Penhall99 you have a lot of nostalgia for the film, and there is nothing wrong with that. I too have nostalgia that helps me to still enjoy films from my own childhood that I know are otherwise not too good. With that said, Trek V still has some good content in it even if the whole package wasn't what it could have been. If anything, it showcases the three-way friendship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy better than any other of the six films.
I was 19 when Trek V came to theaters. I was excited, as I loved the Trek movies, yet I detected some problems with this one from the trailers alone. It was bad enough that months earlier, Paramount had released this stupid teaser poster at theaters (http://johneaves.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/star_trek_v_ver1.jpg) which was pretty lame and threatened to turn the film into an action flick, but the trailers were showing some seriously piss-poor looking visual effects. One of the late night shows at the time had William Shatner as a guest, and they showed a clip of the scene where they are in the shuttle and the Bird of Prey decloaks, leading to the shuttle crash. I marveled at how bad it looked, how goofy the Klingons were, etc. Reading about the search for God plot wasn't very exciting to me either, as that can be a touchy subject that is nearly impossible to handle properly. Everything I saw about this film before release seemed to be pointing at it being bad, but as a Trek fan, I held out hope that it would be good anyhow.
All of my concerns were proven correct, as the film we got tried hard but failed to be a good action flick, had terrible visual effects, and handled the God plot pretty poorly. Making matters worse was the out of place comedy, as well as the fact that the film had weird character moments (Scotty and Uhura) that take you out of the film, as well as flat out stupid moments such as the Enterprise have seventy decks. And jet boots, lets not forget the jet boots. The movie was very lazily written and filmed. I was terribly disappointed, and I do recall some people walking out around the time that the cast arrived to Shakaree and met God.
I saw it a second time during a special showing of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade/Star Trek V double feature! As much as I hated the execution of the film, I didn't hate the movie. Aside from being disappointed, I still found things to enjoy such as Goldsmith's score, McCoy's pain scene, Lawrence Luckinbill as Sybok, etc. But still, initial reaction was extensive disappointment and a feeling of being heart-sick.
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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?
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Samclyde2
10 years ago
The problem was with things like McCoy's pain scene, is that it's not something people want to see on the big screen, especially in Star Trek.
The visual effects were bad because Industrial Light and Magic wasn't available to do the effects, prior commitments kept ILM away, like Ghostbusters II. The effects firm they hired wasn't a bad firm, but they had two obstacles fighting them, an impossible deadline to meet to finish the effects, and an even more impossible director to deal with -- Shatner.
But the visuals were the least of Star Trek V's problems, the story was the main problem, it just wasn't a good story for the big screen, in fact, some parts weren't even fit for the small screen.
From what I understand, all the problems with this movie were caused by Shatner's failure as a director, he should never have been allowed anywhere near the director's chair.
And it was funny, because after the low point of Star Trek V, it was Nicholas Meyer to the rescue once again. Although, I think Star Trek V put Trek at a much lower level than TMP did.
"IMDb...you will never find a more wretched hive of trolls and douchebaggery"
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feenix219
9 years ago
You're really blaming Shatner, with all the studio interference he dealt with and his budget being slashed completely?? That company was *not* a good company either..... but really, other then the end of the movie, the FX weren't that bad; a lot of good old fashioned stunts on the planet, the shuttlebay scene... it definitely felt like TOS, thats for sure.
V was not nearly as badly received at the time. This retroactive hate is getting a bit out of hand.
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