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THE FILM:
The 5th film in the Star Trek series has the crew of the Enterprise battling against Spock's half brother, a Vulcan looking to take over the Enterprise and send it towards "The Great Barrier", the unknown at the end of the Universe. The film presents some very interesting ideas in the way that it compares the way that the ship is traveling towards the edge of the universe compared to the travels towards the "edge" of the earth when the explorers where finding new land, but overall, this film doesn't really capture the mythical level that made this series as popular as it is. It's considered the worst of the series by many, but I still found it fairly enjoyable.
The film starts off fairly slowly, but as the ship heads towards the great barrier, the interest gains strength as it would for any sort of plot like this where we are promised a great spectacle.
The first half of the film is rather dull, a bunch of events that really don't have much meaning; a lot of conventional action and conversation that does the thing that I hate for movies to do: have quite a few scenes and a whole lot of dialogue that doesn't get to the point that the movie is trying to get across and as the film goes into the second half, a lot of what happened in the first act doesn't seem to have had much point.
Do we get to see a major spectacle at the end? Well, I won't spoil anything for those who have seen the movie, but it certainly wasn't as interesting a final act as I'd hoped. The funny thing is that even as this isn't really the best film in the series, I still found it more entertaining than the average movie. There's something about the Trek series, and maybe it's because it's familiar, that makes it always at least watchable.
Definitely not the best film in the series(and maybe the worst, actually), but still, I found it entertaining. The special effects are enjoyably goofy.
THE DVD:
VIDEO QUALITY:Not too bad for an 10 year old movie. The 2.35:1 image looks like it's likely been taken from the same master as the laserdisc and it's fairly enjoyable, although not flawless. The image is generally clear, but lacking in sharpness throughout; it seems slightly on the soft side. Colors vary in quality; sometimes they're rather vibrant and sometimes they're not. It all seems to depend on the scene and whether it's day or not. The night and even low-light scenes generally look acceptable, but still a little too much on the hazy and occasionally murky side. There are some slight artifacts throughout, but nothing terribly distracting. There are also some instances where some grain is fairly apparent. I didn't really notice any flaws with the print used for this master such as scratches, etc. As I said, some of the scenes look good, such as Kirk climbing the mountain in the begining or Sulu walking through the forests before being called back to action. But the lower the light, the less detail the picture contains. Shadow detail is only fair; color saturation and contrast are average and flesh tones are generally pretty good. It would have been nice to get an anamorphic transfer, though. Paramount did really nice work with Terrence Malick's 1978 film "Days Of Heaven" with an anamorphic transfer recently.It would be wonderful to see that kind of quality from them for other releases, but for now, it looks as if Paramount will keep going with their releases of varying quality. There are some scenes on this disc that I felt were enjoyable, but there are others were detail seemed to be lost in a murky image. It's certainly watchable, but it could have been presented better.
AUDIO QUALITY:I really enjoyed the finer details that were presented here, like the winds blowing across the barren fields during the first scenes of the film. Of course, it's always great to hear that "Star Trek" theme blasting at the begining of the film and it sounds just as enjoyable here, taking us through the opening credits sounding rich and full. There are some instances of nice action, effects and direction during some of the action scenes and especially during some of the final scenes around the great barrier. Dialogue sounds clear, crisp and pretty good for a film that's 10 years old. Even the rather terrifying scene of Kirk, Spock and the Doctor singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" around the campfire sounds good. The thing I enjoyed most though, was Jerry Goldsmith's score, which sounded really good here; crisp, clear and very enjoyable.
MENUS: A rather gross and definitely basic looking Paramount menu.
EXTRAS: A teaser and full theatrical trailer.
OVERALL:
GRADES:
The Film: 80/B = (400/500 possible points)
Video: 75/C = (300/400 possible points)
Audio: 84/B = (336/400 possible points)
Extras: 70/C- = (210/300 possible points)
Menus: 65/D = (130/200 possible points)
Value: 75/C = (225/300 possible points)
Presentation:74/C = (74/100 possible points)
TOTAL POINTS:1676/2200
Overall:76.18%/C
Recommendation: If you're a fan of the series, it's definitely a decent disc. Otherwise, it's worth looking at as a rental. It would have been nice to have some sort of extras included with the Star Trek series discs from Paramount, but apparently and unfortunately, that doesn't look to be happening anytime soon.
