MovieChat Forums > Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Discussion > How much better...

How much better...

posted 8 years ago by michaeldinan
4 replies | jump to latest

Is the director's cut of this film? I hear it's a much much better movie

[–] TheSolarSailor 8 years ago

You'll hear varying reactions, but overall I LOVE the Director's Cut. The entire movie has been re-edited from scratch, meaning that Robert Wise looked back to all of the footage and pieced it together into a film with better pacing. The theatrical version and the special longer version tend to move more slowly, while this version simply moves at a better pace.

No, it doesn't cut down the Enterprise flyover scene, nor does it really reduce the journey over into the cloud or over V'Ger very much. Those are parts of the film that, despite criticism, Mr. Wise felt was important to his vision. Plus, one shouldn't want those scene reduced much because of Jerry Goldsmith's magnificent score.

Some of the more rushed, flawed visual effects have been replaced with CGI. An effort was made at the time (2001) to make the CGI match the original footage, so you don't really get the jarring effect of, say, the Star Wars Special Editions where the CGI stands out like a sore thumb. All new effects were based on the original concepts, using storyboards made back in 1979.

Now, some things were changed such as the male computer voice on the Enterprise, and the annoying klaxons that sound in various scenes. The newly added sound effects were altered to be like the original series instead of so jarringly different like that of the original theatrical release.

Basically, you will get a new cut of the film that loses bits and pieces of the theatrical cut while putting to use some of the deleted scenes that had only been seen before in the Special Longer Edition VHS or on TV airings back in the day. It's all spruced up and stays true to what Director Robert Wise had wanted back then, but didn't quite have the time to achieve.

Keep in mind that this is only available on DVD format. The effects used for the new footage apparently are not compatible with the higher definition of BluRay.  Also keep in mind that if you hated the theatrical cut, this probably won't suddenly make you love the film. It's the same movie, just tweaked and spruced up with a little heart and character put back in.

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I am not a fan. I just happen to enjoy movies. Fans are embarrassing.

[–] Kojiro_Vance 8 years ago

And on the other side of the spectrum, you have me. I like the theatrical edition more 😃

But I like it more because of this simple reason: it's on bluray. And it looks stunning. The Directors edition in my opinion looks bad on a big screen HD television.

Believe me, the quality of the bluray edition is incredible.

I'm just on my way up to Clavius.

[–] TheSolarSailor 8 years ago

Yes, I can imagine that the DE suffers on the HD television. I wish Paramount would have been more farsighted with the project. Since things happened the way they did, though, I wish they'd correct the problem and make it viable for BluRay. Aside from the technicalities of the format, which version do you like best, Kojiro?? I will always have a soft spot for the theatrical cut, since it is what I grew up on!

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I am not a fan. I just happen to enjoy movies. Fans are embarrassing.

[–] Kojiro_Vance 8 years ago

That's the version I grew up on as well. I bought the - then 6 movies - collection on VHS. I believe it was this collection I had as a kid http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek_-_The_Collection

Then, years later I bought the 10 DVD collection which included the Director's edition of the movie. And then, again, a few years later, I bought all of the movie again on bluray. And since then, the theatrical version i my favorite, because it looks sooooo good.

This movie gets a lot of hate (not from me personally, I like it - a lot), but the production quality of the movie rarely gets a bad review. On the contrary, people often say it looks amazing.

You know how you can make this movie better? Take the theatrical version and:

- remove the soundeffects of the computer saying 'intruder alert' and 'red alert' and such
- trim the Kirk/Scotty docking sequence a bit (not by much, or you lose a great deal of Goldsmith's fantastic music)
- keep the wormhole scene, but speed it up (that stupid slowmotion effect !!!)

Those are my only problems with the movie. I like the slow scenes (except the already mentioned docking scene). I like when the Enterprise is slowly flying through V'Ger. I like Goldsmiths music that accompanies those scenes. And I like the story, even though it's a remake of The Changeling.

I'm just on my way up to Clavius.