Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock (1984)

Director: Leonard Nimoy

Staring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Christopher Lloyd and all the rest

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Join the search

Plot: Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis planet to recover Spock's body.

My Rating: 6.5

Would I watch it again? I suppose.

There's no way they could top ST2 but that doesn't mean ST3 couldn't have been better. With its cheap laughs (like the sound of a Ford Model T sputtering to a stop as the Excelsior's drive fails - a sound designer with an imagination could have achieved the same effect (i.e. laughs) without resorting to a sputtering jalopy), cheap special effects (compared to ST2) and a smaller, almost forced, adventure, ST3 looks and feels more like a ST TV episode than a big screen motion picture like the second film. But it's still fun.

Gee, I hope she's in more of this movie...

DAMN IT!

I don't know, I guess it has a lot to do with Nimoy's direction and Harve Bennett's screenplay. I like it OK but it seems rushed as if to capitalize on the huge success they had with ST2. I would have rather they spent more time on the story, cut some of the cheap eye-rolling gags and spent some more money on the effects (although there a few good shots). But of all of them, the story needed work more than anything. I can handle crap effects if the story and emotion are there.

It's interesting to see that, in the distant future, security cameras automatically edit, provide coverage shots and have cameras that follow the subjects filmed for dramatic effect JUST LIKE A CAMERA CREW!

Hey, kids! It's Doc Brown from BACK TO THE FUTURE, Christopher Llloyd!

Again, we get another of James Horner's rare excellent scores. What he does with the original TV theme at the close of the film before the credits is beautiful. The last notes after the credits cap off a great end titles. BOMP! BOMP!

Conan the Barbarian is going to show up any minute now and start hacking vestial virgins to pieces!

I never noticed before but Bones has got pretty green eyes.

"DOC!!!"

Looks like they found him

It also kind of felt like a re-hash of ST2, story-wise. Someone else wants the Genesis Project. Someone wants to hurt Kirk, only this time his son dies (rather easily, too). Kirk uses his ole switcheroonie technique to outsmart the bad guy. It's kind of ST2-lite. It's a step back but thankfully not too far back that you can't see forward. When that happens you have to call out the big guns and re-boot the franchise. What? Too soon? Hey. At least it's better than ST1!