Star Trek: The Motion Picture World Premiere (1 Viewer)

[Erika von Tiesenhausen]

Naturally. Why would Paramount Home Entertainment waste an enormous amount of money with high-resolution CGI on a project that was obviously never intended to be seen on the theater screen? This is essentially implied in the following article:
http://www.newtimesla.com/issues/200...8/sidecar.html
quote: "When the idea of restoring the movie was suggested by filmmakers David C. Fein and Michael Matessino two years ago, Wise was at first resistant. The two finally convinced him to approach Paramount about completing his movie, and the studio agreed, but only for home-video release."[/quote]
EvT
[Edited last by Erika von Tiesenhausen on November 09, 2001 at 02:58 AM]

 

[Anton Ruzic]

Thank you for the link, Erika. ST:TMP, one of my all-time favorite films, seems to have been cursed from the first day of pre-production back in 1977 to the present DVD release. Damn you to hell, Paramount!

Anton

 

[Richard_Huntington]

What about High Definition? Wasn't this new transfer done in HD, then downconverted for DVD.
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"My wife actually prefers widescreen"

 

[MikeCD]

I really believe Paramount should re-do all the special effects for TOS.Bring them up to date. That way they could sell the whole series again. Then later re-release them in 16:9. Then later again in 16:9 anamorphic. Then again with...

 

[Brad Cook]

Wasn't some company trying to get Paramount to let them redo the effects in the original series a few years ago? I remember a report on Ain't It Cool News--in the Coaxial section--where they posted screenshots from the work the company did on one of the episodes as a test. As I recall, it looked pretty good.
I guess Paramount didn't think it was worthwhile to muck around with the original series, since they figured that only hardcore fans would be buying them, and those people would buy them whether or not they had improved effects.
I watched TMP the other night, and I thought the new effects looked really nice. Of course, it's been years since I saw that film, so I barely remembered it, but nothing looked out of place. My only complaint was that you could still see dirt and nicks in the print in many places, especially in the shots of the VGer cloud. Too bad they didn't clean that up a bit.
But I don't remember the film well enough to know whether or not the story is that much better. It's not a bad film, but I still think Star Trek II through IV are the high point of the film series. Those films had a nice progression to them, and it was a shame that they didn't pick up the dangling thread from IV (what the probe was and why it was sent to Earth) and continue that in V, which is a travesty of a film. I know there's a novel called Probe that explains that story (have it but haven't read it yet), but that should have been picked up in V.
- Brad

 

[MikeCD]

I thought Lawrence Luckinbill should have gotten an Oscar nomination for V. But the film did have a number of low points too, like Sulu and Chekov in the woods. I cringe. Maybe there should be a thread on the worst scenes in the Star Trek movies. Another one I hate is the slow mo of Worf falling into the sea in Generations, and Data popping out of haystack in Insurrection.

 

[Steve Soileau]

I just watched the DVD and I noted a lot of changes in the audio portion. Most would be considered minor, but I think in some ways I would have preferred a cleaned up 'old' version in addition to this version. Some picky comments.
1. size of cloud. The Epsilon 9 guy says it is over 2 AU's in diameter. I thought it was 82 AU's in the original version. Am I not remembering this correctly?
2. View of Klingon fight sequence from the view from Epsilon 9. There was a computer voice describing that the Imperial Klingon Cruiser Amar was attacking V'ger. This is missing from the movie.
2. Alarm sounds. Many of the alarm sounds (e.g., the alarm in the worm hole sequence. Was the red alert computer sound changed as well??).
All in all it seems like a tighter movie, but I miss the hokiness from the original.
Just some thoughts.
Steve Soileau

 

[Scott Strang]

First off let me say this. This DVD kicks ass. The image and audio quality exceeded my expectations. And the full Ilea(sp) theme overture at the beginning is one of my favotite parts of the film.
The editing has helped tighten up the flick a good bit but there is one part where a part should have been left in.
When Bones it talking to Kirk in his room Kirk tells him to "get out of here bones".
In my opinion the entire sequence should've been left in tact. It didn't drag the way other parts of the flick did before this current Directors Cut.
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"What did Mr Spock see when he looked in the toilet? The Captain's Log."
Stolen from a BBS in 1985
[Edited last by Scott Strang on November 09, 2001 at 10:28 PM]

 

[Anton Ruzic]

Ilea(sp)

"Ilia." RIP, Persis.

 

[Rich Howard]

I have seen most of Robert Wise's films more than once and I disagree with the assumption made here that he didn't make the editing decisions on the Director's Edition. I didn't think the original release of this film was up to Mr. Wise's standards. His films have a rhythm that this cut now matches.
I just watched the DVD again and I believe that if Paramount decided to release the film theatrically, the new effects could be re-rendered to film specs. I, for one, would LOVE to see this film on the big screen again!