Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Directed by Robert Wise
When an unidentified alien destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Captain James T. Kirk returns to the newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise to take command.
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What critics compared Star Trek: The Motion Picture to
Serenity's opening passages have the obsessive tenor of Robert Wise's introduction to the "Enterprise" in Star Trek: The Motion Picture--a long tracking shot (re-)introducing the major players follows a tight prologue (re-)establishing the River subplot and giving over the role of prime mover to the operative character.
Joss Whedon, who created the show and wrote/directed the film, seems to want to bypass Star Trek: The Motion Picture and go directly to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
When Jason and his fellow actors get a first look at the actual, full-size, genuine spaceship the aliens have built in replica of the TV show's cardboard model Protector, the sequence is a shot-for-shot take-off of the similar scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, that long, slow, lovemaking pan around the ship in dock.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) certainly got things off to a rocky start as it sought to revive the classic 1960s television series.
The movie recalls 2010: The Year We Make Contact, E.T., and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, with all that entails.
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What usually happens is a movie like, say, Star Trek: The Motion Picture happens – and it’s met with a tepid reaction (yes, I’m aware that over the years people have warmed up to this movie, especially the director’s cut ) and the budget is cut, they bring in a new director, and a new tone is adapted and we get The Wrath of Khan .
The title entity, given life through the use of an alien contraption rather than as a result of a scientific breakthrough, isn't that different from Star Trek: The Motion Picture 's V'Ger, except Ultron (whose voice is provided by James Spader) is a 9-foot high robot bent on "cleansing" the Earth whereas V'Ger was a little bigger.
The story pits Emmet and his allies — including a Gandalf-like wizard (Morgan Freeman), a Matrix -inspired Trinity stand-in (Elizabeth Banks) and a super-sweet Hello Kitty / My Little Pony hybrid (Alison Brie) — against an evil dark lord (Will Ferrell) whose penchant for mispronunciation and overused genitive constructions riffs on Ferrell’s own Megamind , Star Trek: The Motion Picture and fantasy writing generally.
With FX designed by John Dykstra, who performed similar duties on “Star Wars” and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” they find cool ways of depicting the mutant powers with Emma Frost’s crystalline form being one of the few that just doesn’t look right.
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"The Avengers" has these tendencies and, at times, seems as ponderous as the first original "Star Trek" movie.
The generation ship that’s turned bad for unknown reasons in space is also an intriguing idea, kind of like Star Trek: The Motion Picture’s V’Ger but in human form.