Customer Reviews

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Special Collectors Widescreen Edition)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It's a classic, all my favorite actors and a good story. It's got the original feel to it(1968 TO 1970 TV SERIES), nothing complicated and fun to watch.

star trek 3 was the crew going back to genesis to retrieve their dead friend spock. this movie showed their loyalty to spock and their determanation to not let any one stop them. christopher lloyd was excellent as commander kruge the klingon commander. this one was more character driven than wrath of khan but it,s hard to top khan. this shows the power and loyalty of family.

this Star trek installment is better than the previous one.i liked the story more.i thought it was interesting and well written.i also feel that this movie was better paced than the last one and it maintains that pace,mostly.the only time it slows down is toward the end,when it becomes more dramatic.but these end scenes are also well written and compelling.it seemed to flow better,for the most part.there is not a lot of action,but what action there is,is quite good.the special effects are also quite good in this movie,considering it was released in 1984.the characters also have more to do in this one,than in both previous movies,in my opinion.i still feel that it could have been improved,but there are no glaring problems.i do wish though that a few of the secondary characters would have been developed more.but i don't consider that a glaring problem.all in all,not a bad effort. for me Star Trek 3: The search for Spock is a 3.5/5

Another classic trek movie, this one taking place directly after the famous Spock death scene in Wrath of Khan. But Spock was just so hip and cool in his stiff, emotionless, Spock-ish(??) way that they had to bring him back. And Kirk and the boys do it in style.

The story is basically this: Ambassador Sarek (Spock's father) comes up to Kirk and makes it known to him that his essence may be living within a crew member of the Enterprise. They discover it is McCoy (which is hilarious, considering Spock and McCoy's quirky friendship), which explains why many in StarFleet thought he had been driven insane, and locked him up for it. Kirk and the boys spring McCoy out of the cell, steal the Enterprise, and head into space on "personal matters."

Even if this movie lacked in action, which is does not at all, it would have plenty in hilarious dialogue. There are many examples, such as when McCoy tries to hire a mercenary at a bar (very reminiscent of the Star Wars cantina, clientele et al). McCoy tells him, "Place I name, money I go." And the perterbed alien (eerily reminiscent of George C. Scott and Dr. Evil) fires back, "Place you name, money I name or else bargainnnnnnno." It hilarious the way he says it. Another funny part comes when Sulu jokingly prods a bored Federation security guard, "Keeping you busy?", the guard slowly, menacingly stands up from his chair, towering over the short Sulu and says, "Don't get smart, tiny." It isn't so much what they say that's funny, it's the body language and the intonations, brought out in full by first-rate directing by Leonard Nimoy.

There are tons of great action scenes, and even a stabbing death which is implied, but not shown, making it action-packed but still accessible for the whole family. A memorable performance by Christopher LLloyd as a Klingon renegade is also within this fine film. It's not as good as The Undiscovered Country, but it stands firm not only as a great Trek movie, but just as a great movie overall.

I'm not a Kirstie Alley fan, but I thought that 'Search for Spock' was a decent follow up to 'Wrath of Khan' (Which had me in tears the first time I watched it - I was eleven). A few of the parts were sort of slow (like when the planet is breaking up), but overall I thought that 'Search for Spock' was an acceptable film, if only to find out what exactly happened to Spock after 'Wrath of Khan'. Worth a rent.

After the success of Nicholas Meyer's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, it soon became apparent that the Trek franchise could continue, with or without Spock. Despite rumors to the contrary, Leonard Nimoy had never stipulated in his contract for Star Trek II that Spock be killed off. According to Nimoy (as revealed in a "the making of" featurette), the actor really did think that the second film would be the finale of the Star Trek movies, so why not have Spock go out in a blaze of glory?

However, even before production ended on The Wrath of Khan, Nimoy and producer Harve Bennett decided that "there were always possibilities" for the future, both for the franchise and Spock.

Thus it came to pass that Star Trek III: The Search for Spock had its, pun intended, genesis. With a subtle scene here and a more upbeat ending there, several plot strands were left unresolved....what did Spock mean when he gave Dr. McCoy a mind meld with the word "Remember?" Why was he left on the Genesis Planet? Those two scenes, coupled with Nimoy reciting "Space: The Final Frontier" at the end of the second movie practically screamed "Sequel Ahead!"

As it happened, Star Trek III would also mark Nimoy's feature-film directorial debut. Although he was given a modest budget - which does, unfortunately, become obvious in many scenes - Nimoy fared fairly well his first time out as a director.

As in the movie that follows (The Voyage Home), Bennett and Nimoy give us a mix of adventure, suspense and even moments of comedy in the continuation of a three-movie story arc.

The setup is simple. After the events depicted in Star Trek II, the USS Enterprise has been ordered back to Earth. Spock is dead, the Enterprise's trainee crew has been reassigned, and Starfleet has quarantined the Genesis planet. Only a science vessel, USS Grissom, has been assigned to survey the forbidden world.

Little does the Federation know, however, that the Klingons have found out about the Genesis device. Fearing that the Federation has plans to destroy the Klingon Empire, Commander Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) is determined to obtain its secrets.

At the same time, upon his return to Earth Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) discovers that Spock has somehow placed his "katra" in Dr. McCoy's (the late DeForest Kelley) body. Kirk is urged by Sarek, Spock's father (the late Mark Lenard) to retrieve Spock's remains from the Genesis planet. After that, Kirk is to go to Vulcan with McCoy and Spock's body, where both of his friends will "find peace."

When Kirk requests permission to take the soon-to-be retired Enterprise back to Genesis to retrieve Spock's body, Starfleet Command refuses, saying that the science ship (where Lt. Saavik and Kirk's son David Marcus are now serving) is the only ship allowed by the Federation to investigate. As usual, Kirk takes matters into his own hands and, assembling most of his bridge crew, steals the Enterprise and warps off to Genesis, setting up a sequence of events that Kirk will find to be more costly than he bargained for.

The Collector's Edition DVD set, unlike the previous two Director's Editions, has no added scenes or director's cut version. The theatrical version of the film (with a running time shy of two hours) is featured here with director's audio commentary by Nimoy and text commentary by Michael Okuda. The movie will delight some Trek fans, satisfy most fans, and disappoint others. (This being an odd-numbered film, it seems to prove the theory that even numbered Treks are great, while odd-numbered ones are either just okay or just plain bad!) The extra features disc includes the usual mix of "making of" documentaries, interviews, and the theatrical trailer (which, unfortunately, gave away a crucial plot device).

This is one of my favorite trek movies as it center around the search for Spock who died to save the enterprise and it's crew. Did you recall the many is greater then the few, or in this case, the one. Spock is my hero and i would try to find him too. In reality, how can he comes back to life once he is passed away....only in star trek could that be possible. So watch it and see how :) Enjoy!!!

The oft-quoted rule that has even-numbered Trek movies beating odd-number movies was never that convincing - and this flick proves it wrong.

Picking up at the moment where "Wrath of Khan" left off, "Search" has Spock's coffin soft landing on the Genesis planet. Dr. Marcus and Saavik return to their to investigate that world's development. Meanwhile, the badly damaged Enterprise returns to Earth where Captain Kirk learns the ship is to be scrapped. On the way there, they spot Excelsior, a new breed of starships intended to make Enterprise obsolete. When Dr. McCoy begins showing signs that he was "mind-melded" with Spock - thinking he actually is Spock - he tries to get a ship back to the Genesis planet where Spock's body was left (in a scene that sends up the cantina scene from the first Star Wars flick and has McCoy up against an alien who bears a resemblance to the Vorvon from "Buck Rogers"). Kirk, informed by the vulcan Sarek that both McCoy and Spock's body must be returned to Vulcan, tries to get to Genesis himself. Unfortunately, Starfleet has quarantined Genesis, and isn't about to lift it for Kirk and his Vucan ghost stories. Meanwhile, Kruge (Christopher Lloyd), a rogue Klingon warlord with his own ship and crew, penetrates federation space greedy for the secrets of Genesis.

Though this flick seems a bit abbreviated - a filler between "Khan" and "Voyage Home" it's still a lot of fun. The script has our heroes working outside starfleet regulations and having loads of fun with each other. Prime examples: Scott explains how he saboutaged the Excelsior to McCoy, dropping that ship's isolinear chips into McCoy's palm like spare change ("From one Doctor to another, when youve learnt how to clean the pipes, you know how to stop the drain"). Kirk, when meeting up with the spock-possessed McCoy holds his hand up in the Vulcan salute, asking the Doctor "how many fingers am I holding up"; and let's not forget that magic moment when Bones tries to give a Starfleet Security the Vulcan neck-pinch. Laughs aside, the script is tight and sticks with its central theme of pulling life from death - epitomized by the rescue of Spock and the awesome self-destruction of the Enterprise. Christopher Lloyd's Klingon was underused, but he showed some potential. The special effects beat anything I've seen on the Next-Generation movies and the script makes the characters seem a whole lot livelier. If you've put off this flick because this was an odd-numbered Trek movie, think again and give it a try.

Star Trek III: The Search For Spock picks up were the previous Trek film left off: Kirk discovers that he must retrieve the remains of Mr. Spock from the Genesis planet so that his Katra - his living spirit, embedded in Dr. McCoy's mind, may be reunited with his body. This is a decent Trek outing, not up to the level of the second film, but certainly better than the first. Like the second film, the highlights generally revolve around the often-amusing dialogue, my favorite bit from which (occuring during a cool hand-to-hand combat scene between Bill Shatner and Christopher Lloyd) gives this review its title. If you're a fan of any of the ST series, you'll want to see this one.

As for the DVD: in yet another of Paramount's "make the consumer buy as many products as possible" ploys, they have, of course, released the Special Edition DVD AFTER releasing the no-frills single-disc version, which is the version reviewed here.

Rating (1-5 star scale):
Film: 3 stars
DVD: 2 stars
Average: 2 1/2 stars

Though lacking the philosophical depth of The Motion Picture, and the heart-pounding action of The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ultimately succeeds because it's primarily a character driven story, which recalls the best episodes of the original series. Spock's resurrection is handled convincingly--no magical regeneration with a shiny blue animated line here. In all aspects, Leonard Nimoy does a fine job in his directorial debut--he can clearly handle a camera and brings forth strong performances from his actors. Robin Curtis more than holds her own in the role of Lt. Saavik, originally portrayed by Kirstie Alley. The consistently underrated William Shatner shines here, giving a performance which is by turns somber and impassioned. DeForest Kelley also deserves praise as the Spock-possessed McCoy.

Most of the special effects have held up well over the years, and the few that haven't are not overly distracting. Star Trek has never been beholden to special effects, but has generally relied upon character development and story--and this emphasis has served it well over the years.

The picture is identical to the first DVD issue, which improved on both the VHS and Laser Disc issues--the colors are more vibrant and crisper. The sound also has more impact than the earlier versions.

This is one of the few films where the theatrical cut WAS the director's cut, so there are no added scenes here. The commentary by Nimoy and the rest is interesting and informative, as is Michael Okuda's text commentary. The cast interviews, as always, are entertaining, although I would have liked to have heard more of what REALLY happened during the infamous 1983 fire at Paramount studios. Less entertaining are the featurettes on terraforming, the Klingon language, and the visual effects, which contain almost no behind the scenes footage.