Star Trek III : À la recherche de Spock

It is what it is folks, it's a good honest Star Trek story, it beats a real emotive heart and although some may decry the lack of blistering space battles, or end of the universe peril scenarios, it's an essential film for dealing with the protagonists we know and love.

Into the mix here we have our favourite alien enemies The Klingons (led by the oddly cast Christopher Lloyd), Spock's father, Sarek, who adds grace to the story, and crucially Kirk gets an emotional kicker. While elsewhere hardcore fans get a big surprise with the beloved Enterprise.

It's of course merely a set up for the next (and delightfully great) instalment of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, but on its own terms this stands up as one of the better character pieces in the series. Due in no small part to having Leonard Nimoy directing it because he shows care and thought about a subject he obviously knows quite a bit about. 7/10

It's really a fantastic Trek movie, a bit lesser mainly because it came in the shadow of Wrath of Khan, a classic of the genre.

It's also far deeper than it appears because while the Klingons are depicted as ruthless, in fact, they are absolutely justified in being terrified at the Genesis Device.

From their point of view, the Federation has developed a weapon of astonishing power that is dressed up as a terraforming device. The evidence they have is a video showing this "terraforming" device as a torpedo, and the first use of this device is the destruction of a nebula. If you were any other power in the galaxy, would you not see this as a Tsar Bomba level demonstration of force?

If North Korea developed a terraforming device that can convert a uninhabited thousand square feet of ocean into a garden, would you not be terrified? It doesn't require any known enemy to be terrifying.

Honestly, for a long time, I wished they hadn't made Kruge so apparently blood thirsty. After time I think it works perfectly. Put the shoes on the other foot and you easily have James Bond or James Kirk himself battling to defeat this weapon.

The movie itself... I think Robin Curtis does a great job but I think her lines made more sense coming out of Kirstie Alley. Curtis plays Saavik like a straight Vulcan and her judgments of David don't really make logical sense. Alley played the half Romulan thing so her emotional judgements made more sense.

Star Trek 3:The Search for Spock is well done movie it just doesn't stand out. I do admit Leonard Nimoy is good director. Look out for Taxi's Christopher Lloyd as the Klingon captian Kruge. I give this movie a 3 out of 5.

How does one follow a film with a fantastic villain, perfect structure, and really good special effects? Muddy the waters, apparently.

Don't get me wrong. I feel like the third Star Trek film is good, but it's also got problems.

So, let's start with the good. The Enterprise is coming home from the Mutara system, wounded with one less officer. There's no sense of victory as the ship tracks into spacedock where its wounds get pushed into a harsh light. Captain Kirk dismisses a cadet's desire for a celebration by referring to paying for their return with their dearest blood. And, on top of it, McCoy is acting odd. He breaks into Spock's sealed quarters and talks of a need to go to Vulcan. Spock's father, the Vulcan ambassador Sarek, tells Kirk of the need to bring Spock's katra, his soul, back to Vulcan, or his essence will die forever.

Kirk must get Spock's body back from the Genesis planet where they shot his body, but Starfleet won't allow it. The Genesis planet is at the center of a galactic controversy and has been declared forbidden.

All of this first act up to this point is a bit clunkier than it should be, but it's effective at getting the point across. And then we get to one of my two favorite individual sequences in all of the Star Trek movies (both of which are in this one, actually).

There are a few things in the sequence of the Enterprise escaping Space Dock that get me. First is the music. James Horner did a bang up job for the previous film, and Nimoy, the director, brought him back to score this. Here, Horner explores the musical themes he created in the second film and gives them greater scope and a larger breadth. The second is the action itself. Much like in the second film, there's an understanding of the limitations of what the models can do, and turning a slow chase out of a dock into something really exciting through the editing is a solid accomplishment. The third is about Kirk. Kirk knows that what he's doing is going to ruin his career, but he has to do it because his friends need him. He's not doing this because he expects to get Spock back, but he does know that Spock's soul is hurting McCoy and needs to find a place to rest. When the captain of the Excelsior tells him that he'll never sit in a captain's chair again, Kirk's face doesn't move. That may be a coincidence of editing, an accident more than anything else, but it's also effective. Kirk's face doesn't move in a way that suggests he knows what the Excelsior's captain is telling him is the truth and that he's still willing to go through with the action anyway. He understands the consequences of his actions, and he's sill stalwart. It's such a fantastic moment.

Before I go any further, I'm going to address the single largest problem with the film: Christopher Lloyd's Klingon, Kruge. Taken in a vacuum, Kruge is actually a pretty good Klingon. The way he strangles a giant space worm with his bare hands, picks up his communicator, and tells his ship that nothing's going on is just perfect. The problem, though, is that he feels like a missing subplot from The Wrath of Khan rather than a natural element in The Search for Spock. He doesn't fit thematically. The theme of the film is about rebirth and creating second chances, while Kruge is having an argument that he missed out on with Khan. He feels like a puzzle piece in the wrong puzzle.

Anyway, the movie continues to the point that Kruge overpowers the weakened Enterprise and sends most of his men onboard in order to commandeer. That's when we get to my other favorite moment in the Star Trek film series.

The self-destruct sequence became such a cliché after this, but it never meant anything because they all got aborted or reversed somehow. Here we have the self-destruct go all the way through, and the destruction of the ship is beautiful. I love how the saucer section essentially melts away, tearing apart the letters of the timeless ship before exploding and falling into the atmosphere of the Genesis planet and turning into nothing more than a ball of flame. There's something permanent and meaningful about that action.

The movie's final action beats are weaker, though. A fist fight in an exploding environment (with some dodgy compositions with the special effects) between our main character and a bad guy from another movie just feels a bit unsatisfactory.

The Vulcan mysticism of the final few minutes of the movie hints at a larger culture that I really enjoy as well. Vulcans, driven by logic, also hang on ceremony in extremely focused ways.

Amidst all of this action, I think we have Shatner's best performance in a Star Trek movie. His reaction to hearing his son die, where he simply falls to the ground instead of into his chair, is great. DeForest Kelley is very good as the confused and angry version of Bones. Lloyd is solid as the bad guy from another movie.

Overall, I do think the movie is solidly good, but it had the capability of being something great. Rewriting Kruge so he actually fit in thematically would have helped, I'm sure. Upping the production and special effects budget a bit so that the effects weren't such a mixed bag would have done good things as well. Still, as a follow up to what is arguably the best Star Trek movie, they could have done far, far worse.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

*** (out of 4)

After the events in the previous film, Kirk (William Shatner) risks his career by stealing the Enterprise to go to a restricted planet in hopes of finding Spock's body who they feel might be alive. Along the way they run into a Klingon leader (Christopher Lloyd) who wants to kill them all. STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH OF SPOCK probably shouldn't have worked since if you've seen the second film then you know what happens to Spock. In order for this "trick" to work the producers and writers really needed to come up with something good and thankfully they did that. I won't ruin what this trick is in "the search for Spock" but I thought it was a rather smart move and it helped make the film a lot more believable. Leonard Nimoy steps into the director's chair here and it's obvious he's very comfortable there as he delivers a good looking film with a good pace and of course the main people back in action. Once again we've got Shatner turning in a good performance as Spock and there's no question that he helps keep the film moving. I don't care what you want to say about the guy but there's no question that he owned this role and could play it in his sleep. Regulars like DeForrest Kelley, James Doohan and George Takei are also good in their roles. It seems a lot of people are split on Lloyd but I thought he was pretty good here. I liked seeing him under all the make-up and thought he did a good job even if the role itself wasn't the greatest. The special effects here are certainly a step up from the previous movie and I'd also say that battle sequences are much better directed. Overall this film doesn't quite reach the levels as the second but it's certainly a worthy sequel.