WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!Not knowing when to leave well enough alone, the Star Trek series returns for its fifth installment, this time directed by William Shatner. A little bit more time and money during the development phase could have cleared up this oddball film and turned it into something really good. The potential is there, but The Final Frontier falters in the execution of it all.
Star Trek V won the Razzie Award for Worst Picture of 1989, which I doubt is an accurate reflection of bad movies made that year. While the movie isn’t up to par with its predecessors, it still manages to channel that Star Trek vibe pretty well. Star Trek has always been a little campy and mediocre, so you’ll be hard pressed to find a bad Star Trek film. They don’t try hard enough to be great, so they can’t possibly be bad.
Weird is a good way to describe it, actually. A rogue Vulcan mystic named Sybok sets out to commandeer a starship and take it into the center of the galaxy, beyond an energy field that has sealed off the galactic core for time immemorial. After taking hostages on a rinky dink planet, which Kirk and company travel to as a rescue party, Sybok uses his powers to free the Enterprise crew of their innermost pain that haunts them. In gratitude for their relief, they end up doing his will and set course for the galactic core.
The one catch is that Kirk doesn’t give in to Sybok’s plan. In a unique scene, Kirk declares, “I want my pain! I need my pain!” The clever exploration of what makes a person a person, pain and all is really quite remarkable for a sci-fi films. I give kudos to Shattner for trying to include such philosophical content into a Trek film. However, things go downhill once the Enterprise reaches the center of the galaxy.
Sybok is seeking out a planet beyond this energy field which holds the secrets of the origins of life in the universe. Turns out, Sybok is Spock’s half-brother and the planet was just a prison for some maligned entity with great destructive power. Kirk, Spock, Sybok and Dr. McCoy approach and interact with this dangerous entity (which appears as a floating head) and at first believe it is God, the creator of all things. God asks Sybok if he has brought a starship with him, promising to reveal the mysteries of the Universe if they promise to take him aboard their starship and back into the rest of the galaxy. At this point, teeming with anticipation and all kinds of philosophical outlets, Kirk blurts out the following line in stereotypical Shatner-speak: “What does God need with a starship?”
A good question, but it totally deflates the situation at hand. The jig is up and the floating head decides to try and kill them all. Also, Klingons figure into this puzzle awkwardly as well. There is also a rather bizarre sequence in the beginning and end where Kirk, Spock and McCoy are camping. Spock camping is odd enough without the inclusion of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”
Make of it what you will, but more cheesy special effects and some stereotypical Shatner puts a damper on Star Trek 5. With a little more focus and effort, the cool philosophical points could have made for quite a unique movie, though it is still tolerable and amusing as it is.
RATING: 2.5 out of 5
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