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

Kevin_W

Second Unit
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Jun 22, 2000
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I noticed in one of the Sunday's ads (BestBuy perhaps) they are selling the complete set for $150. I already have everything but the 1st. Are the movies in this collection the same as the ones I already have? Thus I can just get the 1st and be current and complete?
Thanks in advance.
Kevin
 

Lou Sytsma

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Kevin - yes buying the first one will complete the set.
Of course, that is until the SEs start showing up next year.
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Richard_Huntington

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Oct 15, 2001
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My copy was shipped by ------- on 11/2, so hopefully it will arrive today.
What will kill me is waiting to see it. I have 12 people coming over this weekend for a viewing on my 36" Wega (I have the best sound system out of everybody). I guess I'll have to limit myself to the extras until then.
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Must... control... myself...
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Neil S. Bulk

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Must... control... myself...
Just watch it!! You'll love it so much that you won't be able to wait to watch it again with your friends.
Neil
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"Conspiracy theorists don't live on the same flat Earth as the rest of us." -- astronomer Stephen Maran
 

Anton Ruzic

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Mar 9, 2001
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I for one am extremely disappointed with The Director's Edition (I should point out that I have been an enormous fan of ST:TMP since seeing it as a child in 1979), but then I suppose that putting my life on hold for 18 months in anticipation of this release made disappointment inevitable, no matter how amazing the DVD turned out to be. Oh well.
Anton
 

Mike_G

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Mike
Anton,
What don't you like about it? I'm not thrilled with it either. I think you're right - too much anticipation, very little delivery.
Mike
 

MathewM

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Jun 12, 2001
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92
I'm sorry, whats the anticipation?
What did you expect the re-edit to be, Star Wars?!
Just be happy that we are in a day and age where an 80 + year old director can go back and finish a 20+ year old film without stepping back on a set.
I'm also not completely pro-revisionist either. Star Wars and E.T., for what they we're, were finished films.
Too bad Copolla can't go back and re-imagine Godfather 3. From listening to the commentary, it was a troubled, rushed production. Ofcourse Copolla still blames Apoc. Now for his downfall.
 

Jesse Shanks

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Oct 17, 2000
Messages
3
Interesting discussion of the ST:TMP. I have found that that the other reviews I have read (most seem to rehash the documentary material), and the comments here, do not address really what is the thing about this film that is weakest. The story, a rehash of The Changeling episode,is really what keeps it from being one of the best science fiction movies ever. I have felt that the writer who wrote the screenplay from a TV episode pitch by Alan Dean Foster really lacked the necessary comfort with the Star Trek universe. There is also a self-indulgent quality, as if they felt this would be the only Star Trek movie they would make and they had to cram it all in. But there is also no doubt that many lessons were learned in making this film that all the subsequent films and TV series learned from. The main thing learned is that Star Trek is character driven.
The most interesting aspect of the DE, I believe, is the restraint and care that was taken in "enhancing" the film. 1) There is subtle enhancement to the look and action of the story but not overbearingly so. The Vulcan visuals, the destruction of the asteroid in the wormhole and the Enterprise within the V'Ger cloud and ship sequences do make the movie better. 2) The temptation to add in the stuff that was inserted into the television presentation was avoided. In fact, the DE is trimmed as much as it is "added" to by the director. This *is* a tighter film and somehow the relationship between Decker and Ilia is stronger and creates a more satisfying conclusion.
As a DVD, the image is very acceptable, the sound rocks and the extras are full of great stuff. The text commentary by Michael Okuda is great fun. I am really surprised that anyone could be disappointed in this release... that had ever seen the film before. As a Star Trek fan, I wanted the story to be better than it is. As a reviewer, I had to accept that the digital enhancements did not overcome this flaw. But, I enjoyed it each time I watched and I have no doubt that I will enjoy it again.
Jesse Shanks
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[Edited last by Jesse Shanks on November 06, 2001 at 02:18 AM]
 

John_Berger

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I have to disagree with you on the notion of a weak story. In fact, I find the story to be more believable than perhaps any of the other "Star Trek" movies.
The Voyager probes are actual space vessels. This is our historical fact, not a dreamed-up Star Trek future. Additionally, our deep space vehicles do have basic coding that truly is to transmit its data back to earth. It is certainly within the realm of possibility for that intention to be misconstrued by someone who finds it. Our own human history is replete with examples of scribbled information that have been misinterpreted.
I certainly will not say that there is a machine world out there that can do what happened to the Voyager spacecraft; but when it comes to possiblities that are based in our historical realities, I find ST:TMP to be the most believable of the movies. I'm not saying the BEST -- simply the most believable.
Regarding your statement about this being the only Star Trek movie, the fact is that TMP WAS supposed to be the only Star Trek movie. However, because TMP was so unfulfilling to the Star Trek fan base, the second movie was created and as we all know is much closer to the "cowboy" style of the original series.
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Shane Martin

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I'm watching Star Trek Tonight so I'll let you guys know what I think. This will be the first time I've seen the movie as I haven't been a Star Trek fan hardly but I've grown to appreciate them a bit more as I've seen them lately.
We'll see.
 

Anton Ruzic

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57
However, because TMP was so unfulfilling to the Star Trek fan base, the second movie was created and as we all know is much closer to the "cowboy" style of the original series.
ST:TMP, like the original Star Trek series pilot entitled "The Cage", was a wonderful example of intelligent media sci-fi that transcended its gutter origins. I sincerely wish that the original series was more like The Cage, and the films more like ST:TMP. I suppose that I am one of the very few fans who found the replacement of Gene Roddenberry with Harve "Powers of Matthew Star" Bennett a complete and utter disaster.
Anton
 

Kevin H. Martin

Auditioning
Joined
Feb 21, 2001
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9
While I agree with Anton about being disappointed with the 'new' cut of the film, I have to say I fall between various opinions expressed on what Star Trek is supposed to be about. Rather than being strictly a cerebral exercise like, say, THE CAGE, or mainly a shoot-'em-up, which is how folks seem to perceive KHAN (though I think there is deeper stuff there), the appeal of Trek has to do with the fact that the original format let you do either of these extremes, plus lotsa stuff in between. VOYAGE HOME, though a bit lowbrow at times, showed that this format lent itself to spoofing itself, just as the original series did at times.
Regarding the director's cut ... well, rather than list several dozen annoying aspects, I'd rather focus on one scene: Kirk, Spock & McCoy in the officer's lounge. Originally, they were in front of a starfield window, and whenever you saw the stars, their uniforms changed color. Easy enough fix, I'd say. But instead, when they go back in to add the warp nacelle to the shot, they don't do the color-correction! Every bit of 1979 concept art I've ever seen for this scene shows TWO engines because the lounge is supposed to be on the top back of the saucer. On the commentary (or maybe the second disk, I can't recall), they mention they placed this lounge where the big rec room windows are ... if this is true, the officer's lounge must be cloaked and floating in space, because it sure doesn't correspond to that model we see so lovingly earlier in the film!
I could go on about Wise choosing to leave in the embarassing shot of that little GI JOE space guy who seems to fall off his support wire when the cloud eats Epsilon 9,
but that would be editorializing ... I do have to say that cutting Shatner's 'oh migod' helped the transporter accident a lot ... the rest of his performance there is credible, so that was an effective salvage.
My preference for the ending is something they probably couldn't have done, but I'd have liked it if they had really spruced it up, going back to the ending written for the film when it was supposed to be a tv-movie: when v'ger starts to evolve, all the images and music on the actual voyager laserdisc mounted to the satellite start playing, so the figures are engulfed by views of earth's vistas and art while Beethoven and Bach play at volume around them. It could have been an awesome spectacle!
 

Rich Howard

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Nov 4, 2001
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I am new to this forum and DVD, however, I have been a Star Trek fan since TOS on television. I was one of the first in line to see the movie as a teenager in 1979. I was also one of the thousands who loved seeing the Enterprise crew on the big screen, yet was disappointed in the whole. It was too long and unengaging with no credible enemy.
When my DVD arrived yesterday, I spent the entire evening enjoying what I should have enjoyed in the theater 22 years ago. The new sound mix was amazing, the bridge came alive and I felt like I was right there with the crew. The new visual effects enhanced the original story and didn't feel out of place. The story was tighter and flowed better (I didn't feel like nodding off during the V-ger fly-through and I certainly don't miss the infamously hoky "OH MY GOD" line). I LOVED the V'ger exterior shot and it created an engaging enemy for the first time. WOW! This is now a great movie, regardless of what you hear from the naysayers and nit-pickers, GO OUT AND BUY THIS DVD!!! Minor flaws aside - it is now a true Star Trek!
 

Anton Ruzic

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I certainly don't miss the infamously hoky "OH MY GOD" line.
Is it my imagination or did the "Oh my God" line only become "hoky" in the last couple of days? That particular cut I can handle easily, but the editing of the sickbay scene where McCoy tries to restrain Kirk from shaking Spock awake is absolutely criminal. Something tells me that Robert Wise was merely the figurehead on this project, and it was others who made the actual changes to the film. Of course, the fact that Paramount Home Entertainment neglected to include on the second disc relevant extracts from Gene Roddenberry's memos regarding the changes he wished made to ST:TMP after its initial release doesn't help my paranoia in the slightest.
Anton
 

Dave Scarpa

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TMP is really the only Trek Film to Feel like a Motion picture to me. The other films may have tighter scripts but the scream Television Division. Besides TMP only First Contact Really Felt like a film.
 

Neil S. Bulk

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That was probably the moment Robert Wise Productions ran out of money.
I'm not sure what the budget was on this release, but we should all keep in mind that this release won a Video Premiere Award last month for Best New, Enhanced or Reconstructed Movie Scenes beating out Star Wars - Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace, a film where $4 million was spent for new scenes. If I recall correctly, that was the most money ever spent for a video release, so I think The Motion Picture certainly holds its own.
Everyone involved with this release should be really proud of the work done on it. Its spectacular. Far better than what was released in 1979.
Neil
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"Conspiracy theorists don't live on the same flat Earth as the rest of us." -- astronomer Stephen Maran
 

Rich Howard

Auditioning
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Nov 4, 2001
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I agree with Neil regarding the award. I believe TMP is superior to TPM In every way imaginable. 'More is not always better' rings true here. The new TMP scenes fit seamlessly, even the grain matches. The new sound creates the proper mood and the new sound effects fill in the tension on the bridge. It is the tightly edited, personality driven, story that Mr. Wise wanted shown in 1979. I've said it before, LET THE MOVIEGOERS DECIDE...This product SHOWN be given a showing on film! Anyone know the person at Paramount to contact?
 

Anton Ruzic

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This product SHOWN be given a showing on film!
That is rather unlikely, considering the CGI for The Director's Edition was apparently rendered at the measly Standard Definition (480p) resolution, instead of the 2K/4K resolution required for cinema projection.
Anton
 

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