Star Trek summer/fall: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Okay, before I begin the latest write-up of my series on Star Trek, I guess I have some explaining to do.  I had originally planned to do write-ups on all the Star Trek films this summer, along with write-ups on each film in the Nightmare on Elm Street  series.  Obviously that didn't happen as I only did two blog posts this summer, both on the first Star Trek films.  Well, to be perfectly open with everyone, I just wasn't in a movie watching mood this summer, which is odd for me.  I typically watch about ten movies a week, but this year it was down to one or two.  Instead I read a lot.   I got really into DC comics and read many trade paperbacks of those both old and new.  I watched a lot of TV based on DC comics as well over the summer.  I also slept quite a bit.  It's something I'm very fond of these days.  I even briefly thought of giving up blogging altogether, thinking that my love for film may have finally left me.  However, in the past two weeks I've started watching movies again and today I finally felt up to writing as well, which is why the third Trek film is finally getting its write up.  Now, I must say, I'm not in a big Star Trek movie mood at this point in time, and therefore, it may be the end of the year before these write ups are done.  However, I will do blog posts on other things interspersed with the Trek ones.  I may even get around to Nightmare on Elm Street ones!  But yes, as of now, the blog is back.  Consider the summer to have been basically a hiatus.

So without further ado....

     Near the end of the filming of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the cast and crew finally felt that they were making a good film, as opposed to the first one.  However, Spock was set to die valiantly saving the Enterprise.  The idea of a good death was how they even got Leonard Nimoy to sign on to do the film!  However, the heads of production knew another sequel would most likely be needed.  So they stuck in that scene where Spock does some Vulcan tai-chi to Bones, which knocks Bones out, and whispers in his ear "remember", before promptly going into his radiation bath to die.  Now, Leonard Nimoy was pretty certain there would be no sequel, so he let this be put in the movie.  Not so surprisingly, The Wrath of Khan, with its themes of revenge, mid-life crises, and new life... and a lot of space battles did very well at the box office in 1982 and did well with critics.  So of course, Paramount quickly tried to get another sequel underway.  But the only way Leonard Nimoy was talked into it was by someone mentioning to him that he should direct the next one.  That stuck with him, so he put it in as a stipulation for returning.  And everyone said it was a good idea... and never called him back.  Finally, he called Michael Eisner (future head of Disney, but then head of Paramount) and asked him why.  Someone had told Eisner that Nimoy hated the character of Spock so much that he wrote a book about it and put in his contract for the second movie that they had to kill him off.  It was true, he had wrote a book a few years earlier called I Am Not Spock, but the book was not about the hatred of the character.  He loved playing Spock.  The autobiography simply was saying that there was more to the person Leonard Nimoy than Spock and that he himself was not like Spock.  And of course, the death of his character was not in his contract for the second movie.  The death was simply the bait to get him to sign on.  So after explaining this to Eisner, he got the directing job for Star Trek III.

     The Search for Spock is a pretty self-explanatory film.  The plot of the movie is to get Spock's body back from the Genesis planet (undoubtedly inhabited by people who love Phil Collins or perhaps two continents at war over which era, Phil Collins or Peter Gabriel they like better) so that his Katra (which is basically Spock's living soul, now incased in Bones' brain after the whole "remember" incident) can be removed from Bones and Spock can be buried on his home planet of Vulcan, which apparently is very important to vulcans, or at least an acceptable plot point.  As the Enterprise is headed to the Genesis planet (the Enterprise was stolen from space dock, by the way, as it was to be decomissioned after the heavy damage it took in the last film and due to its age) Kirk's son David and Saavik (no longer played by Kirstie Allie) are doing scientific research on the Genesis planet on the science vessel Grissom.  The planet now has various climate zones and life-forms, and one is in Spock's coffin/photon torpedo tube!  You would think the landing of the torpedo would have spread his innards across the planet, but apparently torpedoes just sort of set down on planets.  Go figure.  And also while this is happening, some Klingons led by Krug (played by Christopher Lloyd of all people, and at the time he was known for his comedic role in Taxi) have stolen the Genesis computer file and have headed to the Genesis planet as well.  Of course, this all comes together in a fiery, action-filled conclusion.

   Now, I don't feel as many do that the odd numbered Star Trek films are bad, and the even ones are good.  And one reason I deviate from that is because of this film.  Star Trek III is a good movie.  It's not as great as Star Trek II, no doubt about that, but it is a good film.  No, the problem is that films II, III, and IV form a sort of trilogy, and this is the middle part.  It's darker, the character are at their lowest, and there is no clear beginning or end.  It suffers from Two Towersitis.  And unlike The Empire Strikes Back, which is now considered by most (but not me), to be the best Star Wars film, and it being the middle of a trilogy as well, this isn't a real classic.  It's simply... good.  Let's discuss the whys now.

     Let's start with some of the bad or rather... mediocre things about the film just to get them out of the way.  The worst thing about the movie is that there's one location shot in the whole movie.  Just one.  The stuff with the different climates on the Genesis planet?  Studio stage.  I mean, most of the movie is set in space dock or on the Enterprise, so that's kind of understandable, but man those Genesis scenes are eye-sores to watch in HD these days.  Just matte paintings and styrofoam rocks.  You can tell in every shot that it's simply a soundstage.  Even the original series at least shot out in the California desert, and their budget was much less!  There's simply no excuse for the horrible production values of those scenes. 

     Second there's James Horner's score.  Whereas his score for the previous film was rousing and full of energy, his score here is more contemplative and in the background.  You barely know it's there.  And when you do notice it, it isn't rousing or that interesting.  Now, this film is less of an action/adventure film than the previous film was.  I don't really know how to classify this film, actually.  It's not really even a quest film, as the journey isn't really shown in the film.  They leave space dock and they arrive at Genesis pretty quickly.  I guess in a way the music does fit the slower pace of the film, but the score seemed uninspired.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that Leonard Nimoy wanted his friend Leonard Rosenman to do the score, but Paramount declined.  (He did end up doing the music for the next film.)

    And then there's the last negative to the film.  And it's pretty obvious.  Spock isn't really in the movie.  Sure, he shows up at the end and in other (silent) forms on Genesis, but what is Star Trek without Spock?  (This movie, apparently.)  Now, the effect is somewhat dissipated by Spock being spoken about and searched for the whole film, but it's just not the same.  Basically William Shatner and DeForest Kelley have to hold up the movie on their own with a little help from James Doohan, George Takei, and Walter Koenig.  And for the most part they do.  Personally, I find Christopher Lloyd to be the one that carries the film, though many can't take him seriously enough to do so.  Because it's obviously Christopher Lloyd in blackface.  (Oh dear, I just realized that is exactly what they did there.)  No mistaking that voice!   And to be honest, he does chew the scenery here.  He hams it up just as good as William Shatner.  I wonder if they had some sort of competition going.  Another negative that's sort of related is that Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) is only at the beginning and end of the film as well.  And that's always bugged me for some reason.  Why was she the only one of the main crew to not go rescue Spock?  (She's the one that transported them to the Enterprise and they filled up the pads, so maybe that's why, but it's a stupid reason.)

    On to the good.  The special effects are actually a bit better here than in Wrath of Khan.   ILM did the effects work again, and the film had a little bit more budget this time.  We see the first Klingon Bird of Prey in this film, and its a beauty.  (Originally it was meant to be Romulans that attack Grissom and the Enterprise, and so the ship had cloaking technology, and the ship's design was based on Romulan ships.  However, they decided Klingons were more marketable, and so they changed it to a Klingon ship, but kept it as is with the Romulan design and cloaking device.)  Even the special effects on the Genesis planet where it begins breaking apart are.. okay they aren't great, but they are serviceable.  There's falling rocks, fire, erupting trees, a big lava pit, etc.  It's cool, in a slightly better than 1970s Doctor Who effects kind of way. 

    One of my favorite additions in this film is the large amount of humor.  Without it, the movie would be a dud.  But a few years ago when I went back through the films, I found this one to actually be one of the funniest ones.  A lot of the humor comes from the campiness of Christopher Lloyd and William Shatner, sure, but there's also Bones becoming like Spock at inopportune times.  Here's one of my favorite scenes, and one of the funniest.

    I think it's also easily noticable that this scene is a big Star Wars rip off.  The alien speaks like Yoda, the scene is set in a Mos Eisley type setting, and Bones is trying to smuggle himself off a planet like Obi-Wan and Luke.  And the authorities even take an interest in his handiwork!  Then there's scenes like this...  Leading to George Takei penis jokes to this day.

    Another positive, and I'm not giving anything away here, as it was in the trailer for the movie, the destruction of the Enterprise.  It's a pretty amazing thing to behold, I only wish I'd seen it on the big screen.  Kirk blows up his own ship rather than have it end up in Klingon hands.  They even use the same destruct codes used in the only original series episode where they started the countdown to self destruct.  Good continuity, Star Trek.  It's one of the many things we love ya for!

    The acting here is pretty good as well, if you can get past the hamminess of the two top actors.  And actually Shatner gives perhaps the performance of his life when he learns of the death of someone close to him, backing up and sort of falling, missing his captain's chair.  And it gave us the great line "You Klingon bastard, you killed my son!"  It's stage-like acting for sure and melodramatic, but it works in that portion of the film.  And let us not forget the final wrestling/fist fight between Kirk and the Klingon that ordered his son's death, Krug.  The fight is great.  The planet is exploding all around them, there's a giant earthquake and a pit of fire.  In the words of Krug, "Exhilarating, isn't it?!"   The end of the scene was even referenced in South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut.  And it's due to the second most remembered line from the film.  "I!   Have Had!  Enough of YOU!" as Kirk continously kicks Christopher Lloyd in the face as he's hanging from a cliff.  Brilliant, that is.

The movie was made on a budget of 16 million dollars, which was about 5 million more than the second film.  However, it did gross 10 million less as well, making 87 million.  Still a pretty good hit, and enough to secure a sequel.  The film got mixed reviews at the box office, pretty much everyone agreeing that the film was good, but not great, and better than the first, but not as good as the second film.  And I agree with those criticisms.  The film basically fixes the end of the second movie so that the series can go on with Spock.  And it does that job, I suppose, while not boring us out of our minds or giving us complete jumps in logic.  (Spock himself did direct the film, after all.)  I think Siskel and Ebert's review hits all the points.  They agreed on this film and I agree with their insights completely.