Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Stands Alone in the Feature Film Series

A colossal, mysterious space cloud called V'ger travels across the galaxy and threatens Earth, annihilating interlopers along the way ; the origins of V'ger are revealed at the end.

"Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979) addresses some of the deepest questions of life: Is this all there is? Why are we here? Does love exist since it cannot be proved via pure logic? Who is the Creator? The core message is the intrinsic need to seek one's Creator and reconcile in order to attain a (necessary) higher level of consciousness. Those found the film boring simply failed to penetrate beyond the surface.

Like the Star Trek episodes "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "Metamorphosis," The Motion Picture...

BORING.

I mean, it opens great. The first few minutes sort of give you the impression that this movie is going to be epic...

... and then the rest of it is best spent looking at your phone, cleaning your finger nails, watching linoleum curl, defrosting your freezer...

... finding anything else you can do as it plays in the background just to keep you form dying of Boredom.

And I say this as a Star Trek fan.

To be fair, this film does pick up quite plausibly from the television series. The characterisations are roughly the same, if somewhat older - and that does help give it some cohesion; but the opening scene goes on interminably. The premiss is stretched to breaking point and riddled with metaphors and pseudo-philosophical clichés; and there is precious little action. Persis Khambatta who plays "Ilia" - the conduit between the all powerful alien power and our gang of intrepid adventurers - is almost robotic and sterile; as is the general plot of the film. It seems lost between an adventure film and one with a deeper message to convey; as such it delivers well on neither front. Luckily, there were more, better, films to follow - but this one is best forgotten.