Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

This is often said to be the worst of the Star Trek films. After watching it I can see why a lot of people would think that. It is a very flawed film but I by no means hated it. In fact, I liked it more than Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier opens with the crew of the Enterprise enjoying some well deserved shore leave. Kirk, Spock, and Bones enjoy their time off together by going camping in Yosemite park and this makes for some amusingly cheesy moments. Their vacation is interrupted when they must respond to a hostage situation concerning a renegade Vulcan who happens to be Spock's half brother. This Vulcan's name is Sybok and he is on a desperate search for God and the end of the universe. There are also some Klingons in pursuit of Kirk and the Enterprise, but they don't seem to serve much of a purpose in the end. The Final Frontier is all kinds of weird and doesn't have much of a structure, but I can't say I didn't have fun with this movie.

Remember how The Voyage Home added this element of comedy to Star Trek? Well The Final Frontier saw that and thought to itself, 'Hey! I can do that too!' Unfortunately, it was wrong. Any and all comedy in this film is completely unnecessary and either makes you cringe or roll your eyes in embarrassment. There are moments in the film where I was left wondering, 'Why in the hell did the writers think that line was a good idea?' The movie tries way too hard with its ridiculous punchlines and awkward moments that are supposed to be hilarious. A lot of the humor comes around when the friendship between Kirk, Spock, and Bones is being developed. This was always an important aspect of Star Trek, but The Final Frontier almost makes a mockery of it. Never, under any circumstances do I need to watch Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley sit around a campfire singing Row Row Row Your Boat. But I guess these were the days when Shatner and Nimoy were building their "singing" careers so they thought they needed those "careers" to carry over into Star Trek.

This movie had the potential to be incredible. Sybok's search for God could have gone much deeper and been much more intellectual than what it was. This aspect of the film had spiritual and existential overtones, but they were buried by silly nonsensical scenes that do nothing for the plot. There is a lot to strip away if you want to get down to the more intellectual meaning of this film. It is something that was so obscured by the amount of crap this film throws together that in the end it was a completely lost meaning.

But if you move past that, The Final Frontier can be pretty fun. If you enjoy it for its cheese than you can have a moderately good time. Especially towards the end, the film becomes completely over-the-top and loaded with cheese. It isn't like The Motion Picture, which tried way to hard to be something it wasn't and painfully dragged on for over two hours. The Final Frontier clocks in at only an hour and 45 minutes and just stays lively and fun the whole time. It isn't high quality fun, but its fun nevertheless. This definitely is not a Star Trek film I would watch again, but its a necessary watch if you are a fan of Star Trek like me and have made it your duty to see all of the films.

Star Trek: The Final Frontier is not a good movie. But its not a bad movie either. It isn't one of those that I just hated by the end, but I knew for sure that what I had just seen was not a very well made film. I love Star Trek so watching Kirk, Spock, and Bones boldly go where no man has gone before, even if they go to a realm of such cringe worthy cheese as this, still puts a smile on my face.

"Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" Is a mixed bag. There is a lot of humor in it. ( I suspect that's because of the success of Part 4. ) There is some action but it's not that exciting. The special effects aren't that hot at times. The weakest part is the storyline. Just when the plot needs to pick up speed, it runs out of gas. That said, it hard to not enjoy any movie with the original Star Trek cast. It's because of them that I am enjoying "Star Trek V" more these days than I used to. It's not the greatest movie but it's still better than "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". Dishonorable mention: They didn't give the always enjoyable David Warner anything to do.

Boldly going where no man (or woman) has gone before, climb aboard the Enterprise and let it fly and soar, as old friends gather, reunite, off to battle and to fight, strange new worlds, civilisations to explore.

Relieved of their conscience and pain, disciples no longer in vain, after Sybok inspires, ignites holy fires and shackles them with a new chain.

The newly blind follow the blindest into damnation, torment and torture when they fall for the misguided trickery of a Vulcan selling metaphorical snake oil and hair restorer.

Star Trek V ranks at or near the bottom of the Trek films for most fans and casual viewers. And upon viewing this on its special edition DVD, my opinion has not changed. This is a film that tries hard but ultimately fails due to poor plotting, sub-par special effects and poor character development. The movie opens with probably the best scene in the film, where you meet Sybok and learn a little about his quest. The visuals alone in the opening shots are very impressive. Then, slowly, scene by scene, the movie falls apart. Yes, there are a few peaks in there, which I will discuss later, but overall, the idea of a "God Like Being" in the center of our galaxy, it just so illogical.

The movie has a lot of embarrassing and just plan bad moments. The first of which is the meeting of three characters who represent the "Planet of Galactic Peace." However, their intro is rushed and these characters are not given any depth at all. Why introduce us to these "important" characters if they care not going to be used in any meaningful (maybe one of them at the end) plot point at all? The direction by William Shatner also seems very uneven. Take the scene with Scotty and Uhura on the bridge. There is a very awkward moment of silence after their main dialogue is over. And the mugging Shatner does when McCoy makes very awkward comments to Spock's story about Sybok is just out of place. And add to that a semi-naked Uhura and Scotty hitting his head for a "Three Stooges" laugh and you begin to sink in your chair. The Klingon plot seems tacked on just to add depth to the story. And by the time we see where the movie is going, we just feel very disappointed and underwhelmed.

That said, I can't help but enjoy the wealth of good character moments in the film. I for one liked the campfire scene and the attempts of deep philosophy about old age and death. I also liked exploring the "pain" of McCoy and Spock and Kirk's insistence that he "needs his pain." While most of the humor was forced and bad, the best had to be the "I could use a shower" scene, which is one of the biggest laughs in all of the Trek films. There were many moments of good direction by Shatner, especially in McCoy's "pain scene." I do sympathize with Shatner a little, when listening to the commentary track, about how this was cut and that was cut but I still think on a whole, this movie was doomed to fail.

The DVD's picture is sharp and the sound is excellent. The extras are quite good but I would have liked more insight as to what went wrong with the film besides tight schedule and budget. Shatner's commentary with his daughter is good but has too many quiet moments. Check out the hidden and brief "comic reel."

At this point in time, I do rank Star Trek V above Nemesis, mainly due to that movie's bad continuity issues but just barely. Still, it is Star Trek and if you like the characters, just sit back, don't expect much and enjoy the show.

Why do the people trash this movie? It is such a humanistic, emotional film, well, from my POV. I admit there were flaws in the film. What hurt this film was ILM not being available, budget cuts forced by Paramount, and the humor forced to be added because of STIV's box office success. None of these things were Bill Shatner's fault. Bill Shatner's original story was darker, MUCH darker than what we saw.

This film has got a faster pace than ST:TMP or STIII:TSFS, and and it actually tried to make a point on human nature, which was the thing that Generations failed to accomplish. Shatner's ACTUAL direction of the film was OKAY! So I give this film 8.0 stars out of 10.0 stars. And before I finish, I want to say this: GIVE SHATNER A FRIGGIN' BREAK! Thank you, and good night.