into the Borg to Starfleet's advantage and instructs the other ships where to fire to destroy the Borg ship. However, a part of the ship ejects moments below and uses it's advanced technology to travel back in time. Realizing what has happened, the Enterprise follows in hot pursuit. They discover that the Borg has traveled back to April 4th, 2063, the day before Zefram Cochran (played by James Cromwell) makes the first warp speed flight in human history, leading to the Human race's first contact with alien life, specifically the Vulcans. They realize the Borg intend to stop this from happening and proceed to assimilate all of Earth. Picard orders for the Enterprise to fire on and destroy the surviving Borg. Initially they appear to have succeeded, but it starts to become apparent that the Borg managed to beam over to the Enterprise undetected and begin to assimilate the crew. Picard has Commander Riker (played by Jonathan Frakes), Troi (played by Marina Sirtis) and Geordi (played by LeVar Burton) beam down to the surface to ensure Cochran's test flight goes as planned. Picard and the remaining crew remain on the Enterprise to battle the surviving Borg, including their Queen (played by Alice Krige), who kidnaps Data (played by Brent Spiner) in an effort to gain control over the ship's computers.
First Contact, unlike it's predecessor, very much ups that action quotient to the story and the film moves at a brisk pace because of it. Jonathan Frakes stepped into the director role for the film in addition to co-starring as Commander Riker and does a fantastic job of bringing a sense of cinematic grandeur to the film, something the previous film lacked at times. The script by Ronald D Moore and Brannon Braga delves head on into Picard's history with the Borg and how his time as an assimilated member of the collective still haunts him and drives his action throughout the film. Then they pair this with the time travel aspect and the character of Zefram Cochran, whose antics are largely played for comic relief but also have a certain dramatic weight to them as well as a man starting to crack under the pressure of the Enterprise crew's hero worship of him. The two plotlines work with one another nicely and intersect throughout the film, especially when Cochran's original co-pilot, Lily (played by Alfre Woodard) winds up on the Enterprise and finds herself partnered with the increasingly obsessed and irrational Picard, eventually becoming a voice of reason for him.
The cast of the film is first rate with everyone giving strong performances. Patrick Stewart has the most to work with as Picard and his obsession with defeating the Borg and refusing to surrender to them and he plays it beautifully, portraying the rage that Picard feels. He does well in a more action oriented role as well as Picard goes into full on badass mode as the film goes on. Alfre Woodard does equally well as Lily, a 21st century person who the idea of Starships and the Borg are completely foreign to her, but manages to keep it together and go with the events that are happening nonetheless. James Cromwell is wonderful as Cochran and is clearly having a good time playing the part, and indeed reprised the role on an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise a few years later. Besides I can't help but love a guy who plays "Magic Carpet Ride" during his warp flight test. I also have to give props to Alice Krige as the seductively creepy Borg Queen. Her interactions with both Data and Picard made her a memorable villain for the film.
There is one other cast member I have to mention here because I actually didn't realize he was in the movie until I watched it again last night, Adam Scott. Okay, so I am a huge fan of the comedy series Parks and Recreation. On that show, Adam Scott played adorkable nerd and love interest to series star Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope. One of Ben's favorite hobbies was writing Star Trek fan fiction, Next Generation no less, which at one point he even reads on the show. And then here he is, much earlier actually in a Star Trek movie and I couldn't help but bust a gut laughing, even though the scene is clearly meant to be quite serious.
Overall, Star Trek: First Contact is without a doubt the best film of the Next Generation films with plenty of action, a fantastically nasty villain and just enough humor to keep everything from getting too bleak. It also has a great cast and strong direction from Jonathan Frakes, it was a giant leap forward from the previous film.
When Star Trek VI was in early pre-production, one of the ideas bandied about was a meeting between Captains Kirk and Picard. Since Star Trek: The Next Generation was still doing well on TV, they did not at that point want to make the leap to the big screen. Once that series wrapped at the end of season seven, the plot line was resurrected as a sort of passing of the torch. While not the best film in the series, I do still have a lot of affection for Star Trek: Generations.
While overseeing the launch and test run of the new Enterprise starship, the newly retired Kirk (played by William Shatner), along with Scotty (played by James Doohan) and Chekov (played by Walter Koenig) is finding himself missing the good old days of his time in the Captain's chair of the Enterprise. He finds an opportunity when the Enterprise B has to respond to a distress signal. A couple of ships are caught in a strange energy ribbon. In attempting to rig up a solution, something goes wrong and there is a hull breach of the Enterprise B and Kirk is sucked out into space and into the ribbon, but the Enterprise is able to break free and was able to rescue several members from one of the ships via the transporters, including a strange man named Soran (played by Malcolm McDowell) and future Enterprise-D bartender Guinan (played by Whoopi Goldberg).
We then move 78 years into the future with the Next Generation crew celebrating the promotion of Lt. Worf (played by Michael Dorn) on a 18th century sailing ship version of the Enterprise via the Holodeck when Picard receives some tragic news that his brother and nephew were killed in a fire and leaves the festivities. Picard later explains to the ship's counselor Troi (played Marina Sirtis), that his brother having a family meant he felt free to focus on his Starfleet career and that the Picard name would still live on but not anymore. Meanwhile, the Enterprise receives a distress call from an observatory overlooking the Amargosa star. Arriving there, they rescue the people from the observatory, including Soran. After talking with Soran, Picard gets a bad feeling about the man and his suspicions are raised. Engineer Geordi LaForge (played by LeVar Burton) and the android Data (played by Brent Spiner) check out the observatory and find evidence of the radioactive Trilithium crystals. Before they can investigate further, Soran arrives and kidnaps Geordi, beaming them both aboard a renegade Klingon ship commanded by the treacherous Duras sisters, who eventually beam Geordi back with a spy chip installed on his visor so the Duras sisters can find a way to defeat the Enterprise.
Discussing his concerns about Soran with Guinan, Picard learns that both Guinan and Soran were in the energy ribbon, which is a gateway to a place called the Nexus which creates a fantasy filled with pure joy for anyone who is in it. Neither Guinan nor Soran wanted to leave the Nexus, but were forced to during the collision between the starships and the energy ribbon all those years ago. While Guinan came to terms with the fact she couldn't go back, Soran has been obsessed with getting back and is prepared to do anything he can to get back. Picard departs the Enterprise, leaving the command of the ship to his second in command Will Riker (played by Jonathan Frakes). With his initial attempt to stop Soran thwarted, Picard finds himself in the Nexus and after rejecting his own fantasy, comes to find James Kirk at a Mountain cabin, chopping wood. He is able to convince Kirk to join him in defeating Soran. The two then leave the Nexus, and because they leave it willingly they can apparently go anywhere they want, they team up to stop Soran from achieving his plan, which would not only destroy a star, but also a planet populated with nearly 300 million lives.
While it is a far from perfect film, there is still a lot to like about Star Trek: Generations. The first part was the thrill of seeing Captain Kirk and Captain Picard working side by side. I had always really liked both Captains, so seeing them brought together was something special and the film came up with a unique way to do it with the creation of the Nexus. There is just something about the Nexus that captured my imagination. I can't help but wonder what it would be like to go into the Nexus. What fantasy would it conjure up for me? The cinematography of the film is at times breathtakingly beautiful, especially in the scenes set at Kirk's mountain cabin (I know I'm not the only Star Trek fan who wanted that place!). Likewise, the special effects are rather strong, including a new room in the Enterprise-D where Picard and Data figure out Soran's plan (and the room rather reminded me of Cerebro from the X-Men movies which also star Patrick Stewart!) There is also the impressive crash of the Enterprise into a nearby planet following an attack from the Duras sisters. And maybe it's because I've been watching on the Star Trek films on such a compacted timeframe, but I also, to my surprise, found myself becoming rather emotional at Kirk's final scene in the film. While I've always really liked Picard and even Sisko and Janeway from the series Deep Space Nine and Voyager, Kirk was always my favorite. So, naturally his final scene had some added poignancy to it, even if how it went about was never a hundred percent satisfactory to me.
But there are also some problems with the film as well. The film was directed by David Carson, who had previously directed several episodes of both The Nex Generation and Deep Space Nine, which probably explains why the film tends to feel like an expanded episode of the series, rather than a true feature film. There are grand moments in the film, like the ones I previously mentioned, but the overall feel of the film ties much more to the series. Part of it may be that this film literally came out the fall after the series ended in 1994. There are also some nagging plot holes that the writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore don't quite manage to explain, such as how the Guinan that exists in the Nexus can know who Picard is as well as explain to him where to find Kirk and how the Nexus works. And I won't even try to figure out how Worf can fall overboard the sailing ship Enterprise and land in the water and actually get wet on the Holodeck.
Despite my quibbles, I've always enjoyed Star Trek: Generations. For an odd numbered Star Trek movie, it's not bad. It has some unique and imaginative plot lines to it along with some added humor from Data getting his emotions chip put back in. It's not a perfect movie by any stretch, but it is one I have enjoyed nonetheless.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country has a special place in my heart. It was the first Star Trek movie I saw in the theatre with my Dad and I can still remember certain scenes from the film vividly from that first time seeing it. This would become a tradition for us for the next two Star Trek films that were released after this one. That's right folks, it's all my Dad's fault that I'm such a gigantic nerd. Not that it's a bad thing...
When a Klingon Moon, Praxis, explodes without warning and severely damages their planet's ozone layer, the Klingon Empire reaches out to the Federation for help, which the Federation accepts. The Federation decides to spend Kirk (played by William Shatner) to meet the Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (played by David Warner) and escort him to the peace talks. Kirk resents the assignment as the Klingons have brought him nothing but pain and misery, namely killing his son, David. Spock is able to convince him to go through with it with the old Vulcan proverb, "Only Nixon could go to China" (Old VULCAN proverb?!). Kirk meets Gorkon's ship and the he holds a dinner with Gorkon and some other assorted Klingons, such as Commander Chang (played by Christopher Plummer). Gorkon speak eloquently about wanting peace between the Klingons and the Federation. Later that night, after the Klingons have returned to their ship, it appears that two torpedoes are fired at the ship from the Enterprise causing damage and for the ship to lose it's artificial gravity. In the ensuing confusion, two individuals in Starfleet spacesuits and helmets board the ship in magnetic boots and attempt to assassinate Gorkon. They manage to severely wound him, as well as kill several others before fleeing. Kirk and McCoy beam over to the ship and McCoy attempts to save Gorkon, but the wounds are too severe and Gorkon passes away. Kirk and McCoy are taken into custody to be put on trial for the Chancellor's assassination. The trial goes badly and Kirk and McCoy are sentenced to life imprisonment on the frozen asteroid Rena Penthe. Meanwhile, Spock has taken command of the Enterprise and figured out that not only did the torpedoes not originate from the Enterprise, but that the two assassins are still on board. He teams up with Vulcan helmsman Valeris (played by Kim Cattrall) to find out the identity of the assassins and who is trying to set up Kirk and McCoy.
There is a lot to like about Star Trek VI as it delves into the issues of prejudice and the fact that despite all the advancements the human race has made at that point, that is one they have not yet conquered. Kirk in particular has an important arc in the film as he is faced with his own prejudice against the Klingons, even suggesting the Federation should "Let them die" when initially told if they don't conduct the peace talks that is what will happen to them. Over the course of the film, his attitude slowly changes starting with the words of Chancellor Gorkon as he converses with Kirk on the Enterprise as well as the unfolding events of the film as he sees the lengths the conspirators will go to sabotage any chance for peace. Likewise, as a mystery fan, I really enjoyed the scenes on the Enterprise with Spock playing detective trying to sort out what happened and catch the conspirators, which plays out like a sort of intergalactic Agatha Christie.
The film was directed by Nicholas Meyer, who previously made Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and like that film, this one was a welcome breath of fresh air from the disappointing previous film. Meyer also wrote the script with Danny Martin Flinn from a story he developed with Leonard Nimoy. The fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War was the main inspiration for the story and it's easy to see the parallels. The assassination plotline was added by Meyer for additional dramatic thrust to the story and works well. I also appreciated how the film faced it's themes of overcoming prejudice head on and is something that would remain relevant today. The film also has some nifty effects, especially the Klingon blood floating in zero gravity being one of those images that has stayed with me for the past 25 years (colored purple no less because red would have warranted an R-rating. Go figure).
Star Trek VI has the added poignancy as being the last film with the original cast all together and the final scene makes a nice capping off to the series as a whole. It's a fitting final chapter as it gives its characters one last great adventure, whether it's Spock trying to hunt down the conspirators or Kirk and McCoy trying to escape their frozen rock of a prison to get back to the Enterprise. In the overall ranking of the series, this one would probably be close to the top. I appreciated the political intrigue and mystery elements as well as the deeper thematic message of the film. This was the perfect Star Trek film for the original cast to go out on.
Before recently re-watching Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, I only had the vaguest recollections of it. I remembered watching it with my father when it was first released on video and I think I saw it one more time after that. I remember not liking it very much which is probably why I haven't re-watched it since. So, I was curious to revisit it now and see if it indeed was as bad as I remembered it being.
James Kirk (played by William Shatner) is on shore leave in Yosemite National Park (which the film feels the need to inform us is on Planet Earth) with Dr. McCoy (played by DeForest Kelley) and Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy). Kirk is using the time to do some mountain climbing while McCoy anxiously watches from the ground below and Spock uses some fancy rocket boots to catch up with Kirk and inquire why he feels the need to embark on such a dangerous activity. Later that night, their vacation is ruined when they learn their shore leave has been cancelled due to a hostage crisis on planet Nimbus III. They want Kirk and his crew to go in with the newly commissioned (but not yet fully functional) Enterprise to rescue the hostages. Upon their arrival though, they find out it was all a ruse led by the Vulcan Sybok (played by Laurence Luckinbill), who used the hostage situation to lure in a starship. He proceeds to take Kirk and the rest of the crew hostage and use the Enterprise to fly into the center of the Galaxy to the planet of Sha Ka Ree, which is said to be the source of all of creation, and perhaps find God himself.
Star Trek V was directed by William Shatner, who also contributed to the story of the film. I have the distinct feeling that Shatner had watched Nimoy direct the previous two films and thought to himself, "By golly, I can do that too!" While Shatner has a nice eye for cinematography, especially in the opening and closing scenes at Yosemite, storytelling may not be his strongest suit. In the right hands, the crew of the Enterprise going on a spiritual journey could be an intriguing and interesting entry into the series. However, the film is a bit muddled narratively. The opening scenes try to recapture the charm and silliness of The Voyage Home as Kirk, Spock and McCoy sit around the campfire and Kirk and McCoy attempt to teach Spock the song "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" to Spock's befuddlement. It's an awkward scene that almost sinks the entire movie right there. There is also a cutaway to Sulu (played by George Takei) and Chekov (played by Walter Koenig) lost in the woods trying to get assistance from Uhura as to where they are without actually admitting they are lost. Are they camping with Kirk, Spock and McCoy in Yosemite? The movie never makes this clear and neither Kirk, Spock or McCoy wonders where they are.
Then there are the three hostages, including one played by David Warner, that are introduced at the beginning of the movie and then left adrift with little to no further development. The movie is slow and boring for long stretches of it's run time, futilely trying to punch things up with such bits of "humor" as Scotty (played by James Doohan) hitting his head on a girder and knocking himself unconscious. As the film finally reaches it's climax, it teases us that there might actually be something awe inspiring or incredible to be discovered by the crew, but alas the ending is an anti-climactic cop out. The film had the potential to go for something deep and potently spiritual but just falls apart instead.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier isn't the worst in the series, there's a couple I would rank lower, but it's also far from the best. It has a muddled narrative with dropped or unresolved plotlines, thematically it's all over the place and the ending is a complete cop out when it could have gone for something much more meaningful instead. There was potential in the storyline, but the execution was all wrong.
