Star Trek: The Motion Picture Arrives (1 Viewer)

[Brian W.]

Well, whatever her name is (hmm, thought it was Grace -- I must be thinking of Grace Lee Whitney, although she plays a different character entirely -- go figure), my point was that Uhuru WASN'T showing concern for her friend -- she didn't seem to be concerned at all. Just a very nonchalant, "Oh, yeah, he's over there" type of thing. And whatever the scene "showed," it simply stopped the movie cold. I just don't think it added a single thing.

 

[Robert Drew]

OK, just finished my first time through the new STTMPE disc, and I have to say that it was freakin' awesome!
I saw this film opening weekend back in '79 when it came out and still remember the mixed feelings I walked out of the theater with. On the one hand, it was great to have Star Trek back, but on the other the presentation was so alien and cold that I couldn't really connect with or enjoy it.
This new edtion is a 100% improvement in my book. Aside from the wonderfully done soundtrack and redone effects, the editing is what makes all the difference. Not so much the cutting of longer scenes, but the introduction or expansion of shorter scenes that put us more in touch with the characters. You can feel the relationship and tension between Decker and Ilia now. There is more connection and interplay between the Trio. Spock is a friend again by the end of the film. All these small touches add up to a much more accessible and, in my opinion, successful film.
If you loved classic ST, but could never connect with this film, give the new DE a try. I think you'll be glad you did. I can now count this film among my ST favorites along with II, IV and First Contact. And that's saying something.
Given the superior experience of this film, combined with the upbeat ending, I wonder how much an impact the DE would have had on the ST franchise back in the early 80's. STII:WOK really kick-started things in '82, but many fans were ambivalent (to my memory anyway) after the TMP run. Maybe we could have had a SThase II TV series in the early-mid eighties with the original cast. We'll never know. But at least we've got the fine film we always wanted. (At least I do!)
OK, I'll stop rambling now

 

[MikeCD]

As I haven't yet bought ST:II through Insurrection, because I have those plus TMP on LaserDisc, TMP DVD sure does overpower Star Wars TPM 'cause they're side by side. TMP-TPM, both the first in the series-Hmmm. Both released near the same time. A strange co inky dink.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

While some of the added digital effects helped the already very ambitious theatrical effects created by Douglas Trumbul (sp) and ILM I felt there were some that were very, very poor even for the company that does the SFX for the TV shows Voyager and Enterprise (which did the added effects here too).
Some shots of San Francisco and the outside of the Enterprise when V'Ger creates the "land bridge" to its central core look like something even I could do with a fairly decent PC animation program and Adobe AfterEffects. Very digital looking.
The dialog level was WAY below the music and sound effects stems and was quite distorted. I had to crank the center channel quite a bit to compensate for the imbalance. Also, they needed to restore the dialog stems better than they did.
A final wash through a computer for the high def. video master like Dr. Zhivago and NxNW would have helped to clear up the damaged and scratched 1979 negatives.
Paramount: Put more money into negative, audio, and digital restorations in the future, please!! Warner Brothers' SuperMan Director's Edition looks and sounds FAR better than this attempt.
I hope the Star Trek II Director's Cut gets even more money and better SFX clean up applied to it (again, ask Warner Brothers who did SuperMan's cleanup) at FULL film resolution, not just at video rez. Plus, a new DTS 24/96 encoded soundtrack please!
Dan
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Stop HDCP and 5C-- Your rights are at risk!
[Edited last by Dan Hitchman on November 10, 2001 at 11:41 AM]

 

[Jack Briggs]

Man, I can hardly wait until I can get this disc.
Vis. revisionism: As has been pointed out, Robert Wise never felt the film was truly finished, nor that it was worthy of his name. Now it is, and I believe we--or, rather, you guys--are now truly seeing the film for the first time.
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[Nelson Au]

This new version of TMP is really something. It has never looked this good, or sound this good, or flowed better story wise.
to me, it is the definitive version and I doubt I will revisit my laserdisc versions.
Trumbull and Dykstra and some by Roberl Abel did the effects originally, not ILM. And Foundation was responsible for the new digital effects for this version.
Regarding the video transfer, remember that the DVD producer himself, Michael Matessino was kind enough to visit this forum and comment that a great deal of care and love went into this disc version. It shows. New effects lighting, film grain and dirt matches perfectly well with the 22 year old elements.
Nelson
[Edited last by Nelson Au on November 11, 2001 at 11:28 AM]

 

[ScottB]

I guess i am one of the few who loved this movie since it first came out. I liked the slow, thoughtful pacing of the film, reminds me of movies from other genres (or of Wise's other masterpiece, Andromeda Strain). I also like the deeper subject matter (even if it isn't overly explored, and some of the delivery is silly) and the conflict between the characters (ST 4 on were just love fests which made me sick).
Also, this notion that Star Trek: TMP was unpopular or a failure is revisionism -- ST:TMP was the 3rd highest grossing film of 1979, ahead of Apocalypse Now, Muppet Movie and Alien.
It out-sold Star Trek II:WOK by almost 4 million, not adjusted for inflation. It outsold ST III: SFS by 6 Mil, and wasn't bested until ST:IV (of course, if we adjusted for inflation, I believe it would be the most popular ST movie ever).
I think what hurt the film most amongst the Trekkie crowd (who were already self-consiously nerdy in 1979) was that the film was given a 'G' rating. I remember kids my age embarrassed to say they went to see it, instead bragging that their parents let them into Alien or Quest for Fire (i dont remember what year that movie was, but you get the idea).
Anyway, I love this new version even more, and honestly i didn't even notice which effects shots were new & which were old (not that i am unskilled -- i just was enjoying watching the movie & didn't think about it until it was over). I actually thought alot of the shots that were actually done in 1979 were the new effects shots, they were so well done for their time.
P.S.: if anyone needs to know what a Matte Line looks like, check out in the deleted scenes section, the original shots of Kirk & Co. stepping out onto the Enterprise exterior at the final Viger confrontation -- there is a dreadful matte line around the people as they walk outside the Ent.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

Well, this movie still sucks--just slightly less so than it did before. I guess some things can never be changed.

Is there some reason why the V'ger flyover sequences (and a few other FX-laden scenes, such as the introduction to Epsilon IX) are still overly long? Um, hello?

And poor DeForest Kelly... a couple of us were laughing over how he stands on the bridge waiting to say something but then never gets the chance and so he stalks silently into the turbolift. Then he comes back later on and does the same thing all over again!

The film has clearly deteriorated over time as well, unless what we are seeing is many generations away from the original negative. Most of this movie looks terrible. The composite shots are especially iffy, as one might expect, but it's really distracting to see so many of the once-beautiful FX sequences looking grainy, overly saturated and just plain awful. The apparent lack of a full film/video restoration really hurts this picture.

*sigh*

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I watched TMP over the weekend and have to agree that it's a much better picture than the 1979 version. It's still slow and ponderous, and the Vger flyover and the drydock sequence last FOREVER but the pacing works a good deal better overall.

As far as the bridge from Vger looking crude, I would agree with that also, but my thought (reaffirmed by the documentaries) was that they were trying to not exceed 1979 type results; had all CGI stops been pulled out, it might have looked better but would have also been a quite different movie. It's certainly a big improvement over the laughable attempt in the original release.

I had forgotten Spock's weird behavior on the bridge; I almost expected him to burst out, "I don't want to be here! I am not Spock! But they threw so much money at me..." before dissolving into tears.