 | |
List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 15456
Released: October 14, 2003 |
| Our Price: $27.99 |
| Used Price: $20.75 |
|
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: DVD |
|
Editorial Review:
The crew of the Enterprise truly goes where no man has gone before, after a Vulcan takes over the ship and steers it to the center of the universe.
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: PG
Release Date: 10-APR-2007
Media Type: DVD
Description of Star Trek V - The Final Frontier (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition):
Movie critic Roger Ebert summed it up very succinctly: "Of all of the Star Trek movies, this is the worst." Subsequent films in the popular series have done nothing to disprove this opinion; we can be grateful that they've all been significantly better since this film was released in 1989. After Leonard Nimoy scored hits with Star Trek III and IV, William Shatner used his contractual clout (and bruised ego) to assume directorial duties on this mission, in which a rebellious Vulcan (Laurence Luckinbill) kidnaps Federation officials in his overzealous quest for the supreme source of creation. That's right, you heard it correctly: Star Trek V is about a crazy Vulcan's search for God. By the time Kirk, Spock, and their Federation cohorts are taken to the Great Barrier of the galaxy, this journey to "the final future" has gone from an embarrassing prologue to an absurd conclusion, with a lot of creaky plotting in between. Of course, die-hard Trekkies will still allow this movie into their video collections; but they'll only watch it when nobody else is looking. After this humbling experience, Shatner wisely relinquished the director's chair to Star Trek II's Nicholas Meyer. --Jeff Shannon
Star Trek V - The Final Frontier (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) Reviews:
Not The Best But.... 
2009-11-11 - I always wondered what they would come out with after the Voyage Home and I wasn't too surprised by what came up. Some of the insight into the main characters backgrounds was nice but the movie really just didn't make it. I liked OK, but not one of the best Star Treks.
Why does Amazon.com put all these positive reviews on here? 
2009-10-31 - This movie was considered by most people to be horrible.
Why does Amazon.com put these fanboys reviews over even serious critics
Ebert, denounced it as the worst. So somebody will buy this B-movie?
Give it a break! 
2009-10-05 - I've read a lot of criticizm toward this movie on here. It's not THAT bad! Come on, it's got action, philosophy and comedy, the ingredients to a proper Star Trek movie! No it wasn't the best. Yes the plot was a bit weak, but I personally think it was a half-decent movie. The effects are decent for the time it was made, the acting was good, maybe could have been a bit better. I suppose the plot could have been used in a one-hour episode rather than a movie, but I think that everyone would agree with me when I say that this movie is NOT the worst compared to The Motion Picture, which is the only Star Trek movie I don't like because NOTHING happens in it! In this one they fight Spock's long lost half brother and find an evil alien claiming to be God (and the part where Spock gives the neck-pinch to a horse is priceless). In the Motion Picture, what did they do? Fly through a cloud. Oooooh, how exciting!
No, it's not the best Star Trek movie out there, but I say it was a fun, entertaining installment to the adventure.
It wasn't HORRIBLE 
2009-09-21 - In my quest to view all the Star Trek movies, I had the somewhat misfortune of seeing them in this order: First Contact, Insurrection, Nemesis, The Voyage Home, Star Trek (2009), The Voyage Home (in full this time), Wrath of Khan
So then I restarted again with the first to last.
What was so horrible about "The Final Frontier"?
Standing on its own, I thought it was a pleasant enough movie, but it suffered from a severe lack of real drama. It seemed like there was no real immediate danger for some of the film, and then Sybock comes and starts using some sort of mystic powers to "brainwash" people to his cause, including members of the Enterprise crew.
Probably the only high point of the film involved him showing the greatest fears to Spock and McCoy, and in particular, the one involving Spock was disgustingly brutal, and treated properly as such.
But where was the rest of this movie? Kirk, Spock, and McCoy resist Sybock's manipulation, but go along with him to the center of the galaxy (what?) to some barrier where supposedly the center of all the major species' religions lie (I'm not naming the garbled fake names of the others, but the humans call it Eden) to find GOD HIMSELF!
Right away this flies in the face of about 1/3 of the Star Trek episodes in SEASON ONE ALONE of the Original Series.
How many times have the crew of the Enterprise encountered some godlike creature that could easily be considered any God, or even THE God worshipped by the Christians, Jews, Muslims, only to discover it's just a hyper-advanced alien creature of some sort or another?
I can name so many of them, Trelane, the things whose names I forgot that brought Kirk and the Gorn captain to fight, Charlie Evans and his overseers, the beings from that planet that Kirk and Spock were stranded on when the Klingons occupied it, the Archons, the Gatekeeper, etcetera.
And so just because it's this time around, they think it really could be God?
To be fair, it would seem that Kirk and Spock and McCoy are probably fully aware of the fact that there is a 99% chance it's NOT God, which is only confirmed by the being's not only failure to answer, but even necessitating the question be asked repeatedly by Kirk
"What does God need with a spaceship?"
But in the end, there's no big conflict, no big stand-off or showdown or great philosophical debate of profound proportions, Sybock is vindicated of being a villain, and is immediately removed from the picture as no longer essential to the film's momentum.
And then that's it. Every instance that there may be a conflict, either physically or verbally, either turns out to be a red herring or a SHOCKING SWERVE! revealing it to be something less than it could have been.
And that's really what this movie is. Less than it could have been. But that's not the fault of the actors or the director or anyone---it's a fault of the script. The movie's overall plot is one that could and should be a 50 minute rapid-paced single episode rather than a feature length movie.
Heading Off to Eden? Oh Brother! 
2009-08-29 - Shatner co-wrote the story and directed Star Trek V, which changes a lot of what we fans know of Trek and is very derivative of earlier episodes without the humor and grace of what we expect.
As in the Eden episode from the Sixties, an alien takes over the Enterprise and forces the crew to go to a planet that most say contains God. OK, not bad, except the alien is Spock's brother! Say what? And he laughs out loud and belongs to a faction of Vulcans that have emotion.
After this film, I don't think any writer has referred to this faction, nor to Spock having a brother, ever again. And with good reason. Just does not play as good Trek.
Yeah, there are some interesting moments like Kirk climbing El Capitan and almost dying in a fall and teaching Spock campfire songs, but the overall film does not have the passion and the grace of the earlier films.
The desert scenes seemed fake and the dancing/prancing Uhura was done over by another actress! Nichelle Nichols is an accomplished singer/dancer, yet this was not to be.
However, decent music by Jerry Goldsmith! The weakest of the Original Trek films.