Star Trek I: The Motion Picture (1979)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1979
	Director: Robert Wise (The Sound of Music, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Sand Pebbles)
	Actors: William Shatner (Loaded Weapon 1, Airplane 2), Leonard Nimoy (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Transformers 3 Dark of the Moon), DeForest Kelley
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: 25.07.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: While an unknown and enormous force approaches Earth, captain Kirk (Shatner) and his crew man an improved version of the ship Enterprise.
Review: After watching and appreciating the new Star Trek movies by J. J. Abrams, I wanted to learn more about this Universe. I never watched a full episode of the TV-series and have seen only Star Trek VIII: First Contact years ago, so I decided to acquire the Blu-ray box-set of the first ten movies. I was very surprised with this first motion picture based on the characters created by Gene Roddenberry. First because of its director Robert Wise known for many classic Hollywood movies. Well, he knew Science-Fiction since he directed The Day the Earth Stood Still, an inspiration for many people. I guess it is his personnal touch to start the movie with a black screen and three minutes of classical music. Very nice music and very well encoded in this Blu-ray edition. I was not surprised by the many optical special effects which defects are clearly visible in HD, but which were at the top of what was done at the time. Douglas Trumbull (Silent Running) was responsible for them. I was rather surprised by the story, and the slow rythm at which it is told: no spaceships attacks, photon torpedos, fights with hand-held phasers etc... but a good five minutes spent rotating around the Enterprise and admiring it at the sound of orchestral music, and later on fifteen minutes of the same show around the alien ship. The characters speak little but we get their complex relationship even if not familiar with the TV-series. In this sense the movie is not an adventure but more pure (realistic) Science-Fiction, closer to 2001: A Space Odyssey than to Star Wars. My third surprise was to notice how much the actors in the J. J. Abrams Star Trek movies are mimicking the actors in the original movies, for the best effect! You can recognize similar gesture and language ticks in both Kirks, both Spocks, both Scottys, both MacCoys. Only by watching the original can you realize how good a job the new actors did. I guess the later movies produced in the 80's and 90's are more following an SF/Action story, but I am looking forward to watching them anyway, and I may be surprised again.
Rating: 8 /10