I'd vote OT over ST II-IV.
My reasons: Star Wars is a perfectly put-together film: tight script, brilliant editing, and (for the time) innovative and creative direction. The art design is one of the finest ever. The world of imagination it opened up was limitless. The concept of space Samurai with magic powers: cool beyond belief, and the themes of good and evil are wonderful. The Empire Strikes Back is, likewise, a real tight story, superbly told, and dives deeper into the ideas set up in the first. Jedi is a flawed gem, sure...but it drives in the theme of Redemption so beautifully.
In comparison, I like the story of a space hero (Kirk) becoming an admiral and then cyclically returning to "space hero", but I find Luke's journey more compelling. He's a backwash nobody who yearns to be a hero, then becomes one, and then realises that "wars not make one great" and seeks true Enlightenment and selflessness instead of his original ideals. That's very compelling. And no goofy Ewoks or disconnected adventures to rescue Han Solo can take that away.
Star Trek II is genius. Thanks to the OP, in fact, I'm seriously reevaluating it next to Star Wars and think it isn't getting as much credit as it's due. That said, Star Trek III always seemed misguided to me. It's just basically like, "Mmmm...we regret killing Spock. That emotional climax didn't *really* happen..." and that feels a bit cheap. It drags away some of the power of the Wrath of Khan's themes. It's also largely just that one plot point: let's retcon Wrath of Khan. Dead Spock lives! Kirk's not really a dad! (etc.) They pay the son's murder off nicely in VI, though... As for Star Trek IV, it's very enjoyable and a great comedy, but it's not really wrapping up the arc as neatly as Jedi does.
Now, I think they're all fine films, but the aggregate of Star Wars IV-VI is greater, in my opinion, than the combined weight of Star Treks II-IV.
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FootOfDavros (6707)
4 years ago
Well for me I did say no Star Wars trilogy better. I'd put the Star Trek II-IV on a par with the OT.
IV is obviously a bit lighter but I like Spock's journey - as well as Kirk's - being complete with the tell mother "I feel fine" line. Nicely arcs back to the start where he is unable to comprehend the question.
Was talking about this on another thread recently but I've no issue with Spock coming back as cheapening WoK. It's pretty much signposted at the end of WoK so any criticism of that particular plotline would have to rest with WoK itself. In fact they changed the ending of the film to be more explicit that Spock wasn't necessary dead full stop.
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Ace_Spade (9343)
4 years ago
That's true, you did say no trilogy better. I still wouldn't put it on par, but that's probably personal taste.
IV's great. It's super fun. I think the Siskel and Ebert review basically talks about how these are actors who love each other and have fun with each other and it shows. I agree: it's fun.
While I agree that Wrath of Khan left the series open to return Spock, I still think it would have been more powerful to leave the statement there: sometimes you can't win. Okay, arguably his son dies, but from a viewer's perspective we don't care about his son, who was hand-waved into existence in STII. We care about Spock. And I still think that III feels like a lot of filler to basically say, "Hey: he's back!" It's been awhile since I've seen III, though, so maybe it's better than I remember.
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