[standardman]

It's been a couple of weeks since my last confession.

I took the release of the new Star Trek sequel/prequel/reboot as an excuse to go back and watch all the original series movies.

Star Trek I: The Motion Picture

This one gets a bad rep for being ponderous but - even though you could easily chop 30 mins out - there's some good moments and some terrific model work (some of which were even reused in Wrath of Khan). It's Robert Wise, goddamn it!


Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Nicholas Meyer made two very smart decisions that reinvigorated the series - he brought Star Trek back to the 'Hornblower in space' roots and looked at an untold story left open from the conclusion of an old episode - it's tense, it's thrilling and it packs a real emotional punch.

Not just the best movie in the Star Trek series but a damn fine film in it's own right. If you're coming off the recent one and want something to watch - this is it.
KHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAN!


Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Deals with the fallout of Wrath of Khan and may disappoint those looking for action. I really like it, as it's mostly character stuff and it's Leonard Nimoy's first movie as director, solidifying Spock as the movie series' real main character.


Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Also known as 'that one with the whales'. It's a smaller, more human story, with a leaning towards comedy and it kinda works when it shouldn't. Also, killing whales is bad, you bad human.


Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

From the second Leonard Nimoy was tapped to direct The Search for Spock, it was inevitable that Shatner would direct an instalment. And so Shatner fought God and nearly killed the franchise. I'm a big fan of his but this is not a good movie and probably the worst of the franchise.

You do get Spock with jet-boots though. That's illogical AND AWESOME!


Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Thank goodness the 25th anniversary encouraged Paramount to make another Star Trek movie and thank goodness they brought Nimoy and Nicholas Meyer back to work on it.

It's the final full movie for the original cast and - balancing action, allegory and character work - it's a fitting, satisfying farewell.


Star Trek VII: Generations

OH SHI- IT'S A MOTHER FUCKING CROSSOVER! While The Undiscovered Country was the original cast's farewell, this is part passing-of-the-torch and part shameless excuse to have Kirk and Picard on the screen at the same time.

It has it's moments and there's plenty to look at but it's all a little limp, especially the end.


Star Trek 0/XI/I...uh the 2009 one.

First of all, I need to make it clear that I expected not to like this and actually rather enjoyed it - the cast is almost perfect and the script is solid in terms of character work and letting new people in while nodding to what preceded it.

Having said that, it's far from perfect. In trying to stay respectful to the franchise by taking place with the same characters (it's prequel-sequel-reboot), it kind of wiped out everything that happened.

Worse, it made Star Trek - which has largely been about big ideas, characters and allegory - into Star Wars - which is about being really generic and blowing shit up. Think about anything in this movie for more than three seconds and it falls to bits (usually with a distracting bang).

However, I can take this movie as the easy-to-access starter that takes place in a multiverse and hope they build on it, perhaps introducing ideas bigger than 'SHIT IS BOOM!'

The weakest link in this is Jeffery Abrams (why does that guy force his nickname on us, anyway?) who's directing style seems to be 'throw the camera about and shine lights into it'. He's clearly seen more talented directors do things like shoot action handheld but doesn't seem to have actually paid attention to how they made it work.

I'm glad Star Trek's back and I'm thoroughly impressed by the way the cast and script nailed the characters, the action and the humour - I just wish it was smarter.