Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

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.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Sandwiched in between the most critically loved and the most commercially successful of the original series movies, "The Search for Spock" is often overlooked. It was not the dramatic action adventure masterpiece that was "The Wrath of Kahn", nor was it the fun comedic ride that "The Voyage Home" was, but it weaves its own tale and stands on its own as a Star Trek story of power and magnitude.Right from the beginning we see what "The Search for Spock" is going to be about. Picking up on the themes at the end of the previous film, this one makes its point known. This movie is all about life and death and the struggle between the two forces. So many times throughout this film we see the struggle presented overtly and through metaphor. Whether we have to watch the death of Kirk's son David make way for the rebirth of Spock or the symbolism of the new Excelsior replacing the old and past her prime Enterprise, the struggle of life and death has its imprint all over this one. Heck, even the whole Genesis planet is an overt metaphor for the struggle, life from lifelessness that now dies. Yes, "The Search for Spock" comes nowhere near the quality of film its predecessor is and it does not live up to the good time fun of "The Voyage Home", but it has its own voice and it speaks it quite eloquently leaving the third Star Trek film in a place among the top ten of the entire original series.

Following on from the events of 'The Wrath of Khan' the crew of the Enterprise have returned to Space Dock and it looks as if they will be going their separate ways; Scotty has been transferred to a new ship, the Enterprise is due to be decommissioned and Dr McCoy is behaving strangely. It turns out that before Spock died he mind-melded with McCoy and now his consciousness is in McCoy's mind. Spock's father tells Kirk that he must get both McCoy and Spock's body back to Vulcan.There is a major problem though; Spock's body is on Genesis and the only ship allowed near there is the research vessel monitoring the planet. Kirk, along with McCoy, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov steal the Enterprise and head to Genesis. While this is going on a Klingon commander has learnt of Genesis and heads there hoping to get the data on the project which he believes could be used as the ultimate weapon. By the time the Enterprise arrives at Genesis the Klingon's have destroyed the research ship and captured three people on the surface; Saavik, Kirk's son David and a young Spock! Kirk and his crew will have to think fast if they are to rescue Spock; not only are the Klingons threatening to destroy the Enterprise but Spock is aging at a rapid pace just as the Genesis planet is undergoing rapid evolution and becoming unstable.After the really impressive 'Wrath of Khan' this might seem a bit disappointing but it still has some fine moments. The Klingons can usually be relied on to be good villains and the fact their leader, Kruge, is played by Christopher Lloyd is just a bonus. The death of Spock was one of Star Trek's most moving moments but it isn't a huge surprise that this iconic character would ultimately return. The story is solid enough and includes a real surprise when Kirk must make a sacrifice if he is to save his crew. The special effects are a bit mixed at times they look really great but at others it is almost as if the makers wanting to hint at the look of the old TV series! The ending leaves a few questions unanswered which sets things up somewhat for the opening of the next film, 'The Voyage Home'. Overall I'd say that this film was better than I remembered and fans of classic 'Star Trek' should enjoy it.

So, I'm not generally one of those people who are really critical of the Star Trek movies just because they don't 'have the intelligent messages' of the show. I get that they need to appeal to a broader audience, and sometimes I think that works better, because I've liked most of the Star Trek movies to some degree and then there are some that I can just respect but don't really care for them.Search for Spock, is more like that, except, I really have very little respect for it. Movies like Generations, or even Nemesis, have lots of flaws whether it's in the acting, the story, the characters or whatever, but those always have some entertaining sequences, but Search for Spock really doesn't have anything like that. It is just so boring.I mean, nowadays, the Kirk era style just feels a little corny, so you kind of have to judge it based on the time. Wrath of Khan, for example, has corny moments, but the story, atmosphere, acting, and writing all elevated it past the cheesy moments, so that the audience was willing to ignore the weak links. The problem with Search for Spock is that it doesn't give us anything. We get the slowest build-up ever, as we spend at least an hour just to get Enterprise to the Genesis Planet, and let's not mention this is essentially a glorified reset button for Wrath of Khan.Spock is resurrected by a deus ex machine plot device introduced for the movie (the Vulcan Khat'ra), David Marcus dies, Carol Marcus disappears, never to be mentioned again, the Genesis planet is destroyed, so…yeah, you take one of the best Star Trek movies and nullify it. Also, we have one of the lamest villains in Kruge, who tops even William Shatner on overacting. The only positive to him is that he is so cheesy he makes his scenes marginally entertaining, but they still aren't actually good scenes. He and Kirk get into a really weak, fake-looking brawl, which is the final battle of the two action scenes in the movie (the first being the 5-second space battle between the Enterprise and the bird of prey). I'm not saying action is the most important part of a Star Trek movie, or even necessarily an important part, but when a movie has nothing else going for it, an entertaining action scene can go a long way. This is by no means the worst Star Trek movie, but this one has so little going for it that it's hard to see why it would even be considered one of the better ones.

Star Trek has always been about the great adventures of the Starship Enterprise, but I think as this film quite clearly addresses, it's also about two unlikely friends, who are always there for each other even in the most dangerous of times. The Search for Spock does for Spock what Episode 7 did for Luke Skywalker. It's the search for Spock but it's also the search for Kirk's soul as the guilt of Spock's death weighs over him throughout the film. The whole film we are impatiently waiting for the inevitable, but luckily, the rest of the story is interesting enough to delay the revelations for just the right amount of time to give us the satisfaction we wanted.Leonard Nimoy directs and rightfully so, as it's largely his story, even without a ton of screen time. The story follows the Enterprise team journey to go back to Genesis, the planet created in the last film, to find and hopefully revive Spock. I think what I and most people will appreciate most about this entry in the long running franchise is the sense of togetherness that the previous two were missing. There is an emotional backbone to the team that perhaps even Wrath of Khan was missing.Of course, there are the inevitable villains who show and try to ruin the mission, this time led by Commander Kruge, played by Christopher Lloyd. All of the questionable campy elements to the villains are back and you never truly get a sense of where these people come from and why they are doing it. To be fair, it would be difficult for any villain to follow up Khan.The pacing is once again improved as it moves even faster than Wrath of Khan. James Horner is also back from the previous installment to keep us humming that glorious Star Trek theme even after the movie is done. Horner's music proves to be just as important to the emotionally layered moments as it was for the previous entry. With that said, I can't help but think this film is hindered by its tonal issues. We go from having a deeply emotional moment to a campy scene of Kruge doing weird things to slimy worm-like creatures.So in what is one of the darker entries to the Star Trek series, there's plenty to like. Kirk goes to some dark places that I'm not sure we really get to see in other films. We also get a satisfying conclusion to some of the cliffhangers the previous film left up for question. With the exception of tonal issues, and some distracting set pieces, The Search for Spock is a solid installment for the franchise.+Satisfying conclusion to the Genesis storyline+Emotional arc for the entire team+Gutsy plot points-Tonal issues-Some rough set pieces7.0/10