Star Trek III: The Search for Spock 4K Blu-ray Review & Comments

Casimir Harlow

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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.
 
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Fascinating. (You just read that in Nimoys voice didn’t you :D )
I’ve never thought much of this and was very much in the even numbers camp - but you’re review of the film gives it a different take on how I’ve boldly gone in before.
Will defo give this a watch again now
 
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.

The score to ‘Stealing The Enterprise’ is my all time favourite piece of film music. It underscores the action on screen perfectly. So sad we lost James Horner.
 
The score to ‘Stealing The Enterprise’ is my all time favourite piece of film music. It underscores the action on screen perfectly. So sad we lost James Horner.
I’ve been hunting down the CD soundtracks in recent weeks, the expanded STIII is the rarest, cost me around $120 via Amazon.com reseller, inc.import, etc.
 
It’s worth mentioning also that ILMs model work is stunning in this film, up there with their work in Star Wars. Spacedock, the Bird of Prey, USS Excelsior. I sometimes wonder if my fetish for spaceship porn blinds me a bit to the movie’s flaws.

Even so, this film has an action scene that basically amounts to a spaceship reversing out of a garage for 10 minutes. And it still gives me goosebumps more than anything I’ve seen in modern Star Trek.
 
Is the opening credits still 'windowboxed' on this 4k release (or the included remastered bluray)???
 
Is the opening credits still 'windowboxed' on this 4k release (or the included remastered bluray)???
No the opening is presented correctly.
 
Can't help but think that the Star Trek movies really are a classic case of diminishing returns. The first movie was a mega budget masterpiece, a movie with epic scope and real old school Hollywood grandeur.

The second was a fun movie made for a fraction of the cost which traded epic scale for camp and hijinks.

The third lost even more scale and lacked Montalban's charisma and gravity too, the series really was starting to flounder here.

The fourth is played purely for laughs and felt like an extended TV episode from the original series. Zero scale, zero drama, and honestly pretty much zero interest. At this point I'd have been tempted to take the series round the back and put it out of its misery.

The fifth is frankly an abomination where unsurprisingly it turned out that putting a man with an ego the size of Shatner in the driving seat was a terrible, terrible idea. A truly awful movie.

Then there's a the sixth one, a sort of apology for the previous mis-steps. It's no masterpiece, but it is a warm hug and a gentle farewell.
 
I have to say that I have a real soft spot for III - it has some great emotion to it with properly high stakes (the Enterprise scene still gives me a jolt of emotion and Kirk’s separate scene towards the end re. David is superbly played by William Shatner), and a brilliantly vicious villain. As said above, a truly epic score as well from James Horner. I love the middle trilogy of II-IV really and I think III isn’t shamed by the other two, although II is clearly the best.
 
Cheers as always Cas. Nice revisiting this franchise and seeing discussion around it, but this one is not for me sadly. In fact last time I did a re-watch I did actually skip it. I find you've got to be really in the mood for this entry.

Looking forward to reading the review of A Voyage Home :)
 
I’ve been hunting down the CD soundtracks in recent weeks, the expanded STIII is the rarest, cost me around $120 via Amazon.com reseller, inc.import, etc.

Wow - that’s expensive. I’ve had the Expanded Editions for quite some time - definitely didn’t pay anywhere near that amount.
 
Wow - that’s expensive. I’ve had the Expanded Editions for quite some time - definitely didn’t pay anywhere near that amount.
Yes, blame TMP 30th anniversary CD appearing in my local HMV. I’ve always wanted them, but they’ve always been OOP. Then I saw that STII expanded had just been remastered/reissued in the US, and that cost £45, then I just had to have the rest, and expanded editions with OST and score. It averaged £30 per disc across all 10 movies, from various places, all brand new, which I guess isn’t that bad, albeit Nemesis is just the OST, and TMP is just the 30th anniversary remaster with a bonus interview disc, the original expanded 3-CD TMP set is pretty much unobtainium.
 
They sure do look preety (in the main) in 4K.
It's (kind of) interesting that some of the early soft shots are of Kirk and not the women, which is the norm. It's one of my constant bugbears, that still occurs, having soft shots of women for either vanity of age or, the old notion of starlets being shot.
Another intrigue for me, was why Kirstie Alley failed to appear here. I thought for years it must've been money but, no...she feared to be typecast! Wow. What a mistake.
I never really took to this one years back but having now rewatched 1-3, didn't mind it so much. The end gets somewhat overladen but the rest is OK and Christopher Lloyd actually wasn't too hammy or unconvincing.
We're working through to 5 and 6 as they are distant memories....
 
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I think V has its heart in the right place but has a fair number of issues, not least of which are the SFX and some silly humour, but when it gets to the character stuff between Kirk, Spock and McCoy I think they all play it very well. I always enjoyed the villain’s arc also.

VI for me is superb, a great send off for the crew with yet another epic score.
 
Another intrigue for me, was why Kirstie Alley failed to appear here. I thought for years it must've been money but, no...she feared by typecast! Wow. What a mistake.
Interesting, as I’d read in several places and I believe heard via guests on the ‘Inglorious Treksperts’ that it was money, albeit not acrimonious. She was offered to return but at same/similar money as II, Her and her agents opinion was it was a much larger/important role, more screen time, her character and portrayal, well received, and she was now more established. As the money she was asking (allegedly triple previous movie) would have put her on the same/similar level as some of the original cast, Nimoy and Bennett opted to recast rather than negotiate. Personally I think she was worth it, and the character did have a larger more important part in this movie.

Otherwise she had a very successful career, albeit TV, more so than any of the original cast really, maybe even more so than Shatner, and probably Nimoy, so I am sure she in no way considers it a mistake. A couple years back she also reaffirmed she is very grateful and proud of the opportunity to play that original role.
 
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Interesting, as I’d read in several places and I believe heard via guests on the ‘Inglorious Treksperts’ that it was money, albeit not acrimonious. She was offered to return but at same/similar money as II, Her and her agents opinion was it was a much larger/important role, more screen time, her character and portrayal, well received, and she was now more established. As the money she was asking (allegedly triple previous movie) would have put her on the same/similar level as some of the original cast, Nimoy and Bennett opted to recast rather than negotiate. Personally I think she was worth it, and the character did have a larger more important part in this movie.

Otherwise she had a very successful career, albeit TV, more so than any of the original cast really, maybe even more so than Shatner, and probably Nimoy, so I am sure she in no way considers it a mistake. A couple years back she also reaffirmed she is very grateful and proud of the opportunity to play that original role.
Yeah, there seems various accounts from her saying offered even less money, to typecast, to we all know (cough, Denise Crosby; cough, Sirtis, ranting for years) what Paramount et al. have been like with equal pay.
She must've been minted from Cheers alone and so yes, TV-wise has been far from poor or unsuccessful. I like the typecast line, as it's less boringly messy.
 
Yeah, there seems various accounts from her saying offered even less money, to typecast, to we all know (cough, Denise Crosby; cough, Sirtis, ranting for years) what Paramount et al. have been like with equal pay.
She must've been minted from Cheers alone and so yes, TV-wise has been far from poor or unsuccessful. I like the typecast line, as it's less boringly messy.
I guess the silver lining is she got to make the amazing ‘Runaway’ with Tom Sellick instead, which I may just watch tonight, as I picked up the Blu a few weeks back. No doubt she got paid the equivalent of what she was asking for Trek III as well on that movie.
 
So, it is confirmed the 1080p blu rays are also remastered and worth getting over the 2009 releases?
 
So, it is confirmed the 1080p blu rays are also remastered and worth getting over the 2009 releases?
Yes the Blu-rays are remastered and they are all a massive improvement over the 2009 Blu-rays (except WoK which always bucked the trend and looked fantastic since the get go).
 
Yes the Blu-rays are remastered and they are all a massive improvement over the 2009 Blu-rays (except WoK which always bucked the trend and looked fantastic since the get go).

I will probably just go to Amazon and buy the separate releases and then if they add V and VI buy them too. They have to be cheaper than the current £12 each. I assume WOK is the 2016 version.

I am not too bothered about new versions of the TNG films in 1080p.
 

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