Σταρ Τρεκ IV: Επιστροφή στο παρόν

SilentDawn4.5

89/100Beginning with "save the world" importance and ending with life-affirming joy, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a film which shreds its urgency as it goes along, supplanting stakes for a sweet dose of environmentalism and shaggy comedy. Our characters are already so iconic in their traits that creating a humble hangout film feels like a natural progression in the Star Trek series. The heroes are obviously involved in the imminent threat, but the audience is carried away by slack scenarios and sublime mini narratives; slices of comedy which could only be achieved by a molecular understanding of these personalities. The hilarious chemistry is built around this team, their pasts, and the iconic energy their adventures hold, and even when the tone couldn't be breezier, it feels authentic. You'd have to be a double dumbass not to enjoy this.

Branson Reese

Insane that this works. On paper it's a mess. A bunch of visibly aging people from the future travel back in time to save two whales and the whole thing has a lightly comedic fish-out-of-water tone. What if this was the first Star Trek anything? I'll tell you what if: it would work. I know because this is the first Star Trek thing I saw as a kid. That's not totally true. I saw Worf at Paramount King's Dominion when I was, like, three. There's a picture out there somewhere of some actor holding me while I scream bloody murder because I didn't know who Worf was and that he was no threat to me as long as I didn't challenge his sense of honor. But you'll never see it so don't ask. A few short years later my dad showed me Star Wars and my mom countered by showing me this movie. I was hooked. But the kind of hooked where I would occasionally watch TNG if it was on. So not super hooked. Star Trek can be a little "smoke the whole pack" on kids with attention disorders. But I got there.I think the thing that really brings this one into the majors is Spock. He's finally back. Sure he starts the movie looking through family albums trying to remember who he is like how my buddies and I used to whenever we got concussions but by the second act he's TOS Spock, all frustrating Bones and using logic to justify the most poorly kept secret of all media: that he's a sweet hearted person. It honestly works in the film's favor that he's playing catch-up; it lets them milk some of the series dynamic that had started to go stale by the time of the movies when it was a given that they were all old friends. Sort of wild that Spock only really shows up in the fourth installment of the film franchise. Sure he's in the other three movies but he's pretty checked out in the first one outside of the 2001 scene that they obviously gave Nimoy because he had the coolest face to reflect stuff onto. He's way in the backseat for all the scenes where he isn't dying in Wrath, and either completely absent or a teenager having a -frankly- illegal feeling hand thing with Saavik in Search. But now he's back. Just in time for fan favorite Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, the only non-Abrams Star Trek movie to hold the distinction of I can't remember if I've seen it or not.

matt lynch3.5

can you imagine a fourth entry in a lucrative franchise taking a hard swerve into comedy like this these days? although it's certainly choppy since it's still got a goofy, expository and "relevant" sci-fi adventure to deal with, you put a few beers in me and i'll start arguing for it as a Hawksian hangout movie born inadvertently out of nostalgic familiarity and outright fan service.