"STAR TREK: MOTION PICTURE TRILOGY"
Blu-Ray Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: ***** (out of 5 stars) BLURAY EXPERIENCE: ***** (out of 5 stars) STARRING William Shatner as ADMIRAL JAMES T. KIRK Leonard Nimoy as CAPTAIN SPOCK DeForest Kelley as DR. MCCOY James Doohan as SCOTTY Walter Koenig as MR. CHEKOV George Takei as MR. SULU Nichelle Nichols as CMDR. UHURA Rated PG Studio: Paramount Directed by: Nicholas Meyer & Leonard Nimoy Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
With the wild success of J.J. Abrams’ reboot of “Star Trek,” it’s time for Trekkies, Trekkers and the general public to rediscover the first batch of movies made in the 1980s. While “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” was actually a film of the 1970s, the most successful and most beloved installments of the series ran from “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” in 1982, through “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” in 1984 through “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” in 1986.
These three classic Trek movies have been re-released on DVD and Blu-Ray in a sunning three-disc set. While not originally conceived as a trilogy, they three films play very much as one. “Star Trek II” breathed new life into the series and pitted Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) against his nemesis from “The Space Seed,” Kahn Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) after escaping exile. Remembered by many as the best Trek film ever, “Star Trek II” features one of the more surprising and shocking ends to a film in years.
“Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” was the first movie directed by Leonard Nimoy, which served as a fine transition because he spent much of his time off screen. This movie saw the crew of the Enterprise hijack their own ship with a skeleton crew in order to find the body of Spock on the Genesis Planet in order to reunite him with his Katra, which has been implanted in Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley).
“Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” takes the crew of the Enterprise from Vulcan back to Earth only to discover a probe has been sent to our atmosphere and is destroying the planet with its signal. The crew must travel back in time to 1986 in order to find two humpback whales that can communicate with the probe. This episode saw a return of the humor into the films and also included the classic time travel convention that lands the crew back to modern (or at least modern at the time) society.
WHAT I LIKED
I have been a “Star Trek” fan for decades, although I never identified myself as a Trekkie or a Trekker. Still, I was in junior high school and high school when these films came out, and these were my formative years of watching film. So this Trek trilogy did more to develop my love of “Star Trek” than watching the reruns on television did.
The new Blu-Ray transfers of these films are simply brilliant, and the soundtracks are powerful to listen to. Not too many releases from the mid-1980s warrant a look on the HD quality of Blu-Ray, but all three films in this series do, with a special nod to “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” which originally embodied the powerful big-screen look that ultimately defined the film series.
And as much as I love “The Wrath of Khan,” I will defend the often maligned “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” At the time of my childhood, this was my favorite Trek film. I even liked the new actress (Robin Curtis) they got to play Saavik. In my later years, I have really come to appreciate Kirstie Alley’s performance in “The Wrath of Khan,” but back in the mid-1990s, I definitely carried a torch for Robin Curtis.
All three films have been previously available on DVD and VHS, and they are also newly available in the box set of “Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture Collection.” With the exception of this latter, more comprehensive collection, “Star Trek: Motion Picture Trilogy” is definitely worth an additional purchase for the Blu-Ray features and the remastered picture and sound.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
People who don’t like “Star Trek” won’t fawn over this release as someone like myself does, and that’s okay. There’s plenty of basic complaints about the series that anyone could have, and even the Trekkies and Trekkers might take issue with one or more of the films in the collection. However, let’s leave those complaints at the door because you shouldn’t really be considering this box set if you don’t enjoy these three films already.
BLU-RAY FEATURES
It is releases like “Star Trek: Motion Picture Trilogy” that take full advantage of the Blu-Ray format. Each disc contains a remastered feature film, which is also available on DVD without the new content. Each disc also includes two commentary tracks – one from the original digital release and the other updated for this release, including 2009’s “Star Trek” writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman lending their voices to “The Voyage Home.”
Each disc provides the original DVD bonus materials, which includes in-depth half-hour production histories of the films, how they were developed and how they all link together. There’s also the original theatrical trailers and photo galleries, along with the original commentaries.
New features to this release include the new commentaries, exclusive Blu-Ray content and high definition featurettes about the films and the “Star Trek” experience.
On “The Wrath of Khan” there is “James Horner: Composing Genesis,” “Collecting Star Trek’s Movie Relics” and “A Tribute to Ricardo Montalban.”
On “The Search for Spock,” there’s “Industrial Light & Magic: Visual Effects,” “Spock: The Early Years” (which spotlights one of the actors to play Spock on the Genesis Planet) and “Star Trek and the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.”
On “The Voyage Home,” we have “Pavel Chekov’s Screen Moments” (a sit-down with Walter Koenig, talking about his spotlighted scenes in “The Wrath of Khan” and “The Voyage Home”), “The Three-Picture Saga” and a Greenpeace bit called “Star Trek for a Cause.”
Another new feature is the high definition “Starfleet Academy” science featurettes that present the history and background of a relevant plot element from each film. “The Wrath of Khan” features the history of Ceti Alpha VI, “The Search for Spock” features the Vulcan Katra Transfer and “The Voyage Home” features the Whale Probe.
Exclusive to the Blu-Ray discs is the Library Computer feature, which includes a continuous pop-up trivia track that offers trivia and explanations throughout the films. Content ranges from basic technology and jargon to character bios and information relevant to action happening on the screen at that moment. The other exclusive Blu-Ray feature is the “Star Trek I.Q.” section on all three films. This allows the viewer to access quizzes online about the relevant feature, create their own quizzes that can be submitted through the Internet and a way to see which quizzes become the most popular.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Trekkies, Trekkers and anyone who liked these movies at any point in their lives.
