BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

a_chinn This is likely the Star Trek film with the widest appeal, in that it's essentially a fish-out-of-water comedy with a little sci-fi thrown in. An unknown ship is approaching earth, broadcasting an indecipherable message, and destroying all planets in it's wake. The Enterprise crew figures out that the message is whale sounds, except that whales have been extinct for hundreds of years, so there's no one left to answer the ship. This leads our intrepid crew to slingshot around the sun to travel back in time in order to bring a whale to the future to save future earth. Once in modern day San Francisco (or 1980s San Francisco), the crew has a series of humorous encounters with cars, money, and punk rockers, while trying to secure a whale. It's all quite funny and entertaining, but it's not very "Trek." The characters are all still the characters we know and love, but the story is pretty much "Crocodile Dundee" "Coming to America" or "The Out-of-Towners" except with the Star Trek crew out of their element. But not to be too dismissive, it is a lot of fun and is never boring, which is more than can be said of most Star Trek films, which tend to be pretty hit-or-miss. The film also get bonus points for including my favorite Go-Go, Jane Wiedlin as an Alien Communications Officer.

speedy-droid The Voyage Home (TVH) is indeed the last Star Trek movie to follow the original, traditional goal verbally stated by Gene Roddenberry back in the 1960s... To address current social and political issues using a fictional universe as a metaphor. Roddenberry wasn't specifically trying to create what most folks consider to be science fiction, he wanted to address issues like race in a way that people would understand, but that would also make it past the censors. For example, there was no way, in the 1960s, that NBC would have aired a prime- time TV show about Black/White racial strife, but they did air a Star Trek episode about people with half-black, half-white faces who hated each other so much that they genocided each other (Let That Be Your Last Battlefield). Why did they hate each other so much? Some were white on the right side and black on the left side, and the others were the opposite. Nichelle Nichols confirmed this in a TV interview when she recounted a meeting with Roddenberry and told him, "You're making morality plays." Roddenberry responded, "Shhh... Don't tell anyone."TVH hits this old-school theme right on the button by addressing a modern issue... animal species endangerment and extinction caused by man. The plot is a bit quirky and silly at times, but the core of the story is rock solid. Humans have gotten themselves into a real pickle and now face extinction themselves, all because of their ecological negligence and short-sightedness. There is also an ethical "awakening" when Spock theorizes that Humpback Whales might just be a much older and more advanced species than Humans. That question is never answered, but by the end of the movie it does seem somewhat possible that the whales are, at least in some fashion, ahead of humans on the evolutionary ladder. The whales' "God" certainly isn't afraid to show up and wipe out the whole planet Earth. It's never quite clear if the whale god is only trying to establish contact, or if it's exacting vengeance, or it's a combination of the two. It appears to me that it either doesn't recognize humanity or just completely ignores it, but it is intent upon doing some serious damage to Earth. It's certainly one of the most powerful entities ever seen in the Star Trek Universe... the only entity other than V'Ger to show utter contempt for the Human species, possibly indicating that Humans are nothing more to it than an amoeba is to Humans.The underlying message is that yes, humans do have an impact on the Earth, and their negligence can unintentionally genocide a (possibly sentient) species. In the Star Trek universe, at least, the whales understand the concepts of species and self-awareness to some degree, as Spock mentions that Gracie understood his intentions and was saddened by the treatment of her species by humans.The backstory of the crew's return and Spock's re-discovering of himself keeps the new-age Trekkies interested, which is difficult to do without some phasers and explosions. There's a nice little surprise at the end, resolving an issue that was raised over 15 years prior to the release of TVH, and it totally caught me and most other Trek fans off-guard when we first saw it. That is the resolution between Spock and Sarek, which I honestly believed would never be resolved.For the non-Trekkies, the Spock/Sarek issue is a character study of the Human species. Contrary to popular belief, Vulcans have far more powerful and often violent emotions than humans, which almost led to their self-destruction a long time ago. Vulcans are not without emotion... rather, their emotions are so passionate that they are compelled to control them and become "logical beings" for the primary purpose of preventing them from exterminating themselves. Sarek, a full Vulcan, actually has more difficulty controlling his emotions than Spock, his half-Vulcan, half-Human son. Until this film, Spock was staunchly Vulcan (or wanted to be), while Sarek has been leaving clues all along that he wanted to be an emotional being... more Human. Sarek spent a lot of time on Earth as an ambassador and married a Human female. He opposed Spock's entry into Starfleet, probably because he didn't want Spock to lose control of his Human side, which Sarek feels constant association with Humans will cause. The irony is that Sarek desperately wants his half-Human son to be Vulcan, while he, a full Vulcan, desperately wants to be Human, at least subconsciously.Neither Nimoy nor Lenard is a top-notch actor, but they've been playing (and living) these two characters for a long time, and it comes to a head in this scene near the end of TVH. If Star Trek ever had a scene approaching "fine cinema" quality, this is it. Both Nimoy and Lenard nail the scene, and their characters, perfectly.

trashgang This is the one that a lot of Trekkies dislike. There's almost nothing happening in space, it takes place in the nineties in San Francisco which makes it odd to watch.It do follows the line of the previous flicks, and the SS Enterprise is destroyed so they are still left with the Klingon spacecraft on a planet. They want to go home but a probe is in space going right at earth. And the probe is pure evil, the sound it creates does stop all electronics. But Spock do notice that the sound's alike of that of a whale.So off they go back in time when whales were still alive, the nineties at San Fran (who we know is their base in 2023). A lot of awkward situations do happen which are funny and it do has an overall comedy look this entry in the franchise. Go beam up some whales. There aren't almost any effects used so on that part it failed a bit. It also has a more family flick feeling than rather a Sci-Fi flick due the love situation going on with Kirk and the rescue of the whales. Still it all do work out fine even as it isn't a typical Star Trek flick. Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 1,5/5

FlashCallahan So the fourth film wraps up the narrative arc that begun with Wrath..... And this is widely regarded as one of the better Trek films because it's tone is considerably lighter, as the gang all travel back in time, and become metaphorical aliens.....A space probe appears over Earth, emanating strange sounds towards the planet, and apparently waiting for something. As time goes on, the probe starts to cause major storms on Earth and threaten its destruction. Admiral James T. Kirk and crew are called upon once again to save mankind. They discover the strange sounds are actually the songs of the humpback whale - which has been hunted to extinction. They have only one choice - to attempt to time travel back into the 20th century, locate two whales, and bring them back to 23rd century Earth to respond to the probe.....So it's the Eco-friendly one, the one where Kirk saves the whales, and sends everyone in audience a subliminal message telling us to 'look after our planet', but with a few laughs thrown in so it looks like Nimoy isn't preaching too much.And whilst the film is wonderfully entertaining when it's set in 1986, step back and look at the bigger picture, and you'll find that its nothing more than the film being about a big piece of liquorice who is lonely and can't speak any language apart from whale.The makers knew that the story wasn't the best, so they implemented the element of time travel to keep the series fresh and 'down with the kids'.Kelleys is easily the best thing here, his scenes in the hospital are hilarious, and some of his finest comedic scenes in the film series. In fact, everybody seems to be having such a good time, you can't help but go with the comedy.Back in space though, it's a pretty sombre affair. We start with the council watching the third act of Search For Spock, and we end with everybody slapping each other on the back.It's not deserved of its high regard in the Trek universe, but at least you see Kirk throw Spock playfully in the ocean.