Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

What a waste of my time!!!

ridiculous rating

one of my absolute favorites!

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Star Trek : The Final FrontierThe franchise has failed to offer the essence and spirit of the series since, but this one shatters the lower expectations of the franchise and begs the question of its existence. There isn't anything rhythmic let along be poetic in here, just a mere misguided action flick that can't even be called sci-fi for its failed attempt to go mythical back fires very poorly on itself. The script never had enough crisp or meat to make it to the screen in the first place addition to that, the execution by Leonard Nimoy seems to have gone loose rather than getting it all together or improving. The performance is decent but not something outstanding not that it could have saved the feature, for there wasn't much range or space for the actors to factor in. It is short on technical aspects like visual effects, sound department and editing. The only sequence to look forward is the conversation among Spock, Kirk and McCoy. Star Trek : The Final Frontier is accurately titled on terms of its production of the features as it brings into halt on every single aspect of it like characters, plot-line and the spark of creativity that made it's predecessor what it is.

With the Star Trek II-IV movie "trilogy" (one long plot line) finished, the fifth film of the series is a self-contained story about growing old, friendship, and religion. Sadly, the film fails on all those accounts.The gist of the film is that Spock's half-brother, Sybok (who has rejected his Vulcan heritage), hijacks the Enterprise in search of God in the outer reaches of the universe. Once found, "God" turns out to be a rather temperamental being who becomes angry when his escape from beyond the galaxy (the Enterprise) is taken from him. When Kirk utters the phrase "why would God need a spaceship?", the major plot point of the film turns to shambles. The entire mission (which wasn't all that compelling to begin with) turns into a sham, and ultimately a waste of time.Perhaps the largest downfall of the film, however, is the inability of the writers/producers to create dramatic tension between Spock and Sybok. It is too much of a stretch to believe that the emotionless Spock will succumb to the rash tendencies of a character only just introduced to him.Yet, despite failing on nearly all accounts, a few scenes are inspiring for their place in the Star Trek cannon. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy's vacation at Yosemite National Park is awe-inspiring, heartfelt, and funny (Spock's marshmallow roasting machine is classic!), while the scene where Sybok diagnoses McCoy's and Spock's greatest pain is classic Star Trek fare (even down to Kirk's defiant refusal to be given the same treatment).To conclude, this fifth installment in the Star Trek movie franchise is a forgettable romp through the deepest galaxy. Besides a few interesting scenes, the majority of the movie is unemotional, bland, and even hokey. Hard-care Star Trek fans will enjoy the moments (however slight) of character development this movie brings to the table, but I would advise less dedicated viewers to skip over this installment entirely.

Well perhaps if the budget had been a bit larger, perhaps if Industrial Light & Magic had taken care of the special effects, and perhaps if some judicious pruning would have been done to the story line, then perhaps this film wouldn't have ended up being such a terrible stinker. The most obvious and glaring weakness in this film is the fact that the central characters; Kirk, Spock, and Bones seem to be so grossly out of character with where they left off in Voyage Home. Spock is no longer trying to reconcile his katra has he was in the last film, and there is virtually no back and forth chemistry between Spock and Bones as there was in the previous film. In fact, it is never even mentioned in the film that Spock has been recently raised from the dead, and Spock himself no longer displays any of the peculiar eccentricities that he did in The Voyage Home. Are you sure that it isn't time for a colorful metaphor? Meanwhile, Kirk seems to be completely indifferent to the fact that he is once again commanding the Enterprise, and when the Klingons make their appearance, Kirk displays none of the passionate anger towards the them regarding the murder of his son David, which he does in the later film, The Undiscovered Country. Also, in this installment Captain Kirk does not appear to posses any of the great leadership or problem solving skills which he displays in earlier films. In this film Kirk has his ship hijacked away from him, he cannot break out of the brig, and he nearly plummets to his death from the face of El Capitan in Yosemite. This is not really the same Kirk who put on his antique glasses and hacked into the bridge of the USS Reliant in The Search For Spock. Rather than coming across as a worthy sequel to The Voyage Home, The Final Frontier has more the feel of a television episode of Star Trek The Next Generation in which the lead characters have been swapped out with characters from the original series. However, it appears that someone forgot to let the actors see the script until just before filming, and for the most part they are just reciting empty lines without any emotion as they stare blank face at the camera. Holly disappointment, this is not at all in keeping with the great character development and acting we saw in the previous three films. (Not counting 1979's Star Trek The Motion Picture.)After the disjointed acting and character portrayal, it is the overarching story line that really throws a bucket of cold water on everything. It's a film about terrorism! No, it's a film about religion! No, it's a film about pop psychology and cults. No it's a film about false prophets and con artists. The film tries to cover all of these topics, but it does a terrible job of weaving all these ideas together, and instead of producing a film that is thought provoking or insightful, we end up with a film that is shallow and sometimes painful to watch. In fact, the story line of The Final Frontier is so disjointed and extremely weak, that perhaps this is the reason that the main actors are unable to dial in their characters and to deliver a satisfying performance. The other thing that has to be addressed is the television level special effects that are found in this film. There are no sweeping vista views of orbiting space stations, most of the aliens are simply actors with dusty rags wrapped around their heads, and when Spock points a makeshift rifle at his brother Sybok, it is clear that the rifle prop looks to have been constructed from household pipe fittings from a local hardware store. Again, this film has the look and feel of television episode, and not a major Star Trek movie.Following the huge success of The Voyage Home a few years earlier, the studio execs really should have been on hand to make sure that this film was better than it was.

Yes, "What does god need with a Starship?" is a real line that came from this absurd mess of a film. I understand the theme of Star Trek has always been to boldly go where no man has gone before, but 'The Final Frontier' attempts to take the franchise in places it has no business going.William Shatner took the reins of directing after Leonard Nimoy helmed two enjoyable entries in the series in 'Search for Spock' and 'The Voyage Home'. While it's not entirely Shatner's fault that there were heavy production issues with a writers strike and the CGI becoming far too expensive, his direction doesn't do anything to enhance what was already on the page. Apparently according to the producers, this film nearly killed the entire franchise with poor effects, a rehashed and ridiculous plot, and a largely inconsistent tone.This time around, the crew of the enterprise were on leave and enjoying life when they are asked to investigate a hostage situation on Nimbus III. Of course, the hostages just happened to be held by Spock's half-brother, Sybok. Framing Spock as the key to getting through to his brother would have been a nice way for him to finally regain his existence and memory as the Enterprise's second in command, but it never really plays out that way. Sybok manipulates anyone in his path to discover the god in the center of the galaxy and forces the Enterprise crew to take him there. As if the film didn't already struggle to grab my attention, the scenes with 'god' are almost unbearable. The very idea that a Star Trek film would center its plot around a villain taking over the Enterprise with his goons in order to get what he wants has been done so many times before, but throw God in the mix as well? Come on.Luckily, the bond between Spock, Kirk, and Bones is still present to get you through some rough dialogue, as is Jerry Goldsmith's classic score, but 'The Final Frontier' ends up making you wish they would never make another Trek film again. Fortunately, they do get better, but I can't help but sit here in wonderment thinking about just how much the reach of this film far outweighs its grasp. Yikes.+Goldsmith's score+Bond between characters is always there-Lazy script-Absurd villain-God?4.4/10