Definitely one of the weaker entries for me … thoughts from the other thread below …
Just finished watching The Search for Spock. Whilst the movie itself suffers from diminishing epicness, compared to previous, the new 4K presentation does not. There are no obvious bad elements here, it all looks clear, sharp and rich. But like the movie not much spectacular. The ship interiors are again great, with nice skin tones, colours and depth and detail to the picture. The exterior ship and space scenes look even better, and the ageing effects do not suffer either. But in comparison the Genesis planet scenes are exposed with all the limitations of being shot on a stage, the higher quality presentation makes it look all the cheaper. That said, nothing to complain about other than the movie itself.
You have to put aside the hokiness of the plot, the point of the movie was to bring back Spock, and given the seeds planted in Wrath of Khan, the story could only have gone one way, but it was severely let down in execution. An inexperienced screenwriter and an inexperienced Directior, unfortunately gave us an average film, albeit not without some highlights.
My biggest issues with the movie are :-
1. Not accepting Kirstie Alley’s salary demands a big mistake-step given how well received the Saavik character was, and was played with such charisma and personality. Instead we got an actress that neither looked or played the same part.
2. Making Kirk’s Son an idiot and killing him off. Not saying he was a standout before, but it had already been established that Genesis could not be used under anything but the most perfect lifeless conditions. The fact the Genesis device was used in completely the wrong conditions and not even positioned with intent to seed the planet, gave enough reason for the planet to be unstable, you just didn’t need the plot twist that David was a cheating loser, but even then, the way Saavik addresses him, and blames him for everything betrays both characters and insults what has gone before.
3. The conceit that everything to do with Genesis had leaked out across the Galaxy, and such secret information leaked so readily, and the whole Galaxy was up in arms, in the time it took Enterprose to travel back to Earth, and despite all this, they had no security or ships guarding the quarantined planet, leaving a defenceless research vessel all alone. And having got ’caught with his britches down’ so recently the dithering when the Enterprise arrived at Genesis, ignoring the fact Chekhov already said he saw a scout ship, and still not putting 2 and 2 together that a cloaked ship was there, and where was the debris from the Grissom, it had all just vanished?
And finally, this was the start of the ‘jokiness’ coming into the tone of the film. Although I quite like the first third, the idea that they were geriatrics on a comedy romp is already creeping into the script and direction of the series. The charm is still there and the one-liners do raise a chuckle, but unlike in the first two movies forced jokes start to replace wit and character banter.
But therel’s lots of good stuff as well, Sarek, The Space Dock, stealing The Enterprise, Kirk again outwitting an antagonist Commander, the self-destruct sequence, the end of the original Enterprise, the Vulcan ending But there could have been a better movie here, as a genuine sequel to Khan, and for reasons above I’m always disappointed for it.