Edward D. Wood Jr.

Edward D. Wood Jr.
(Worst Director of All Time)

Frank Henenlotter

Frank Henenlotter
(Film Maker & Film Historian)

sexta-feira, 28 de junho de 2013

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan







































Info About The Second Star Trek Movie Of The Series:

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a 1982 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the second feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise. The plot features James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the starship USS Enterprise facing off against the genetically-engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán), a character who first appeared in the 1967 Star Trek television series episode "Space Seed". When Khan escapes from a 15-year exile to exact revenge on Kirk, the crew of the Enterprise must stop him from acquiring a powerful terraforming device named Genesis. The film concludes with the death of Enterprise first officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), beginning a story arc that continues with the 1984 film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and concludes with 1986's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
After the lackluster critical and commercial response to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, series creator Gene Roddenberry was forced out of the sequel's production. Executive producer Harve Bennett wrote the film's original outline, which Jack B. Sowards developed into a full script. Director Nicholas Meyer completed the final script in 12 days, without accepting a writing credit. Meyer's approach evoked the swashbuckling atmosphere of the original series, and the theme was reinforced by James Horner's musical score. Leonard Nimoy only reprised his role as Spock because the character's death was intended to be irrevocable. Negative test audience reaction to Spock's death led to significant revisions of the ending over Meyer's objections. The production used various cost-cutting techniques to keep within budget, including utilizing miniatures from past projects and re-using sets, effects footage and costumes from the previous movie. Among the film's technical achievements is that it is the first feature film to contain a complete sequence created entirely with computer-generated graphics.
The Wrath of Khan was released in North America on June 4, 1982. It was a box office success, earning US$97 million worldwide and setting a world record for first-day box office gross. Critical reaction to the film was positive; reviewers highlighted Khan, the film's pacing, and the character interactions as strong elements. Negative reaction focused on weak special effects and some of the acting. The Wrath of Khan is generally considered to be the best film of the entire Star Trek series and is credited with the creation of substantial renewed interest in the franchise.

Plot

Lieutenant Saavik (Kirstie Alley) is in command of the starship USS Enterprise. The vessel is on a rescue mission to save the crew of a damaged ship in the Neutral Zone along the border with Klingon space when it is attacked by Klingon cruisers and critically damaged. The "attack" is revealed to be a simulator training exercise known as the "Kobayashi Maru"; a no-win scenario designed to test the character of Starfleet officers. Admiral James T. Kirk oversees the simulator session of Captain Spock's trainees.[4] Celebrating his birthday, Kirk is later joined for drinks by Dr. McCoy, who advises him to get a new command and not waste his career behind a desk.
The USS Reliant is on a mission to search for a lifeless planet for testing of the Genesis Device, a torpedo designed to reorganize matter to create habitable worlds for colonization; however, the device can also destroy planets. Reliant officers Commander Pavel Chekov and Captain Clark Terrell beam down to the surface of a possible candidate planet, Ceti Alpha V, where they are captured by genetically engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh. The Enterprise discovered Khan's ship adrift in space fifteen years previously; Kirk exiled Khan and his fellow supermen from 20th century Earth to Ceti Alpha V. Khan reveals that after they were marooned, Ceti Alpha VI exploded, destroying Ceti Alpha V's ecosystem and shifting its orbit. Khan blames Kirk for the death of his wife and plans to avenge her. He implants Chekov and Terrell with indigenous eels that enter the ears of their victims and render them susceptible to mind control, and uses the officers to gain control of the Reliant. Learning of Genesis, Khan attacks Space Station Regula I where the device is being developed by Kirk's former lover, Dr. Carol Marcus, and their son, David.[5]
The Enterprise embarks on a three-week training voyage under the command of Captain Spock. Kirk assumes command of the Enterprise after the ship receives a distress call from Regula I and goes on active duty. En route, the Enterprise is ambushed by the Reliant. The attack cripples the Enterprise and many of its trainees are either injured or killed. A transmission between the two ships reveals Khan knows of the Genesis Device and demands that all the information related to the project be sent to him. Kirk stalls for time and uses Reliant's prefix code to remotely lower their shields, allowing the Enterprise to counter-attack. Khan is forced to retreat and effect repairs, while the Enterprise limps to Regula I. Kirk, McCoy, and Saavik beam to the station where they find Terrell and Chekov alive, along with slaughtered members of the Genesis Project team. The team finds the remaining scientists, including Carol and David, hidden deep inside the planetoid of Regula. Khan, having used Terrell and Chekov as spies, transports the Genesis Device aboard Reliant and then orders them to kill Kirk; Terrell resists the eel's influence and kills himself while Chekov collapses in agony. Though Khan believes his foe stranded on Regula I, Kirk and Spock use a coded message to arrange a rendezvous. Kirk then directs the Enterprise into the nearby Mutara Nebula; static discharges from the nebula render both ships' defensive shields useless and compromise targeting systems, making the Enterprise and Reliant evenly matched. Kirk exploits Khan's inexperience in space combat to critically disable the Reliant.
Mortally wounded, Khan activates the Genesis Device, which will reorganize all matter in the nebula including the Enterprise. Though Kirk's crew detects the activation of the Genesis Device and the Enterprise attempts to move out of range using impulse engines, with the warp drive damaged they will not be able to escape the nebula in time. Spock leaves the bridge and goes to the engine room to restore the warp drive. When McCoy tries to prevent Spock's exposure to high levels of radiation, he incapacitates the doctor with a Vulcan nerve pinch and then performs a mind meld, telling him to "Remember". Spock restores power to the warp drive and the Enterprise escapes the explosion. Kirk arrives in the engine room, where Spock dies of radiation poisoning. The explosion of the Genesis Device causes the gas in the nebula to reform into a new planet, capable of sustaining life. A space burial is held in the Enterprise's torpedo room and Spock's coffin is shot into orbit around the newly formed planet. The crew leaves the planet to pick up the Reliant's marooned crew from Ceti Alpha V. Spock's coffin, having soft-landed, rests on the planet surface.[6]

Cast

William Shatner plays James T. Kirk, a Starfleet Admiral and former commander of the Enterprise. Kirk and Khan never confront each other face-to-face during the film. All of their interactions are over a viewscreen or through communicators and their scenes were filmed four months apart,[7] although a draft script had Khan defeating Kirk in a swordfight.[8] Meyer described Shatner as an actor who was naturally protective of his character and himself, and who performed better over multiple takes.[9]
Ricardo Montalbán portrays Khan Noonien Singh, a genetically enhanced superhuman who used his strength and intellect to briefly rule much of Earth in the 1990s. Montalbán said that he believed all good villains do villainous things, but think that they are acting for the "right" reasons; in this way, Khan uses his anger at the death of his wife to justify his pursuit of Kirk. The film was close to production approval when it occurred to the producers that no one had asked Montalbán whether he was interested in appearing in the film[10] despite his character having been in the scripts for more than a year. Montalbán was unsure whether he could plausibly play Khan again after many years, especially given his current role of Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island.[8] Contrary to speculation that Montalbán used a prosthetic chest, no artificial devices were added to emphasize Montalbán's muscular physique,[9] since even in his 60's and despite an increasingly painful back injury, stemming from being thrown off a horse in the 1950's, Montalbán had a vigorous workout routine. Montalbán enjoyed making the film, so much so that he played the role for much less than was offered him,[citation needed] and counted the role as a career highlight. His major complaint was that he was never face-to-face with Shatner for a scene. "I had to do my lines with the script girl, who, as you might imagine, sounded nothing like Bill [Shatner]," he explained.[11]
Captain Spock is portrayed by Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy had not intended to have a role in The Motion Picture's sequel, but was enticed back on the promise that his character would be given a dramatic death scene.[12] Nimoy reasoned that since The Wrath of Khan would be the final Star Trek film, having Spock "go out in a blaze of glory" seemed like a good way to end the character.[10]
DeForest Kelley plays Leonard McCoy, the Enterprise's chief medical officer and a close friend of Kirk and Spock. Kelley was dissatisfied with an earlier version of the script to the point that he considered not taking part.[12] Kelley noted his character spoke many of the film's lighter lines, and felt that this role was essential in bringing a lighter side to the onscreen drama.[10]
Other members of the Enterprise crew include chief engineer Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), helmsman Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), and communications officer Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). Nichols and Gene Roddenberry took issue with elements of the film, including the naval references and militaristic uniforms. Nichols also defended Roddenberry when the producers believed he was the source of script leaks.[13] Takei had simply not wanted to reprise his role until Shatner persuaded him to return.[14] Kelley felt that McCoy speaking his catchphrase "he's dead, Jim" during Spock's death scene would ruin the moment's seriousness, so Doohan delivers the line "he's dead already" to Kirk.[15] Scott loses his young nephew following Khan's attacks on the Enterprise. The cadet, played by Ike Eisenmann, had many of his lines cut from the original theatrical release, including a scene where it is explained he is Scott's relative. These scenes were reintroduced when ABC aired The Wrath of Khan on television in 1985, and in the director's edition, making Scott's grief at the crewman's death more understandable.[14]
Walter Koenig plays Pavel Chekov, the Reliant's first officer and a former Enterprise crewmember. During filming, Kelley noted that Chekov never met Khan in "Space Seed" (Koenig had not yet joined the cast), and thus Khan recognizing Chekov on Ceti Alpha did not make sense. Star Trek books have tried to rationalize this discrepancy; in the film's novelization by Vonda N. McIntyre, Chekov is "an ensign assigned to the night watch" during "Space Seed" and met Khan in an off-screen scene.[16] The non-canonical novel To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh explains the error by having Chekov escort Khan to the surface of Ceti Alpha after the events of the television episode. The real cause of the error was a simple oversight by the filmmakers. Meyer defended the mistake by noting that Arthur Conan Doyle made similar oversights in his Sherlock Holmes stories.[9] Chekov's screaming while being infested by the Ceti eel led Koenig to jokingly dub the film Star Trek II: Chekov Screams Again, in reference to a similar screaming scene in The Motion Picture.[14] Paul Winfield plays Reliant captain Clark Terrell; Meyer had seen Winfield's work in films such as Sounder and wanted to direct him. Meyer thought in retrospect that the Ceti eel scenes might have been corny, but felt that Winfield's performance helped add gravity.[9]
Other characters include Kirstie Alley as Saavik, Spock's protege and a Starfleet commander-in-training aboard the Enterprise. The movie was Alley's first feature film role. Saavik cries during Spock's funeral. Meyer said that during filming someone asked him, "'Are you going to let her do that?' And I said, 'Yeah,' and they said, 'But Vulcans don't cry,' and I said, 'Well, that's what makes this such an interesting Vulcan.'"[9] The character's emotional outbursts can be partly explained by the fact that Saavik was described as of mixed Vulcan-Romulan heritage in the script, though no indication is given on film.[14] Alley was so fond of her Vulcan ears that she would take them home with her at the end of each day.[9] Bibi Besch plays Carol Marcus, the lead scientist working on Project Genesis, and the mother of Kirk's son David (played by Merritt Butrick). Meyer was looking for an actress who looked beautiful enough that it was plausible a womanizer such as Kirk would fall for her, yet who could also project a sense of intelligence. Meyer liked that Butrick's hair was blond like Besch's and curly like Shatner's, making him a plausible son of the two.[9]



Selected Contents:




Themes

The Wrath of Khan features several recurring themes, including death, resurrection, and growing old.[66] Upon writing his script, Meyer hit upon a link between Spock's death and the age of the characters. "This was going to be a story in which Spock died, so it was going to be a story about death, and it was only a short hop, skip, and a jump to realize that it was going to be about old age and friendship," Meyer said. "I don't think that any of [the other preliminary] scripts were about old age, friendship, and death."[9] In keeping with the theme of death and rebirth symbolized by Spock's sacrifice and the Genesis Device, Meyer wanted to call the film The Undiscovered Country, in reference to Prince Hamlet's description of death in William Shakespeare's Hamlet,[67] but the title was changed during editing without his knowledge.[9] Meyer disliked Wrath of Khan, but it was chosen because the preferred Vengeance of Khan conflicted with Lucasfilm's forthcoming Revenge of the Jedi (renamed Return of the Jedi very late in production).[8]
The Wrath of Khan follows in a long tradition of films in which the adventurer or explorer must undergo a figurative or literal death in order to start anew.[68] Spock is Kirk's doppelgänger and together they represent a bifurcated hero, with the two characters representing dueling halves of the human condition. Spock represents the supernatural ideal of a completely logical and infallible person, while Kirk represents the impassioned and human reality, prone to error and at odds with himself.[69] Spock's sacrifice at the end of the film allows for Kirk's spiritual rebirth in the tradition of the death-rebirth cycle. After commenting earlier that he feels old and worn out, Kirk states in the final scene that "I feel young."[70] The Kobayashi Maru test forces its participants to confront an unwinnable situation which serves as a test of character, but Kirk reveals that he won the test by cheating; Saavik responds that Kirk has never faced death. Spock's own solution to the no-win scenario, that of self-sacrifice,[71] forces Kirk to confront death after continually cheating it, and to grow as a character.[72] Sight and sound reinforce the themes of death and aging, as well as the promise of rebirth; Spock is the first character seen and his voice is the last heard, and his coffin follows the same trajectory towards the new planet as the Genesis Device does in a video lecture earlier in the film.[6] The principle of sacrificing the needs of the one for those of the many was translated to modern triage via the 'Spock principle'.[73]
Meyer added elements to reinforce the aging of the characters. Kirk's unhappiness about his birthday is compounded by McCoy's gift of reading glasses. The script stated that Kirk was 49, but Shatner was unsure about being specific about Kirk's age.[9] Bennett remembers that Shatner was hesitant about portraying a middle-aged version of himself, and believed that with proper makeup he could continue playing a younger Kirk. Bennett convinced Shatner that he could age gracefully like Spencer Tracy; the producer did not know that Shatner had worked with Tracy on Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and was very fond of the actor.[10] Meyer made sure to emphasize Kirk's parallel to Sherlock Holmes in that both characters waste away in the absence of their stimuli; new cases, in Holmes' case, and starship adventures in Kirk's.[9]
Khan's pursuit of Kirk is central to the film's theme of vengeance, and The Wrath of Khan deliberately borrows heavily from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.[74] To make the parallels clear to viewers, Meyer added a visible copy of Moby-Dick to Khan's dwelling.[9] Khan liberally paraphrases Ahab, with "I'll chase him round the moons of Nibia and round the Antares maelstrom and round perdition's flames before I give him up!". Khan also quotes Ahab's tirade at the end of the novel verbatim with his final lines: "to the last I grapple with thee; from Hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."[74][75] Kirk represents both the restless elements of Ishmael as well as the titular white whale of Melville's novel; Khan's blind pursuit of Kirk mirrors Captain Ahab's obsession with Moby-Dick. Both Khan and Ahab pursue their quarry against the better judgement of their crew, and end up killing themselves in an effort to take their foe with them. University of Northern Colorado professor Jane Wall Hinds argues that the themes of The Wrath of Khan clash with the optimistic and transcendentalist perspectives of the original series and The Next Generation.[74] Moby Dick's themes of vengeance would later heavily influence Star Trek: First Contact.[76]


Reception

Release

The Wrath of Khan opened on June 4, 1982 in 1,621 theaters in the United States. It made $14,347,221 in its opening weekend, at the time the largest opening weekend gross in history.[3] It went on to earn $78,912,963 in the US,[2] becoming the sixth highest-grossing film of 1982.[77] It made $97,000,000 worldwide. Although the total gross of The Wrath of Khan was less than that of The Motion Picture, it was more profitable due to its lower production cost.[3] The film's novelization, written by Vonda N. McIntyre, stayed on the New York Times paperback bestsellers list for more than three weeks.[78] Unlike the previous film, Wrath of Khan was not promoted with a toy line, although Playmates Toys created Khan and Saavik figures in the 1990s, and in 2007 Art Asylum crafted a full series of action figures to mark the film's 25th anniversary.[79] In 2009 IDW Publishing released a comic adaptation of the film,[80] and Film Score Monthly released an expanded score.[81]

Critical response

Critical response was positive.[82] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 91% of selected critics have given the film a positive review based on a sample of 44.[83] After the lukewarm reaction to the first film, fan response to The Wrath of Khan was highly positive. The film's success was credited with renewing interest in the franchise.[84] Mark Bernardin of Entertainment Weekly went further, calling The Wrath of Khan "the film that, by most accounts, saved Star Trek as we know it";[85] it is now considered one of the best films in the series.[84][85][86][87]
The film's pacing was praised by reviewers in The New York Times and The Washington Post as being much swifter than its predecessor and closer to that of the television series.[88][89] Janet Maslin of The New York Times credited the film with a stronger story than The Motion Picture and stated the sequel was everything the first film should have been.[88] Variety agreed that The Wrath of Khan was closer to the original spirit of Star Trek than its predecessor.[90] Strong character interaction was cited as a strong feature of the film,[91] as was Montalbán's portrayal of Khan.[92]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times and Derek Adams of Time Out complained about what were seen as tepid battle sequences,[92] and perceived melodrama.[89][93] While Ebert and TV Guide felt that Spock's death was dramatic and well-handled,[92][94] The Washington Post's Gary Arnold stated Spock's death "feels like an unnecessary twist, and the filmmakers are obviously well-prepared to fudge in case the public demands another sequel."[89] Negative reviews of the film also focused on the acting,[89][95] and Empire singled out the "dodgy coiffures" and "Santa Claus tunics" as elements of the film that had not aged well.[96]
The Wrath of Khan won two Saturn Awards in 1982, for best actor (Shatner) and best direction (Meyer).[97][98] The film was also nominated in the "best dramatic presentation" category for the 1983 Hugo Awards, but lost to Blade Runner.[99] The Wrath of Khan has had an impact on later movies: Meyer's rejected title for the film, The Undiscovered Country, was finally put to use when Meyer directed the sixth film, which retained the nautical influences.[9] Director Bryan Singer cited the film as an influence on X2 and his abandoned sequel to Superman Returns.[100] The film is also a favorite of director J. J. Abrams, producer Damon Lindelof and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the creative team behind the franchise relaunch film Star Trek.[101][102][103]

Home media

Paramount released The Wrath of Khan on VHS and Beta in 1983. The studio sold the VHS for $39.95, $40 below contemporary movie cassette prices. It needed to sell 60,000 tapes to make the film as profitable as other tapes, but sold 120,000. The successful experiment was credited with instigating more competitive VHS pricing, an increase in the adoption of increasingly cheaper VHS players, and an industry-wide move away from rentals to sales as the bulk of videotape revenue.[104][105]
Paramount released The Wrath of Khan on DVD in 2000; no special features were included on the disc.[106] Montalbán drew hundreds of fans of the film to Universal City, California where he signed copies of the DVD to commemorate its release.[107] In August 2002, the film was re-released in a highly anticipated[108] two-disc "Director's Edition" format.[109] In addition to remastered picture quality and 5.1 Dolby surround sound, the DVD set included director commentary, cast interviews, storyboards and the theatrical trailer.[110] The expanded cut of the film was given a Hollywood premiere before the release of the DVD. Meyer stated that he didn't believe directors' cuts of films were necessarily better than the original but that the re-release gave him a chance to add elements that had been removed from the theatrical release by Paramount.[111] The four hours of bonus content and expanded director's cut were favorably received.[110][112][113][114]
The film's original theatrical cut was released on Blu-ray Disc in May 2009 to coincide with the new Star Trek feature, along with the other five films featuring the original crew in Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection.[115] Of all six original films, Wrath of Khan was the only one to be remastered in 1080p high-definition from the original negative. Nicholas Meyer stated that the Wrath of Khan negative "was in terrible shape," which is why it needed extensive restoration. All six films in the set have new 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio. The disc also features a new commentary track by director Nicholas Meyer and Star Trek: Enterprise showrunner Manny Coto.[115]


Above Extracts Taken From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_II:_The_Wrath_of_Khan

More Info: http://www.startrek.com/page/star-trek-ii-the-wrath-of-khan - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084726/


Trailer, HD Trailer & HD Blu-Ray Trailer From YouTube:








sexta-feira, 14 de junho de 2013

Star Trek: The Motion Picture







































Info About The First Star Trek Movie Of The Series:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on Star Trek, and a sequel to the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches Earth, destroying everything in its path. Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) assumes command of his previous starship—the recently refitted USS Enterprise—to lead it on a mission to save the planet and determine V'Ger's origins.
When the original television series was cancelled in 1969, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry lobbied Paramount to continue the franchise through a film. The success of the series in syndication convinced the studio to begin work on a feature film in 1975. A series of writers attempted to craft a suitably epic script, but the attempts did not satisfy Paramount, so the studio scrapped the project in 1977. Paramount instead planned on returning the franchise to its roots with a new television series, Star Trek: Phase II. The box office success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind convinced Paramount that science fiction films other than Star Wars could do well at the box office, so the studio cancelled production of Phase II and resumed its attempts at making a Star Trek film. In 1978, Paramount assembled the largest press conference held at the studio since the 1950s to announce that double Academy Award–winning director Robert Wise would helm a $15 million film adaptation of the television series.
With the cancellation of Phase II, writers rushed to adapt its planned pilot episode, "In Thy Image," into a film script. Constant revisions to the story and shooting script continued, to the extent of hourly script updates on shooting dates. The Enterprise was modified inside and out; costume designer Robert Fletcher provided new uniforms and production designer Harold Michelson fabricated new sets. Jerry Goldsmith composed the score, beginning an association with Star Trek that would continue until 2002. When the original contractors for the optical effects proved unable to complete their tasks in time, effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull was given carte blanche to meet the December 1979 release date. The film came together only days before the premiere; Wise took the just-completed film to its Washington, D.C., opening, but always felt that the theatrical version was a rough cut of the film he wanted to make.

Released in North America on December 7, 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom faulted the film for its lack of action and over-reliance on special effects. The final production cost ballooned to approximately $46 million. The film earned $139 million worldwide, falling short of studio expectations but enough for Paramount to propose a cheaper sequel. Roddenberry was forced out of creative control for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In 2001, Wise oversaw a director's cut for a special DVD release of the film, with remastered audio, tightened and added scenes, and new computer-generated effects.

Plot

A Starfleet monitoring station, Epsilon Nine, detects an alien force, hidden in a massive cloud of energy, moving through space towards Earth. The cloud destroys three of the Klingons' new K't'inga-class warships and the monitoring station en route. On Earth, the starship Enterprise is undergoing a major refit; her former Captain, James T. Kirk, has been promoted to Admiral and works in San Francisco as Chief of Starfleet Operations. Starfleet dispatches Enterprise to investigate the cloud entity as the ship is the only one in intercept range, requiring her new systems to be tested in transit.
Kirk takes command of the ship citing his experience, angering Captain Willard Decker, who had been overseeing the refit as its new commanding officer. Testing of Enterprise's new systems goes poorly; two officers, including the science officer, are killed by a malfunctioning transporter, and improperly calibrated engines almost destroy the ship. The tension between Kirk and Decker increases when the admiral demonstrates his unfamiliarity with Enterprise. Spock arrives as replacement science officer, explaining that while on his home world undergoing a ritual to purge all emotion, he felt a consciousness that he believes emanates from the cloud.
The Enterprise intercepts the energy cloud and is attacked by an alien vessel within. A probe appears on the bridge, attacks Spock and abducts the navigator, Ilia. She is replaced by a robotic doppelgänger, a probe sent by "V'Ger" to study the crew. Decker is distraught over the loss of Ilia, with whom he had a romantic history. He becomes troubled as he attempts to extract information from the doppelgänger, which has Ilia's memories and feelings buried within. Spock takes a spacewalk to the alien vessel's surface and attempts a telepathic mind meld with it. In doing so, he learns that the vessel is V'Ger itself, a living machine.

At the heart of the massive ship, V'Ger is revealed to be Voyager 6, a 20th-century Earth space probe believed lost. The damaged probe was found by an alien race of living machines that interpreted its programming as instructions to learn all that can be learned, and return that information to its creator. The machines upgraded the probe to fulfill its mission, and on its journey the probe gathered so much knowledge that it achieved consciousness. Spock realizes that V'Ger lacks the ability to give itself a focus other than its original mission; having learned what it could on its journey home, it finds its existence empty and without purpose. Before transmitting all its information, V'Ger insists that the Creator come in person to finish the sequence. Realizing that the machine wants to merge with its creator, Decker offers himself to V'Ger; he merges with the Ilia probe and V'Ger, creating a new form of life that disappears into another dimension. With Earth saved, Kirk directs Enterprise out to space for future missions.

Cast


  • William Shatner as James T. Kirk, the former captain of the USS Enterprise and an Admiral at Starfleet headquarters. When asked during a March 1978 press conference about what it would be like to reprise the role, Shatner said, "An actor brings to a role not only the concept of a character but his own basic personality, things that he is, and both Leonard Nimoy and myself have changed over the years, to a degree at any rate, and we will bring that degree of change inadvertently to the role we recreate."[5]
  • Leonard Nimoy as Spock, the Enterprise's half-Vulcan, half-human science officer. Nimoy had been dissatisfied with unpaid royalties from Star Trek and did not intend to reprise the role, so Spock was left out of the screenplay. Director Robert Wise, having been informed by his daughter and son-in-law that the film "would not be Star Trek" without Nimoy, sent Jeffrey Katzenberg to New York City to meet with Nimoy. Katzenberg gave Nimoy a check to make up for his lost royalties, and the actor attended the March 1978 press conference with the rest of the returning cast. Nimoy was dissatisfied with the script, and his meeting with Katzenberg led to an agreement that the final script would need Nimoy's approval.[6] Despite the financial issues, Nimoy said he was comfortable with being identified as Spock because it had a positive impact on his fame.[5]
  • DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy, the chief medical officer aboard the Enterprise. Kelley had reservations with the script, feeling that the characters and relationships from the series were not in place. Along with Shatner and Nimoy, Kelley lobbied for greater characterization, but their opinions were largely ignored.[7]
  • James Doohan as Montgomery Scott, the Enterprise's chief engineer. Doohan created the distinctive Klingon vocabulary heard in the film.[8] Linguist Marc Okrand later developed a fully realized Klingon language based on the actor's made-up words.[9]
  • Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov, the Enterprise's weapons officer. Koenig noted that the expected sense of camaraderie and euphoria at being assembled for screen tests at the start of the picture was nonexistent. "This may be Star Trek," he wrote, "but it isn't the old Star Trek." The actor was hopeful for the film, but admitted he was disappointed by his character's bit part.[10]
  • Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, the communications officer aboard the Enterprise. Nichols noted in her autobiography that she was one of the actors most opposed to the new uniforms added for the film because the drab, unisex look "wasn't Uhura".[11]
  • George Takei as Hikaru Sulu, the Enterprise's helmsman. In his autobiography, Takei described the film's shooting schedule as "astonishingly luxurious", but noted that frequent script rewrites during production "usually favored Bill" [Shatner].[12]
  • Persis Khambatta as Ilia, the Deltan navigator of the Enterprise. Khambatta was originally cast in the role when The Motion Picture was a television pilot.[5] She took the role even after Roddenberry warned her that she would have to shave her head completely for filming.[13]
  • Stephen Collins as Willard Decker, the new captain of the Enterprise. He is temporarily demoted to Commander and First Officer when Kirk takes command of the Enterprise. Collins was completely unfamiliar with the franchise, having never seen an episode of the series. Kelley's dressing room was next to Collins', and the older actor became his mentor for the production.[14] Given the preexisting television cast Collins' casting was the only one that director Wise participated in; he called Collins' performance "excellent—in a difficult role."[15]
Other actors from the television series who returned included Majel Barrett as Christine Chapel, a doctor aboard the Enterprise, and Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand, formerly one of Kirk's yeomen. David Gautreaux, who had been cast as Xon in the aborted second television series, cameos as Branch, the commander of the Epsilon 9 communications station.[5] Mark Lenard portrays the Klingon commander in the film's opening sequence; the actor also played Spock's father, Sarek, in the television series and in later feature films.[16]


Selected Contents:




Reception

Release

To coincide with the film's release, Pocket Books published a novelization written by Roddenberry.[n 3] The only Star Trek novel Roddenberry wrote, the book adds back story and elements that did not appear in the movie; for example, the novelization mentions that Willard Decker is the son of Commodore Matt Decker from the original series episode "The Doomsday Machine"—a plot element intended for the Phase II television series.[140] The novel also has a different opening scene to introduce V'ger and Kirk, concentrates in sections on Kirk's struggle with confidence in taking command of the Enterprise again and expands on Ilia and Decker's relationship. In addition to the novel, Star Trek printed media included a coloring book, ship blueprints, and a comic book adaptation published by Marvel Comics as Marvel Super Special #15 (Dec. 1979).[141] Toys included action figures, ship models, and a variety of watches, phaser mockups and communicators. McDonald's sold specially designed Star Trek Happy Meals.[142] The marketing was part of a coordinated approach by Paramount and its parent conglomerate Gulf+Western to create a sustained Star Trek product line.[143] The Motion Picture novel started Pocket Books' Star Trek book franchise, which produced 18 consecutive bestsellers within a decade.[144]
Owing to the rush to complete the film, The Motion Picture was never screened before test audiences, something Wise later regretted. The director carried the fresh print of the film to the world premiere,[123] held at the K-B MacArthur Theater in Washington, D.C. Roddenberry, Wise, and the principal cast attended the function, which also served as an invitational benefit for the scholarship and youth education fund of the National Space Club.[145] While thousands of fans were expected to attend,[145] rain reduced fan turnout to around 300.[146] The premiere was followed by a black-tie reception at the National Air and Space Museum. More than 500 people—consisting of the cast and crew, working members of the space community, and the few "hardcore Trekkies" who could afford the $100 admission price—filled the museum.[147] The film was the first major Hollywood adaptation of a television series that had been off the air for nearly a decade to retain its original principal cast.[148]
The Motion Picture opened in North America on December 7, 1979, in 859 theaters and set a box office record for highest weekend gross, making $11,815,203 in its first weekend (generally considered to be a slow time for the movie business). The film beat the record set by Superman (1978), which had opened in a similar number of theaters but had been released in late December—a busier time.[149] The Motion Picture earned $17 million within a week.[18] At its widest domestic distribution, the film was shown in 1,002 theaters; it grossed $82,258,456 in the United States.[150] Overall, the film grossed $139 million worldwide.[3] The Motion Picture was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Art Direction (Harold Michelson, Joseph R. Jennings, Leon Harris, John Vallone and Linda DeScenna), Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Score.[151]
In the United States, The Motion Picture sold the most tickets of any film in the franchise until 2009's Star Trek, and it remains the highest-grossing film of the franchise worldwide adjusted for inflation,[152][153] but Paramount considered its gross disappointing compared to expectations and marketing. The Motion Picture's budget of $46 million,[2] including costs incurred during Phase II production,[154] was the largest for any film made within the United States up to that time. David Gerrold estimated before its release that the film would have to gross two to three times its budget to be profitable for Paramount.[99] The studio faulted Roddenberry's script rewrites and creative direction for the plodding pace and disappointing gross.[2] While the performance of The Motion Picture convinced the studio to back a (cheaper) sequel, Roddenberry was forced out of its creative control.[155] Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer would produce and direct Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which received better reviews and continued the franchise.[156] With the successful revival of the Star Trek brand on the big screen setting an example, Hollywood increasingly turned to 1960s television series for material.[148]

Critical response

The Motion Picture met with disappointing reviews from critics;[157] a 2001 retrospective for the BBC described the film as a critical failure.[158] Gary Arnold and Judith Martin of The Washington Post felt that the plot was too thin to support the length of the film, although Martin felt that compared to such science-fiction films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars and Alien, The Motion Picture's pretense was "slightly cleverer".[159] Time's Harold Livingston wrote that the film consisted of spaceships that "take an unconscionable amount of time to get anywhere, and nothing of dramatic or human interest happens along the way". Livingston also lamented the lack of "boldly characterized" antagonists and battle scenes that made Star Wars fun; instead, viewers were presented with lots of talk, "much of it in impenetrable spaceflight jargon".[160] David Denby said that the slow movement of ships through space was "no longer surprising and elegant" after films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, and that much of the action consisted of the crew's reacting to things occurring on the viewscreen, which the New York Magazine critic considered to be "like watching someone else watch television".[161] Variety disagreed, calling the film "a search-and-destroy thriller that includes all of the ingredients the TV show's fans thrive on: the philosophical dilemma wrapped in a scenario of mind control, troubles with the space ship, the dependable and understanding Kirk, the ever-logical Spock, and suspenseful take with twist ending".[162]
The characters and acting received a mixed reception. Stephen Godfrey of The Globe and Mail rated their performances highly: "time has cemented Leonard Nimoy's look of inscrutability as Mr. Spock [...] DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy is as feisty as ever, and James Doohan as Scotty still splutters about his engineering woes. At a basic level, their exchanges are those of an odd assortment of grumpy, middle-aged men bickering about office politics. They are a relief from the stars, and a delight." Godfrey's only concern was that the reunion of the old cast threatened to make casual viewers who had never seen Star Trek feel like uninvited guests.[163] Martin considered the characters more likable than those in comparable science fiction films.[159] Conversely, Arnold felt that the acting of the main cast (Shatner in particular) was poor; "Shatner portrays Kirk as such a supercilious old twit that one rather wishes he'd been left behind that desk", he wrote. "Shatner has perhaps the least impressive movie physique since Rod Steiger, and his acting style has begun to recall the worst of Richard Burton."[164] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the actors did not have much to do in the effects-driven film, and were "limited to the exchanging of meaningful glances or staring intently at television monitors, usually in disbelief".[165] Stephen Collins and Persis Khambatta were more favorably received. Gene Siskel felt the film "teeter[ed] towards being a crashing bore" whenever Khambatta was not on screen,[18] and Jack Kroll of Newsweek felt that she had the most memorable entrance in the film.[166] "[Khambatta] is sympathetic enough to make one hope she'll have a chance to show less skin and more hair in future films", Godfrey wrote.[163]
Many critics felt that the special effects overshadowed other elements of the film. Canby stated that the film "owes more to [Trumbull, Dykstra and Michelson] than it does to the director, the writers or even the producer".[165] Livingston felt that Trumbull and Dykstra's work on the film was not as impressive as on Star Wars and Close Encounters due to the limited amount of production time.[160] Godfrey called the effects "stunning", but conceded that they threatened to overpower the story two-thirds of the way into the film.[163] Kroll, Martin, and Arnold agreed that the effects were not able to carry the film or gloss over its other deficiencies; "I'm not sure that Trumbull & Co. have succeeded in pulling the philosophic chestnuts of Roddenberry and his co-writers out of the fire," Arnold wrote.[159][164][166]

Later assessments of the film have echoed these criticisms. The film holds a 44% "Rotten" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 34 critical reviews.[167] James Berardinelli, reviewing the film in 1996, felt that the pace dragged and the plot bore too close a resemblance to the original series episode "The Changeling", but considered the start and end of the film to be strong.[168] Terry Lee Rioux, Kelley's biographer, noted that the film proved "that it was the character-driven play that made all the difference in Star Trek".[169] The slow pacing, extended reaction shots, and the film's lack of action scenes led fans and critics to give the film a variety of nicknames, including The Motionless Picture,[170] The Slow Motion Picture,[6] The Motion Sickness,[171] and Where Nomad [the probe in "The Changeling"] Has Gone Before.[168]

Home media

In 1983, an extended cut of the film was released on videotape and premiered on the ABC television network.[172] It added roughly 12 minutes to the film.[123] The added footage was largely unfinished and cobbled together for the network premiere; Wise had never wanted the footage to be included in the final cut of the film.[173]
Two members of Wise's production company, David C. Fein and Michael Matessino, approached Wise and Paramount and persuaded them to release a revised version of the film on video; Paramount released the updated Director's Edition of the film on VHS and DVD in 2001. Wise, who had considered the theatrical presentation of the film a "rough cut", was given the opportunity to re-edit the film to be more consistent with his original vision. The production team used the original script, surviving sequence storyboards, memos, and the director's recollections. In addition to cuts in some sequences, 90 new and redesigned computer-generated images were created.[171] Care was taken that the effects meshed seamlessly with the old footage.[123] The edition runs 136 minutes, about four minutes longer than the original release.[174] Included among the special features are the deleted scenes which had been part of the television cut.[173]
Aside from the effects, the soundtrack was remixed. Ambient noise such as the buzz of bridge controls were added to enhance certain scenes.[171] Goldsmith had always suspected that some overly long cues could be shortened, so he made the cues repetitive.[175] Although no new scenes were added, the MPAA rated the revised edition "PG" in contrast to the "G" rating of the original release. Fein attributed the rating change to the more "intense" sound mix that made scenes such as the central part of V'Ger "more menacing".[176]
The Director's Edition was better received by critics than the original theatrical release. The DVD Journal's Mark Bourne said that the Director's Edition showcased "a brisker, more attractive version of the movie" that was "as good as it might have been in 1979. Even better maybe."[177] Complaints included the edition's 2.17:1 aspect ratio, as opposed to the original 2.40:1 Panavision.[123][178] Jeremy Conrad of IGN felt that despite the changes, the pacing might still be too slow for some viewers.[179]

The film's original theatrical cut was released on Blu-ray Disc in May 2009 to coincide with the new Star Trek feature,[180] packaged with the five following features as the Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection.[181] The Motion Picture was remastered in 1080p high-definition. All six films in the set have 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio. The disc features a new commentary track by Star Trek authors and contributors Michael and Denise Okuda, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and Daren Dochterman.[181]


Above Extracts Taken From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Motion_Picture

More Info: http://www.startrek.com/page/star-trek-the-motion-picture - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079945/


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