Critic's Grade: D+

After four successful feature films and seemingly no end in sight, it seemed almost a given that the Star Trek movie franchise was doomed to hit a sour note sooner or later. That note is "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," a flat, discombobulated mess of a movie that strays from the generic Trek formula in all the wrong ways.

The story is credited to Trek veterans Harve Bennett, who returns as producer, William Shatner, who picks up where Leonard Nimoy left off as director, and newcomer David Loughery, who was given the task of writing the screenplay. Their ideas for this new journey focus on things like the search for meaning, life, the universe, and finding out whether or not God really does exist. Could be a bust from the beginning, or just a bad idea done wrong by bad execution and storytelling tactics. In any event, it doesn't capture the Trek essence like its predecessors did, and ends up falling flat before take-off.

We open on the peace planet of Nimbus III, which has now become the stage for an illegal uprising led by Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill), a Vulcan in search of answers to some very lofty questions. He's like one of those televangelists that promise the world and then some, just as long as you become a member of his cult gathering by acknowledging your painful past. Sybok's initial plan involving the kidnapping of major ambassadors in hopes that a starship will be sent to the planet to negotiate for their release. Can't you just hear Jerry Goldsmith's long-revered theme blaring through your mind?

So, the crew of the Enterprise (what, you were expecting another ship?), many of whom are on shore leave, are called back to their stations and make the trip to Nimbus III, unaware that they are walking into a trap. To make a long story short and get into the meat and bones of my discussion, I'll be brief by simply stating that what occurs in the second half after the kidnapping of the Enterprise is a seething cauldron of misconceived ideas and half-baked action that just has no energy to it at all.

For one thing, the movie makes absolutely no sense when our crew lands on the fabled planet of Shaka-Ri, believed to be the center of the universe and the source of all life in the universe. So they find the planet, and then what? What type of deeper meaning are we to gather from a showy special effects show representative of some devil god that they mistake as being the Almighty? The problem with these sequences is that they leave no room for the bigger picture: the meaty issues presented in the beginning concerning existence and meaning are handled in such juvenile methods that they beg for a better movie. Later, when the Klingons arrive on the spot to save the day for whatever reason that the movie never clarifies, I was ready to throw in the towel.

The big disappointment, in addition to the lopsided story, is Shatner, who seems to have lost his grasp on what made the Star Trek series such a hit. His direction is misguided and half-assed, to say nothing of being a tad egotistical; could he perhaps be trying to outwit those who came before him? Possibly, considering the heft of the material he has no idea what to do with. There is a moment in "Star Trek V" where his hand grazes a plate bearing the words, "To boldy go where no man has gone befor." We get the feeling that Shatner has learned nothing from this phrase.

Copyright @ Hauntnut.com

All Reviews by David Litton [Home page]
If you are the author of this review, you may edit it by signing in.