Soldato
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979, 2022 4K version) - 8/10
Most of my previous comments regarding the Director's Edition from earlier in this thread stand. But I have some other thoughts about this particular release.
Man does the ship look good with the sorted-out colours and the extra resolution. TMP was the only film that had the refit 1701 look as she was intended to (ILM wanted to film the model on blue screen, so hit Paul Olsen's iridescent paintjob with dulling sprays), and she's never looked better than here.
The extra/redone VFX shots all look great, and don't feel out of place. The new sound mix is glorious. The interior shots now that the colour has been sorted don't look nearly as drab - it's still not TWoK vibrant, but at least it looks like it belongs in the same universe now.
And it all genuinely helps the story. Because you're not picking out the visual flaws so much any more you can concentrate on what is actually a half-decent tale. There are some great character moments here, even if the majority of the original cast often get pushed to the side in favour of The Trinity (Kirk, Spock, McCoy) and the new arrivals (Decker and Ilia). The moments on the bridge after Kirk has arrived with his crew happy to see him. The site of Kirk left alone in his quarters after McCoy has delivered some home truths. The officers' lounge scene between The Trinity. The sickbay scene where Kirk and Spock launch about a thousand slash fanfics. The four-way thrashing out of what's going on between The Trinity and Decker stood by the Voyager probe. All of it is good stuff, and all of it was (unfairly, IMO) overshadowed by the studio insisting on putting overlong VFX sequences in to justify what they'd spent*.
Is it my favourite Trek film? Naw. TWoK and TUC will always be where it's at for me. Is it now a much, much better film than when released? Absolutely. Is it now a much better Trek film than when released? Also yes, IMO.
* - there were a couple of amusing postscripts to the ballooned cost (which, to be fair, included Phase II prep and stuff that would be reused like sets and studio models) of TMP.
1) Harve Bennett got the job producing Trek films for TWoK on because when asked 'can you make it for less than forty-five ******* million dollars' he answered that he could make three films for that.
2) TWoK was then made for ~$11.5m (those of you with basic numeracy will note that this is rather less than 1/3rd of the TMP figure...). Adjusted for inflation, the pilot episode of Voyager cost more than TWoK. And the pilot episode of Voyager sucked
Most of my previous comments regarding the Director's Edition from earlier in this thread stand. But I have some other thoughts about this particular release.
Man does the ship look good with the sorted-out colours and the extra resolution. TMP was the only film that had the refit 1701 look as she was intended to (ILM wanted to film the model on blue screen, so hit Paul Olsen's iridescent paintjob with dulling sprays), and she's never looked better than here.
The extra/redone VFX shots all look great, and don't feel out of place. The new sound mix is glorious. The interior shots now that the colour has been sorted don't look nearly as drab - it's still not TWoK vibrant, but at least it looks like it belongs in the same universe now.
And it all genuinely helps the story. Because you're not picking out the visual flaws so much any more you can concentrate on what is actually a half-decent tale. There are some great character moments here, even if the majority of the original cast often get pushed to the side in favour of The Trinity (Kirk, Spock, McCoy) and the new arrivals (Decker and Ilia). The moments on the bridge after Kirk has arrived with his crew happy to see him. The site of Kirk left alone in his quarters after McCoy has delivered some home truths. The officers' lounge scene between The Trinity. The sickbay scene where Kirk and Spock launch about a thousand slash fanfics. The four-way thrashing out of what's going on between The Trinity and Decker stood by the Voyager probe. All of it is good stuff, and all of it was (unfairly, IMO) overshadowed by the studio insisting on putting overlong VFX sequences in to justify what they'd spent*.
Is it my favourite Trek film? Naw. TWoK and TUC will always be where it's at for me. Is it now a much, much better film than when released? Absolutely. Is it now a much better Trek film than when released? Also yes, IMO.
* - there were a couple of amusing postscripts to the ballooned cost (which, to be fair, included Phase II prep and stuff that would be reused like sets and studio models) of TMP.
1) Harve Bennett got the job producing Trek films for TWoK on because when asked 'can you make it for less than forty-five ******* million dollars' he answered that he could make three films for that.
2) TWoK was then made for ~$11.5m (those of you with basic numeracy will note that this is rather less than 1/3rd of the TMP figure...). Adjusted for inflation, the pilot episode of Voyager cost more than TWoK. And the pilot episode of Voyager sucked
