Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Sadly Over-hyped

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Movie Review: "Star Trek: The Final Frontier" (1989)Screenwriter David Loughery, intrigued by the immense success of predecessor "Star Trek: The Voyage Home" directed by Leonard Nimoy in season 1985/1986 to excellence, comes "The Final Frontier" directed by William Shatner in technically-overthrown malpractice manners, this "Star Trek" picture is only able to convince in moments of complete harmony between Kirk, Bones and Spock singing campfire song "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" in a mind-calming nursery rhythym for the harcore-nostalgic-fan of the original series, when story of substantial questions in a galaxy-multiplying constant-expanding universe get easy pushed away by potentially-misdirected Laurence Luckinbill playing Spock's halfbrother Sybok, who as Vulcan nemesis character had the all-too-missed opportunity alongside confronting actor Leonard Nimoy in another calmly-received Mr. Spock portrayal of already-inhabited wisdom from the written directing voyages "The Voyage Home" (1986) and "The Search For Mr. Spock" (1984).What "The Final Frontier" should have been with an epically-raised production budget by Paramount Pictures remains in the stars with visions of full-blown desert "Nimbus III" battles of wishful R-rated proportions with an following space race "Cannonball" run between at least three parties, preferably a high-jacked Starfleet "Enterprise" in metal-splintering stranglehold between a Klingon "Warbird" and Romulan "Capital D'deridex" pursuing in warp-speedways to the Center of the Universe, where a single stab of a bloody poisoned knife, while tribe of "The Dominion" takes the price of truthful simplicities away over an inner struggle of galactic faith, when Captain James T. Kirk denies a full-frontal fight-through, giving in to old republic religious believes that by the end of "The Final Frontier" the reputation of the "Star Trek" universe had been suffering substantially, which could only be rebound by a seemingly ongoing up-to-the-task "Next Generation" crew, led by actor Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who in the 1987 inceptions of a highly-accomplished television series with peaking Cliffhanger-Scenarios and new hostile introduction of constant-assimilating entity of "The Borg" receive all the glory with the audiences.Nevertheless Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015) alongside out-going life-loving DeForest Kelley (1920-1999) alongside a traditional "Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004)" score compositions and some decent on-ship visual effect works, partially received by "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade" (1989) occupied industry primus Industrial, Light & Magic (ILM), when again the execution in producing as directing crawls up like an haunted picture entity to single moments of fully-accomplished shot work by cinematographer Andrew Laslo (1926-2011).© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

I enjoyed this film when it was first released. I recall when I first saw it and noted that unlike the previous movies, Star Trek V followed the format of the original show; an opening teaser, opening credits, etc.My speculation on what really impacted the reception of the movie is that it became a victim of edits and budget cuts. It was the fifth movie, and the studios were going for maximum profits so at a time when VCR and DVDs were just entering the market, a movie's success was tracked by ticket sales, which meant heavy editing to get more showings per day. That was tragic.The story is very much Star Trek. Finding GOD and an unknown half brother of Spock are not that much different than finding Christ in "Bread and Circuses", or finding Apollo in "Who Mourns For Adonis", or learning that Kirk broke up with a woman who now wants to kill him or that Spock was betrothed in an arranged marriage where his parents failed to make an appearance. What was innovative was giving character expansion. The novel did more of that, so I suspect that good scenes were either note done or were done and then promptly tossed into a waste bucket. One can find some of them on DVD or on the Internet, and they help fill the gaps.This movie really explains William Shatner. He is an actor who can see a big picture and wants to direct. He is a director who knows the entrainment industry and craft and wants to be an executive producer. He is a product of what is called "old school" and the "studio system". He is a talented individual and in this movie it really shows. There is humor like there is in the tv show. Women have a prominent part, and if one adds the deleted scenes, they have a more prominent and substantial role. Their is good music scoring, good cinematography and photography. The original special effects blended well and do not dominate the movie.Parts of the movie which did not get shown ultimately find their way onto another movie must see, "Galaxy Quest". That tells a person something.So ignore the rumors, ignore the snide remarks and bad press and watch this movie with an open mind. You will not be disappointed.

I have yet to see a single episode of the "Star Trek" TV show (or shows) but seeing as how I'm so familiar with the movies, I guess you could go ahead and call me a fan. I had heard that this was the worst "Star Trek" movie ever made and from what I've seen, I agree wholeheartedly. It's sad seeing as how I managed to see all of the good ones already. Anyway, this movie mostly suffers from being needlessly padded. It's actually one of the shorter films, but it certainly seems longer. I guess it's just like that whenever you watch a boring movie. The villain's plan literally isn't revealed until over halfway through the film.He wants to literally find God. It's kind of weird, because I thought that "Star Trek" was supposed to be promoting secularism. They do have this weird moral about where God truly is at the end. I know Gene Roddenberry was an atheist, which is probably why he wants us to forget this film. It's a pity he never truly lived to see the full release of the one after this, the last one he was personally involved with. We get scenes of the characters on vacation which adds nothing to the story at all. I don't think until a half hour in they actually do something themselves. I will admit I like the sets and some of the conversations weren't bad, but any moviegoer can easily skip this one. **

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is directed by William Shatner. The film stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, David Warner and Laurence Luckinbill.This is such an odd film, it has some good moments but on the whole is pretty bad. The camping scene between Kirk, Spock and McCoy is one of the most beautiful and well written scenes involving them in the whole series, it really captures their friendship and Kirk's speech about dying alone is really touching.The Enterprise crew are sent to rescue some ambassadors who are being held hostage by Spock's half brother Sybok(Laurence Luckinbill). Sybok has a strange gift to be able to sense peoples deepest inner pain and free them from it. Sybok takes command of the Enterprise and sets off on a quest to find God.The scene where the main trio come face to face with their pain is well done, but I find it hard to believe that friends as close as they are would never have discussed these things with each other. No way could Spock have remembered his which is shown to have occurred at his birth, that just seems so silly.This film focuses well on the strong friendship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy but the story itself is pretty bad. Shatner does a good job of directing but it's a shame the plot isn't better.Jerry Goldsmith returns as composer, his score for this is one of the most beautiful in the entire series. Worth a watch if you want to see all the films.