My Movie Review on Star Trek III: The Search for Spock · 4:13pm Mar 23rd, 2020
Yo, what's up, my friends?
This is your pleasant-as-ever film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
Today, following my analysis of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", I'm gonna be giving you guys my take of "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock".
Here's the rundown of this adventure:
In the wake of Spock's death and burial after the attack by Khan Noonien Singh, Admiral Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise return to homebase with sorrowful hearts. As if that isn't enough, they discover that the Federation has decided to scrap the Enterprise after 20 years of service.
However, Dr. McCoy has been acting very strange since the burial, like he has two people in one body. And on planet Genesis, David Marcus and lieutenant Saavik discover that the planet is not only going to destroy itself, but that Spock's body is renewing by rapidly aging. All of this leads to the revelation that there's a chance to bring Spock back, because he transferred his spirit to McCoy before dying, and so it must be reunited with Spock's body as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, though, a group of Klingons, lead by the murderous Commander Kruge, acquire the data for project Genesis and wish to find the device and steal it.
Will Kirk and his friends be able to get Spock back? Or will he be gone forever?
What's more, will Commander Kruge get what he wants?
Having watched this Star Trek film the morning after seeing Wrath of Khan, I really must say that I can't understand why it has such a slightly mixed reputation. I inspected the film closely for any flaws, and you know what I found?
NOTHING!
The film as a whole was a lot more amazing than I expected.
For instance, the direction by Leonard Nimoy, and the story by Harve Bennett, were fantastic!
Among the things I enjoyed about their work here was that they captured the spirit and essence of the franchise while boosting it to a level that was perfect for a film. There were wonderful snippets of wit and humor, compelling emotion and drama, and there was a great amount of intrigue, thrills, and high stakes that gave the film a sense of life. In addition, the characters drove the film like they were the heart and soul of it all, and the dialogue they were accompanied with was enjoyable too.
The performances of the cast, characters, and character development in articulation were phenomenal as well.
William Shatner and DeForest Kelley gave performances that were extremely award-worthy, particularly because of the amount of feeling and personality they put into their characters to make them deeply human. Along with that, Christopher Lloyd did a phenomenal job portraying Commander Kruge, incorporating a classically theatrical air to the character even through the makeup he was wearing.
Finally, the music by James Horner was as melodious as ever. It was at the same kind of level as his previous work, of course. But, he came up with tons of new material that was creative and very splendid to listen to, and the melodies matched every moment the film showcased. Plus, the music not only resonated with the feelings of the characters, but the emotional resonance of the story and direction as well.
Once again, though, I felt that the MPAA rating system made a mistake in rating the film 'PG'. Similar to Wrath of Khan, I think the movie should've been rated PG-13, mainly because of the slight language, use of blood, and thematic elements.
In conclusion, "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" was another installment of the series that I found to be deeply enjoyable. It exceeded my expectations in more ways than one, was greatly paced, and it showcased Leonard Nimoy's incredible abilities as not just an actor, but a filmmaker to boot.
So, I rate "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" five out of five stars.
The only real problem with this one is that it came out after the masterpiece that was "Wrath of Khan", which is an extremely high bar to cross. It isn't as good, but it's still a pretty good film in it's own right. It helps that it established the Excelsior, Oberth, and Klingon Bird-of-Prey type starships as future mainstays of the franchise.
Also, hot-take: Enterprise's death made me cry more than Spock's.
5226402
You think Enterprise's death was terrible? Well Kirk's son dead was equally sorrowful and heartbreaking!
5226419
True, but we only knew the guy for two movies tops. Enterprise was around from even before Kirk took command of her. She was the soul of Star Trek itself.
5226426
True. But Kirk carries the grief of losing his son all the way to The Undiscovered Country.
5226402
5226419
This is just my opinion, but I found the death of Kirk’s son, David, to be a lot more heart-tugging than the destruction of the Enterprise. Much of it I believe comes from how much the death of a life form affects me compared to the destruction of a machine.
5229851
She was alive to me...
Also, fun fact about the Klingon Bird-of-Prey. Originally, the antagonists of the film were going to be Romulans, but then it was changed to the Klingons, and there was supposed to be a scene involving Kruge and his crew stealing the Bird-of-Prey from the Romulans, but then that got cut and it wound up being a full-fledged Klingon vessel.
And that's why Klingons now have Birds-of-Prey and cloaking devices.