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Shatner is denied director's cut for "Star Trek V" DVD (1 Viewer)

Josh Simpson

Supporting Actor
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Jan 23, 2002
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I found something to like in every Trek flick. Though 5 isn't my favorite, I'd buy them all in SE's. I do think Shatner likes himself a lot and is too serious, but I do says a lot of stuff tongue in cheek.
 

Seth_S

Second Unit
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An actor in Hollywood having an ego? No, I won't belive that for a minute. It's just unheard of.
 

Mike Graham

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While many think 5 to be the absolute worst movie of the series, I still found to be entertaining for the most part - the fault lies within the fact that once the characters made it through the Great Barrier, budget constraints limited the storytelling for a kind of movie that depend on special effects. Either way, an SE will be more then welcome to finish off the Trek film collection (this is coming from someone who also found Insurrection enjoyable).
 

Jeff F.

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Mar 31, 1999
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I saw this film with a girlfriend in a local theater in Orange County, California, and it was so bad that the audience booed it and people started throwing food at the screen during the closing credits.

I say let this one RIP and skip the SE.
 

Jonathan Perregaux

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It took the starship Voyager seven years to cover a shorter distance than the Enterprise-A did in order to reach the edge of Milky Way's center... only the Enterprise did it while people stood watching on the bridge. All with no explanation.
Among a thousand other writing problems, Star Trek V's careless distortion of science was enough to make me cringe. And since when is the ship 78 decks thick?
 

Rolando

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Well after following this thread for a couple days I popped in the DVD and you know what? It's not that bad. Well the movie that is. It is Star Trek dudes... maybe my least favorite but it Kirk, Spock and Bones. YOU CAN'T GO WRONG.

Sure it lacked in areas but let's face it, what made it not so great CANNOT be changed by a Director's Cut adding footage and all SFX. All you would get is Star Trek 5 with cooler effects. But it is the same story. What irks me are things like Uhura dancing naked, the "love interest" that materialises out of NOWHERE between Uhura and Scotty etc. These things will not change by adding rock creatures and better space CGIs.

Besides there are still some great Trek moments. Kirk's line "I don't want my pain taken away I need my pain!" is classic Shatner cheese fellows. Not to mention McCoy and Spock going at it.

The DVD on the other hand is BAD, it is one of Paramounts non anamorphic DVDs. EVIL! transfer is not good, dark and muddy in many places. DC or not I will buy it for a new anamorphic transfer.
 

Dick

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Mr. Shatner - lose the campfire song. Take out the awkward acting and bad line readings (especially your own). Make the "God" plot less cryptic or at least make it more believable. I know this leaves you with about 30 minutes of good film from which to build a better cut, but this will probably be your last shot at it. Thanks.
 

Dave Scarpa

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Uh I thought the Campfire stuff was some of the best of the series, for the character moments, that after all these years together they were Family. That's the Theme of the Movie I got it. On the Edge of the Galaxy Stuff.. well guys the were there a few times before in the Series, so I cannot damn the movie for that.
 

DeathStar1

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>If anything, bring in ILM to replace those gawd-awful Bran Ferran effects and at least make it look like it belongs among the other films.>
What, like that GREAT effect of the model enterprise, some type of flash light behind it simulating light, and a weirldy animated proton torpedo firing from it down to the planet?
What could possible be bad a bout that ;)
 

DeathStar1

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>I have always viewed Mr. Shatner as having a very wry, dry sense of humor that people mistake for arrogance.
>
Agreed. I didn't know what to expect when I went to the Sfedora Convention in NJ earlier this year. But he really did seem t obe enjoying himself on stage,and made you laugh more times than you would have thought. Ten times better than some of the other guests there.
As far as the movie itself goes, I agree, keep the Campfire scenes in. Sulu and Checkov getting lost is good for a laugh. The Scotty head bumping scene needs to be digitally altered. Maby have an enemy gunman suddenly appear and conk him on the head with a weapon instead. And like others have said, Keep the "Go Climb A Rock" shirt. Always gets a laugh :).
And as far as opinions on the other movies go.... Motion Picture:more Watchable in the Directors Cut. TWOK: Best. Search for Spock: OK, but demeans the entire death scene of the Spock Character. Voyage Home: My favorite re-watchable Trek movie. Movie 5: Had it's moments, not completly unwatchable. Undiscovered country: See TWOK :).
As for the next generation movies, we can all agree that First Contact was the best of the bunch. I even liked Insurrection, despite the gross new aliens introduced :).
What I DO wish, is that they would do a Special Edition of Generations, if only to re-work the lighting in some of these scenes. I used to have an old record player/TV Combo in the 80's that had a, I beleive it was, Tint button on the front. Press it once, everything had a yellow hue to it. Press it again, hue dissapears :). There's a few scenes in Generation that remind me of this due to the presence of a yellow hue around the characters. Also, the bridge seems to have lost all color due to the lighting. Either that, or they recolored it for the movie..
 

Dave Scarpa

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The yellow tint was there in Generations on Purpose, becasue they were near the yellow sun. The whole lighting scheme in Generations is strange and way too dark compared to the series
 

DanHaya

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I sure hope that they digitally lengthen Laurence Luckinbill's hair during the final sequence. It always bothered me that he had long hair throughout the whole movie up until that point. I guess it had to do with the reshooting of those scenes...but, dammit Jim, couldn't they have gotten him a wig? lol
 

Rex Bachmann

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Dave Scarpa wrote:
Star Trek said:
For some of us that was a distinct improvement. The standard lighting on the Enterprise in most of the series is waaaaay too bright (every nook and cranny brightly lit). Americans may overlight their homes, streets, and workplaces and think that's "normal", but in deep space they couldn't afford such wasteful expenditures of energy.
 

Jim Peavy

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Yes, THANK YOU! The entire (great) 2nd movie is undone by The Search for Spock. The noble themes of "you can't cheat death forever" and "somethings are worth dying for" are completely undone by the 3rd film. It would have been one thing if they had done a good job with it, but III had a bad script. IMO, of course.
But what do I know; I'm one who actually likes the first movie! For me, the orig. series movies pretty much end with The Wrath of Khan.
 

Sal Orlando

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Man, V is the only one of the Star Trek films I don't own on DVD, and even my sense of completionism isn't enough to get me to buy it. I'm not sure there's anything that can be done to save this sucker.
Second worst IMO is IV, and I know that's not a popular opinion. I just find it really cheesy and pointless. Next after that would be Insurrection. More cheese ;)
Hope Nemesis is good.
 

John_Berger

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Sure it lacked in areas but let's face it, what made it not so great CANNOT be changed by a Director's Cut adding footage and all SFX. All you would get is Star Trek 5 with cooler effects. But it is the same story.
The effects are completely sad. It's really upsetting to say that "The Last Starfighter" has far better special effects than "ST:V".
I, however, am one of the very few who think that ST:V actually had a good story foundation. The whole concept of the series was "to boldly go where no man has gone before" and the question of meeting "the" supreme being during life certaily is going where no man has gone before. The story also showed probably the strongest bonding of all of the movies between Spock, Kirk, and Bones; the meeting of a Vulcan who has not supressed emotions was a curiously refreshing change; and the notion that the only barriers in life are the ones that we impose on ourselves was well done.
The problem that I saw with V was that the storyline overall was just weak.
To use a construction simile, the foundation of the story IMHO was made out of solid granite -- more solid than just about any of the other movies, save TWOK -- but the building that was built on that solid foundation was made of cardboard and 2x4s. That plus a really pathetic paint job (read: special effects) made ST:V an eyesore. It had a hell of a lot of potential that simply was not taken advantage of.
But even a new paint job - courtesy of ILM Painting, Inc - will help. :)
 

Steve Christou

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Its the Star Trek characters, Kirk, Spock, McCoy et al that are the real magic of the Trek universe, doesn't really matter if the effects are a bit off, just to see those beloved characters go off on their last few adventures together, thats what makes each of the Star Trek movies special, there were only 6 movies with the original cast together, I'm not going to start being picky and say, "oh thats the one with the campfire bit I don't want that one", no I'm a genuine fan I want the set, good or bad.
Live Long and Prosper! [does the Vulcan salute]:emoji_thumbsup:
(bugger, can't find a Vulcan salute smiley, sorry!);)
 

Randy Tennison

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ST-V had a major flaw that I saw when I first saw it. Kirk would have never allowed his ship to be taken over. He would not have flown the shuttle craft back to the ship. He would have used the threat of death by the Klingon's as a bargaining tool to take control away from Sybok. No way would he let them have the ship, just to save his ass.

As far as the rest, I never really liked the "god" sequence at all. Very fake. And the slow pan down to reveal the plaque "Where No Man Has Gone Before" . . .what kinda crap was that?

Shatner was simply a bad director. I like him as an actor, but he did a poor job directing this film.

A SE might redeem it, but there are so many flaws, I don't know if it will work.
 

Dick

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Actually, I didn't suggest that the campfire sequence be removed altogether. I love a good campfire, and this sequence produces some good atmosphere...until they start singing ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT, at which time the whole bit sinks to idiocy IMO. I can see where the idea came from and, in other hands (and with better execution) it might have worked. Having once aspired to be a film editor, I played around a bit some years back by making my own VHS edit of this film from a laser disc - removing the song, some of the shoddier effects, the worst acting, etc. - and actually produced what I believe was a tighter, more coherant film. With judicious cutting and the addition of better effects, I do believe this film can be significantly improved by those who have the real equipment (as opposed to a simple flying erase head) needed to do it well.
 

Seth_S

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I can't believe that people are suddenly coming to the defense of this pile of crap now that a director's cut has been rumored. Even if you spruce up all the lame effects and perform some intensive editing, the movie will still be plagued with numerous, major problems.

For starters, the film totally rewrites the major characters. In any Trek episode, or movie, Spock would have shot his half-brother to prevent the hijacking of the Enterprise. Remember "the needs of the few out way the needs of the many"? Do we even have to discuss how Spock suddenly has a brother? Or how about the fact that Scotty is suddenly a klutz?

Next up, as Randy Tennison pointed out, Kirk would have never allowed his ship to be taken over. At least not that easily.

Once the ship gets underway to find god, the film comes to a complete halt. Kirk and crew are quickly captured and suddenly they've reached the planet and Spock's brother gives control of the ship back to Kirk. The Kligon subplot was obviously thrown in there because the writers realized the film was devoid of conflict.

The movie also disregards all the rules that Star Trek has set for itself regarding space travel and technology.

Lastly, the movie is anti-climatic. Obviously they're not going to find god.
 

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