Beautiful artifice hiding a flat story

“Star Trek- Motion Picture” boldly begins the movie series but also shows there might be such a thing as too bold..for “Star Trek” anyway. Returning to the TV series 10 years after the TV show ended, this first film is an ambitious visual treat that still can’t figure out how to incorporate a lot of the supporting characters and good humor; nor find an aim for its sprawling plot.


That entails another alien entity that’s hurtling toward Earth and the only ones who can intercept it are the crew of the Enterprise. That includes Kirk (William Shatner), who has been promoted to Admiral, Scotty (James Doohan), Sulu (George Takei), McCoy (DeForest Kelley), and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), all first seen at their stations like they’ve never left over the past 10 years. The only one who seems to have taken his own little side quest is Spock (Leonard Nimoy), whose attainment of grace on planet Vulcan continues to elude him thanks to his human side. He believes the alien entity contains something that will help him and so he rejoins the crew later on.


One of the bigger disappointments here is that even when everyone has been assembled together it gives them very little to do but go through the motions of the plot. I missed the witty banter between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, who barely get much of a chance to even talk to each other before we’re examining the entity. The supporting cast is even less utilized, only good for taking commands without ever really getting to show anything of their joyous personalities.


That joy that we feel from “Star Trek” really only seems to be there in the opening minutes, as Jerry Goldsmith’s musical score proclaims the magnificence of the newly designed Enterprise. Sure, in the early going the special effects work looks pretty tacky- with obvious green screen and space capsules that look like floating cardboard boxes- but the movie saves the best visual effects work for later. There are shiny spaceship interiors with interesting looking gadgets, psychedelic wormholes with lights and colors, bolts that emit transportive lightning. In one of the more controversial sequences that lasts way longer than it should, the Enterprise goes through a field so hypnotic that one gets the feeling this movie inspired some of the best in screensaver technology in the future. Not to mention the alien spacecraft, which looks like a giant, lit up starfish. The film owes much to effects artists Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra, and production designer Harold Michelson, all of which seem to be going for a “2001: A Space Odyssey” vibe here and in just marveling at visuals, they have created a true winner.


But “Star Trek- Motion Picture” comes off more like an arty extravagance than anything to really feel engaged in. The story in particular devolves into ponderousness about mind melds, conscious A.I. with mid-life crisis syndrome..and, yeah I zoned out after a while. This movie wants to be methodical, smart sci-fi but winds up just going slower and slower up its own ass. It has nothing to really say yet the way it slowly sweeps through these visuals is enough to make you believe it’s going to eventually be as provocative as it is beautiful to look at. It’s not, and after a while all we’re doing is looking at empty artifice.