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Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Movie Review

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is a 1984 science fiction film directed by Leonard Nimoy and starring William Shatner. It’s one of the best ‘Original Series’ films.

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“Klingon bastard!

You killed my son!“

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Admiral Kirk has defeated the genetically created genius Khan, but Spock is dead and McCoy is suffering from a strange mental abnormality. Kirk takes the Enterprise to Genesis to recover the body. The plot of this film is much stronger than I’d expected it would be. The critics have accused it of being a weepy, but I strongly disagree. The friendship between Kirk and Spock is wonderful here without being overly emotional and the film’s heart is in the right place.

This is by far one of the most adventurous Star Trek movies, which is the thing that I appreciated the most about it. The Genesis planet is gorgeous and some of the imagery there including the cacti covered in snow was just striking to witness. The exploration of the science on this planet and the idea of Spock being alive in a different body was very well explored. It’s a more sophisticated movie than its predecessors.

William Shatner is so comically bad here. There is this one scene where his son dies and his acting there was atrocious. The character of Kirk worked and Shatner is charismatic, but his lack of talent obviously hindered the character’s deeper arc here. Nimoy is better of course and Spock is very memorable here while the actor’s direction is surprisingly solid too.

McCoy also has a good role and his relationship with Spock is feisty and fun. I also really liked the other Vulcans in a movie that deals extensively with this culture in a great way. The Search for Spock also features pretty good special effects for its time, a great score per usual and some solid action sequences. The mid section is the weakest, but the first one is the most adventurous and third act is clearly quite moving. It’s a hugely underappreciated entry in the Star Trek film series that is actually better than its immediate predecessor.

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Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is an underrated ST movie that has a weaker second act and comically bad acting from Shatner, but the Spock-Kirk friendship is moving here, the entire storyline is terrific and the movie’s adventurous elements and world building are top-notch. The exploration of the Genesis planet produced many unforgettable moments of discovery fueled by intriguing imagery.

My Rating – 4