With this year marking the 50th anniversary of Star Trek and with the upcoming release of Star Trek Beyond, I decided I'd take a look back at the theatrical Star Trek films, starting with the very first one. There's a rule with the Star Trek films that the even numbered ones are always better than the odd numbered ones and boy did that start right out of the gate with easily the most sluggish of the Star Trek films.
When a strange, glowing cloud of energy is found in space and proceeds to obliterate two Klingon ships and it is determined this strange anomaly is headed for Earth, the crew of the Enterprise is sent to investigate. Captain James Kirk (played by William Shatner) once again takes command of his ship from it's current Captain, Decker (played by Stephen Collins). He reunites his previous crew, including McCoy (played by DeForest Kelley), Scotty (played by James Doohan), Uhura (played by Nichelle Nichols), Chekov (played by Walter Koenig) and Sulu (played by George Takei). Joining them is a new crew member, Ilia (played by Persis Khambatta) and they pick up Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy) from Vulcan on the way towards the mysterious glow cloud. Their mission is to determine what it is and if there is any intelligent life within it as well as if it poses a threat to Earth.
The film was directed by Robert Wise from a script by Harold Livingston, with the story by Alan Dean Foster. The film has a reputation for being slow and boring and I would say that to a certain degree that is quite true. The film is filled with long tracking shots that take forever, from the scene where Kirk and Scotty survey the outside of the Enterprise before they begin their mission to the same super long shots as the crew explores the mysterious glow cloud. The film takes the upwards of an hour to really get going with some absolute glacial pacing. I'm not saying the movie needs to be action packed the whole way through like some later entries have. I liked that they were going for a more philosophical approach with this, trying to go for something deep and perhaps emulate Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. But at the same time, there needs to be more mystery and more wonder propelling the film forward and there just isn't any of that on screen. This is matched by a frankly dull and unappealing production design with a very muted color palette throughout makes it for a very bland film to watch. That said, the second half of the movie is the stronger half as the crew begins to discover just what this mighty glow cloud is and it's origins are pretty cool. But, you still have to get through the first half to get there.
The cast does well in their roles, which is to be expected since they had been playing them for so long. They do the best they can with the material to make it work. Things pick up as the film goes on and they have more to play with. The main trio of Deforest Kelley, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy stand out and have the most screen time, with Kelley having really honed McCoy's wonderful sourpuss nature and adding what little humor there is to the film. I also have to give props to composer Jerry Goldsmith for creating a standout score that including a main theme that has more or less become the definitive theme for Star Trek going forward, including becoming the theme of the Star Trek: The Next Generation tv show.
Overall, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a bit of a mixed bag. It has a compelling story at it's core but with some serious pacing issues on the first half of the film and a surprisingly muted production design hurt the film in my opinion. This has been a more divisive film in the Star Trek series and really it comes down to how you take your sci-fi. If you prefer a more thoughtful and philosophical approach, then you might enjoy this one. If you prefer a more action driven story, then I would say skip directly to Wrath of Khan, you're not missing much here.
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