Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
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DVD details
Actor: Phil Morris, William ShatnerDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-10-22
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
DVD Review: Underrated
Summary: 4 Stars
There is an unwritten law concerning the Star Trek movies. All the even numbered movies (2, 4, 6...) are good, and all the odd numbered movies (1, 3, 5...) are horrible. I bought into this, to a point. I completely agree with regard to Motion Picture and Final Frontier. However, I think that of the original six TOS movies, this one is exempt from the rule. I don't think it's quite as good as 4 or 6, or anywhere near as good as 2, but I thought it was pretty close. I think this movie is kind of put alongside 1 and 5 without any real thought put into it. It isn't quite as good as the even numbered ones, so it's considered horrible.
The third movie in the series starts up a few days, or maybe a week after the events of part 2. Spock is dead, having sacrificed himself to save the ship. At the end of part 2, there was a sense of optimism. Spock is dead, but there is hope that the Genesis planet could possibly heal him. And Kirk has finally come to terms with the fact that he is getting old, and it not longer bothers him. At the start of this film, however, everyone appears to be depressed over Spock's death, while in the previous film they seemed to have come to terms with it. It's like they just decided to overrule what had happened in the previous movie. On that subject, David Marcus, Kirk's son, is staying behind to study the Genesis planet. For some reason, his mother, Carol Marcus, is entirely absent from this movie. I mean, she isn't even talked about. Her name isn't mentioned once. I don't really understand why she wouldn't have wanted to stay behind and study the world she helped create. For some unexplained reason, Saavik also stays behind. Kirstie Alley did not want to reprise her role, so her actress was replaced. I don't remember the new Saavik's name, but I couldn't stand her. She just so wooden and bland, even for a Vulcan. But she doesn't have as much screen time in this film, so it's okay.
The Enterprise returns to Earth, where they find out that the Enterprise is no longer going to be used by Starfleet. Starfleet feels that Enterprise is too old and needs to make way for newer ships, like the new Excelsior. Something so one has ever pointed out, to my knowledge, is that this is roughly a week after Wrath of Khan. Why weren't they talking about dismantling the Enterprise in the last film? And why did they send Enterprise on a training cruise if they were planning on dismantling the ship anyway? Maybe they had been thinking about dismantling Enterprise for a while, and in light of the damage inflicted on the ship, they thought it would be too much trouble for them to repair the ship. Okay, fine, but it seems like a plot hole. As Kirk and his crew are mourning the death of Spock, Sarek, Spock's father arrives. He is angry at Kirk. He assumes Spock mind-melded with Kirk just before his death. It turns out that Vulcans can live on even after their body has been destroyed. They just have to transfer their brain to someone else's body. Then they have to have someone transfer their mind back to their own body, on Vulcan. It turns out that instead of Kirk, Spock actually melded with McCoy. So why didn't Spock explain that to Kirk right before he died? And why didn't McCoy start acting like Spock right away? That would have saved everyone a lot of time and energy. On the plus side though, it was pretty entertaining to see McCoy acting and talking like Spock.
Kirk realizes he has to go back to Genesis and pick up Spock's body, then bring him back to Vulcan for the ritual. If he doesn't, any chance of saving Spock will be lost and McCoy will go insane. He asks the Starfleet commander for permission to return to Genesis. Starfleet refuses his request, saying that Spock coming back makes no sense, and that Genesis is under quarantine. Kirk disobeys his orders and he and the rest of the crew steal the Enteprise. The scene where they fly the ship out of the Starfleet hangar is probably my favorite scene in all of Star Trek. And the captain of Excelsior, the pursuing ship, is such an arrogant jerk that it makes you want them to escape even more. They leave earth and head for Genesis.
They get there, only to find the ship David and Saavik and David were on has been destroyed by the Klingons. A Klingon bird of prey, captained by Doc Brown, wants Genesis. A short fight ensues between the two ships. Enterprise is crippled, and they lose power. Doc Brown has captured David and Saavik, along with a reborn Spock. However, Spock is now a young boy. He was regenerated by the planet, but brought back as a young boy. It also turns out that the planet is dying. David engineered it using proto-matter, an unstable element...or something. Spock is rapidly aging along with the planet. He is in a tremendous amount of pain. As a sign that he is serious, Doc Brown has David killed. Kirk pretends to surrenderr, and then he and his crew beam down to the planet just as most of the Klingon crew is beaming aboard Enterprise. Kirk has set the Enterprise to self-destruct, and in what is a great scene, the bulk of the Klingon crew are killed. Down on the planet, Kirk and crew kill the remaining Klingons and rescue Saavik and Spock. Kirk tricks Doc Brown into beaming down to Genesis. The two argue, Doc Brown demanding that Kirk tell him the secret of Genesis, and Kirk calling him an idiot, pointing out that the Genesis experiment is a failure. All the people who try to explain this to Doc kind of miss the point. Doc isn't interested in creating a planet from lifelessness. He wants Genesis for it's destructive power, like Khan did in the previous film. Having the planet destroy itself after Genesis changes it does not really matter to Doc. He wants Genesis as a weapon, nothing else. And whether Genesis can sustain life is irrelevent, as far as he's concerned.
I have to say, Kruge is a pretty scary villian. He would have been better if he had been played by someone else. I'm not saying Christopher Lloys is a bad actor, he just wasn't the right actor to play this role. He's better at playing comical roles than evil villianous roles. So in a throwback to the old TV show, Kirk and Doc have a fight. Doc falls off a cliff to his death. Kirk tricks the remaining Klingon into beaming him up to the Klingon ship. Man, these Klingons are dumb. They leave for Vulcan just as the planet explodes. They perform the ceremony, and Spock and Bones are both saved. It will take some time for Spock to completely heal, but he is at least on the path to recovery.
As I said before, I like this movie. I do not by into the odd-numbered Star Trek rule when it comes to this film. I don't think this is as good as most of the even-numbered movies, but I think it's pretty good and under-rated. I think too many people wanted it to be as good as Wrath of Khan, and in just about every way, it is just not as good. But I still like it.
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