Greetings and salutations, my friends.

This is your friendly group contributor here with another thread.

Today, I'm gonna give you guys my take of "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier".

Similar to "Space Jam", I had originally intended on starting everything off with a summary of what the film was about. However, I found it to be hard to figure out how to put everything in words, so I decided to skip doing that. What I can say about the film is that the Enterprise has been hijacked by Spock's half-brother, Sybok, who intends on using it to travel to the center of the galaxy in order to find "God".

I have to admit, when I read about the mostly negative reputation this movie had, I was afraid I was going to have the kind of experience I previously had with "Space Jam". My good friend on FiMFiction.net, Jade Dawn, even insisted that I'd dislike this movie even more than "Star Trek: The Motion Picture".

The one thing I'm proud to say regarding this film is that it wasn't as terrible as I expected. But, it wasn't what I'd like to call a great film either, and I can definitely see why it's so infamous.

The film did have its positives, which is what I'd like to take note of first.

Returning from composing the first movie, Jerry Goldsmith's work in this film was something that literally caught me off guard. If his mission was to prove himself as a true Star Trek composer, then I'm proud to say "Mission Accomplished", because there was such a strong resonance that reflected the emotions of the characters and tone of the film.

The performances of the cast, characters, and character development were likewise impressive. As director of the film, William Shatner did a marvelous job at preserving the personalities of the regular characters and making sure they were as likable as ever, and he and the other performers, accompanied by noticeably creative dialogue, looked like they were having a lot of fun with their material. The chemistry between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were what I found to be particularly entertaining, along with the performances Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley. Plus, the film gave great exploration on the backgrounds of Spock and McCoy, and Laurence Luckinbill and his character of Sybok proved to be compelling additions to the franchise.

In spite of these positives, though, there were things about the film I was far from fond of.

For instance, the special effects were among the elements I found myself having mixed to negative feelings towards. As I watched the ships featured in the film, I couldn't help but note how cheesy they seemed to look when flying through space, as it felt like the effects team was hardly putting enough dedication and effort into making the space background and ships look good when together.

But, the direction by William Shatner, the screenplay by David Loughery, and the story by Shatner, Loughery, and Harve Bennett were the real blame for why this film wasn't the most worthwhile. Like I already said, I enjoyed how Shatner preserved what it was that made the regular characters special and the spot-on new additions made for the movie. However, everything else was sadly lacking.

The jokes that were incorporated in the movie weren't very funny, as they either fell flat, felt out of place, or cringy at the most. It primarily felt like filmmakers were trying too hard to make the film funny, and the results weren't successful whatsoever. The emotional moments of the movie weren't that great either, mainly because they weren't the most soul-tugging.

Along with that, the film left a lot to be desired, as well as too many unanswered questions and explanations. The premise as a whole was awfully baffling and hard for me to get, and it contained subplots that were underdeveloped in the long run. One example in particular was the apparent romance between Scotty and Uhura, which held little importance to the story and had no lead up to deeply solidify the connection between the two characters.

In the end, "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" was thankfully not something I all-out hated, but it wasn't a very likable movie either. The acting, characters, and music were great, but the special effects held little appeal, the concept as a whole was confusing and less than understandable, and there were too many terribly done jokes and underdeveloped elements in the story.

So, I rate "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" 2½ out of 5 stars.

Move over "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", you've got company.