Star Trek V - William Shatner directs!
This fifth movie, directed by William Shatner this time, explores the journey to find the ultimate answer in the universe. A renegade emotional Vulcan Sybok, supposedly Spock's brother, takes a few representatives from other planets hostage to hijack a Federation starship to break through the barrier at the edge of the galaxy to see what lies beyond looking for some form of Heaven.
It starts with Captain Kirk climbing a mountain. They have not had any shore leave since the second movie as far as I can tell, so letting them go camping and explore the great outdoors does make some sense. But seeing Bones, Spock, and Kirk sitting around a campfire trying to initiate a sing-along is pretty weird.....and once you get beyond that, you can laugh. Really Spock can do pretty much anything and make me laugh 'cause I'm a fan of his deadpan delivery. Chekov and Sulu get lost hiking and their jokes fall pretty flat sorry to say. Actually all the other regular Enterprise members - Chekov, Sulu, Scotty, Uhura, and Bones are all pretty weak on the comedic timing in this movie. The only relationship that stays interesting is between Kirk and Spock and even that feels stale a few times.
The plot of this movie is terrible. They seem to have discovered more current special effects and are excited to use them, but it takes me out of the moment. Granted I am watching in 2009 and am trying to make concessions for an older movie. Shatner's directing is ok, I think the story and script were weak and didn't play on the actor's strengths.
*SPOILER ALERT BELOW*
They break through the barrier and end up on a shiny looking planet that turns out to be a big desert. First off, I thought the impression of heaven was going to be a green, lush, plentiful place with water and flowers? The barren wasteland doesn't do it for me, I don't know how the characters landing on the planet could have believed for a second that they reached what they thought they were. They find a big scary special effects "God" that wants a starship to escape......um......WHAT??? The other characters question what God would want with a starship and he zaps them with electricity Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars style. They quickly decide he doesn't have their best interests at heart and Sybok sacrifices himself to let them run away. It never gets answered what the creature is that has all these magical powers but needs a tangible transportation vehicle to go anywhere. I guess it's because it was imprisoned behind the barrier, but it looked like they just drove through it without any problems. The whole ending is just a big shrug with moments of me shaking my head in disgust. Sure they threw in some fabulous effects but if it doesn't make sense, I walk away feeling confused.
They finish up with a full circle back at the campfire routine singing together.....oh boy. This story just did not work. So out of the 2, 3, 4, and 5 which are the only ones I've seen so far this is how they measure up:
2: Awesome, can't say enough
3: Lame, Weird, Not enough Spock
4: Once you get past the context, it's a lot of fun watching them wander around downtown and Kirk is at his height of player-ness and interaction with Spock is top notch
5: Just doesn't work for me, the story is weakRead full review
