Star Trek V - Kirk climbing El Capitan; kind of fun!
The rest of the movie - hot garbage, full stop. Truly one of those “I can’t believe scores of professional movie execs let this one continue the way it did.” movies. I say this not being a major Trek fan, but pretty casual. It is just a stinker through and through.
I think I may have seen 4 in the theater, but I definitely saw this one there, just me and my buddy, just kids in grade school and both really into trek, and even we both knew it was just…not good. I even got a pin at the theater I wanna say. I’m almost sure I still have it, but I don’t want to get out of bed to check.
Does it make 6 look better? I think it makes 6 look even better than it is.
How dare you, six is the best of them.
6 is certainly in contention for the title, no argument.
I recall being in college and going to the movies pretty regularly and driving by a theatre and noticing “Star Trek V” in their marquee. And being totally stunned that this was actually a thing. I had no idea it was coming out. If they were filming on the cheap they were certainly also marketing on the cheap. Don’t think I even watched it til it came out on video. And…still can’t be sure I watched it all the way thru. Just so freaking bad. I did like the first scenes on the desert planet with the alien dude picking up random pebbles or whatever to use as ammo. But from there it was barely TV quality sets and so damned boring. Sooooo boring.
The most memorable thing about this film is the fact my wife, early in our dating, spilled her giant Mountain Dew I’d bought her and we watched the crowd in lower rows realize the ground was wet and separated away from it during the trailers.
Shatner once many years ago said Paramount was threatening to pull funding if they didn’t pick a script and go into pre-production with it, and that believe it or not what became V was the best script they had available to them at the time. I find that incredibly hard to believe, because V is just such a train wreck of a movie across the board, but anything is possible.
Spock’s brother is played by Lucille Ball’s son-in-law if memory serves.
According to imdb:
Son-in-law of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball.
Immediately accepted the role of Mr. Spock’s half-brother Sybok in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) after William Shatner saw him perform as Lyndon B. Johnson in his one-man stage show on PBS.
Best known by the public for his role as Mr. Spock’s half-brother Sybok in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), which, coincidentally, (as of 2018) is also his final feature film role.
Honestly the worst part about it - and there are many indeed - is the sense that the whole series from 1-4 is about a crew that’s getting too old to be doing what they’re doing.
And then 5 rolls around and suddenly we’re all spring chickens again and all that stuff is just tossed aside, and the audience is supposed to just accept that all that stuff about aging was just some plot junk from a previous bunch of movies and hey! here’s some STAR TREK kids! I mean they even had Ohura doing some kind of sexy feather dance number.
I guess what i mean is that i’d like some attempt at narrative, world building consistency, and by this point (starting with ST V) it’s clear Star Trek is just a job to give some actors some money. This pretty much comes to a head with the TNG films, which while arguably having the best ST cast had by far the most pedestrian and unimportant films (to the point that Kirk is basically killed off by a random tidal wave).
Not even close. I guess if you restrict it to the first six there’s an argument (though bad as V is I’d even disagree with that), but in a world full of TNG and Abrams sequels there’s just no way. V is a bad movie but man, as much as I love Star Trek when it’s good there is a lot of bad Star Trek.
He also played in the 1970 theatrical version of the Boys in the Band alongside Leonard Frey (no relation to the Red Wedding Freys), directed by Friedkin prior to him directing the Exorcist.
If you want to argue against select TNG films? I’m all ears. I still think V is worse, and there are some low moments in TNG, but as a film there is a real lack of redeeming features for me in V.
That said I can not get on board with arguing the Abrams ones are worse. Again, not to say they are good, but as films they are superior. Where they fail is as being Trek films. If you filed the serial numbers off and made it a stand alone sci fi movie they’re decent and well produced. It’s just with the expectations on what Trek is that it consistently acts against, that it draws fire.
There isn’t a even that level of competence in redeeming features for V.
Anyone trying to place Nemesis or Insurrection above V is, In my opinion, likely to be an alien trying to infiltrate human society. Possibly a Romulan clone of some popular character.
V still has the characterization right, even if the plot’s a mess, and watching those three hang out together is more fun than anything in Generations, Insurrection, or Nemesis. And as dumb as V’s plot is, Abrams managed to make three movies that are even dumber.
To each their own, of course, but I’d take any of the first 6 movies over anything that came after, with the possible exception of First Contact (which is pretty good except for that whole “ruining the Borg” thing). And I say that as someone that enjoys TNG far more than TOS, mind you.
still forgettable by the numbers dreck with a ton of plot holes!
Forgettable > actively bad. And I think V is actively bad.
And again, don’t confuse this with a defense of the Abrams Trek. This is 100% a commentary on the quality of V
There’s no way this movie can be better than any TNG film, and that’s even conceding that Nemesis was bad. V is a combination of a poor story/plot holes and looking terrible due to no budget, and all of this is compounded and caused by the fact that this was a Shatner power play to conceptualize and direct after Nimoy was able to do so for previous movies.
This movie had a better script than Nemesis or Into Darkness. Spock’s never-mentioned brother (wow, he has a lot of never-mentioned siblings) was far easier to believe than a Romulan Picard clone, or a transporter that would send you to Kronos not disrupting the entire power balance of the galaxy. And ST:V has some amusing moments. It’s up there with ST:III as the weakest TOS movie, but TNG and JJ did it worse.
I couldn’t even make it 20-30 minutes through Nemesis.
I won’t argue its a better movie, but I enjoyed watching this more than III. Could be the subterranean expectations I went into it with. I think there’s a kernal of a good plot to be found with a Vulcan space therapy cult, and I’m always down with a gassous alien being masquerading as a god. And I think Luckinbill gives a genuinely good performance as Sybock. But like all the rest of the original Trek films, DeForest Kelley is the highlight.
My current ranking: I > VI > II > IV > V > III.
For the record, I’d say II = VI > IV >III > V > I
And yes, I is better made than V, but it’s just a chore to watch so who cares?
Honestly, I don’t even feel like I can authoritatively comment in that, like Brian, I’ve never made it more than like half an hour into Nemesis. I find it completely unwatchable.