Runtime:
119 minutes
Directed
by: Leonard Nimoy
Starring:
William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, the rest of the main crew of the
Starship Enterprise, and there's Catherine Hicks too
From:
Paramount
Yep,
here is the way out into left field entry in the original Star Trek
movie series, one that understandably divides people due to how
different it is. What a bold choice, but I suppose fortune favors the
bold, like longtime actor Jonathan Goldsmith, a.k.a. The Dos Equis
Guy says as The Most Interesting Man In The World. Yeah, he's a
longtime actor and one of these days I need to watch one of the movie
he is featured prominently in. Awhile back I did see a decent amount
of this on Ion TV one Saturday night while killing time waiting to go
to a club in downtown Orlando. I hadn't seen it in full in who knows
how many years.
Anyhow,
you likely know the plot already, but to explain anyway... as the
Klingons are looking for Kirk to be prosecuted for what happened in
the last film (and they showed footage from the last movie to show
what happened, including the ship blowing up from the outside... um,
how was that footage captured?), a strange probe heads towards Earth
and wreaks havoc; it's odd how the idea of something mysterious
heading towards Earth is quite similar to the first Star Trek movie
with V'Ger. This time, the probe is from some mysterious civilization
and they've talked to humpback whales for many thousands of years.
When they became extinct in this century in this universe, they
became curious so they went to Earth to try and find them... and they
end up causing a lot of havoc with the oceans and all electricity and
possibly ruining the planet forever.
Meanwhile, Kirk and the crew are
chillin on the Vulcan planet for 3 months, as they're apprehensive to
go back to Earth to deal with Starfleet's punishments. I imagine the
Vulcan planet isn't so much fun due to how logical Vulcans are and
all... they decide to go back just as the probe is causing all that
havoc. They decide to save Starfleet's ass once again, this time by
time travelling in the Klingon Bird of Prey they hijacked, resulting
in a really bizarre sequence that must be a blast or a terror to
watch while high on drugs. They're in 1986 and they have to try and
bring back humpback whales so that they can give the 411 to the probe
for it to leave.
Sorry
for the long plot description but it is easy to poke fun at the film
even if you like it, and I do like it. Once they get to the 80's, boy
is it wacky. It's a fish out of water story as the whole crew stands
out for being weird in that time period with the way they act, their
dress, and all that, and Spock is trying to get back to “normal”
after what happened in the last film. There's a lot of comedy, and
not all of it works. Still, despite some flaws, it is an entertaining
popcorn movie as hey, it still has the characters I enjoy and it has
a wacky tale to tell of how they would act in such a setting, and
everyone has a chance to shine. It is hard to rate with the rest of
the series due to how it stands out, though.
Before
I gave it a view, I looked on its IMDb page and someone there asked a
simple question, and to paraphrase, it was “Um, in the 60's show,
it was established that the Earth of the late 20th
century was definitely different because in the 90's, it was said
that Khan was a ruler of a decent amount of the planet. Yet, in this
movie, 1986 San Francisco is like how it was in real life. Insert the
meme .gif of Ernie laughing while Bert looks up from his book with a
blank look on his face. Yeah, there are some things with this movie that make me wonder, but it doesn't really affect my enjoyment, mind you.
One
thing I did not remember from viewing it as a kid... this movie is
not subtle. They lay it on thick with the ripping of how humans were
in the late 20th
century, from their pollution to how they use vulgarities often, from
how “primitive” they are and how bad the idea of nuclear power is
to how they don't give a damn about the environment. I don't want to
say there's an agenda, but well... still, it is a nice message for
humans not to abuse the environment and not eradicate entire species.
Oh,
and amusingly, the punk song you hear during the great scene of Kirk
& Spock dealing with the punk rocker on the bus (after the punk
gives them the finger, Spock uses his Vulcan Neck Pinch to knock him
out), the entire song is on YouTube. Awesome.
I
won't be back until Thursday night, but I plan on writing about more
than one movie with the next post.
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