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Well, I guess it's one of those films you get to appreciate more on the big screen, because of all the scenes of the Enterprise travelling inside the V'ger cloud, or of the starship in dry dock : pretty, impressive, but it loses some of the grandeur it was aiming at when seen on your TV. Still, you can see Kirk's awe when he reunites with his beloved Lady, so you get it by proxy at least.
Some scenes and plot elements are not filmed as they would be today, like the asteroid moment: it is slow-paced, and it takes longer than you would expect and an 2005-release Hollywood film.
The Ilia & Decker storyline: the actor playing Matt Decker seemed, well, quite bland to me. I felt he had been put here to have a blond-haired, blue-eyed, square-jawed guy as romantic lead with Ilia (maybe Shatner-Kirk was deemed too old, or too Admiral for it?). I would have liked to learn more about Ilia and Deltans in general, but otherwise their (past) relationship was of use in the plot. I hate it when love stories are slapped on a plot just because you have to have one, but here it served a purpose, namely trying to get the Ilia-probe to interact and communicate with the 'carbon-based units'.
I did not mind the Decker/Kirk tension either. I quite liked the fact that the Admiral is presented as ruthless to get what he wants, even if he's not ready, as Decker and McCoy point out to him. He acknowledges it, he has doubts, but he won't budge from the captain's seat. James T. Kirk is not perfect, indeed... he was ambitious enough to become an Admiral at a young age, and pitiless enough to push out of his way the legitimate captain of the Enterprise whom he recommended himself. He even called McCoy back from the wilds without asking! Apparently, Dr Chapel was not good enough for him.
The fact that the film kept a slow pace has often been criticized, and it's true that it takes its time, but it is actually something I appreciate: no need to rush through things; it makes you ponder on the vastness of the cloud and the hugeness of the Enterprise. Which is good in my book. (I actually have a certain fondness for films that takes their time to get where they want to as long as you have eye-candy to watch and thinking to do, as in some Japanese films, for instance)
The music was sometimes overbearing, but all in all bearable, and the special effects are not ridiculous today. Of course the uniforms did not look either practical or comfortable, and I for one would have liked more shots of Spock in his black garments, but 'you can't always get what you want', as they say.
Apart from the slow pace, the Spock storyline was another thing that is not done in nowadays' style – that is, it's not overdone or harped on too much, though it is explicit. His struggles to find himself and his place are clear, and we see him go from more-Vulcan-than-thou to I-have-a-death-wish-and-puts-myself-in-mortal-danger-without-warning-anyone TOS-style to I-smile-I-touch-Jim-and-Enterprise-is-my-home. For Spock and for V'Ger, logic and emotion are both necessary, perhaps because both are hybrids, part-this and part-that.
This film is not about watching scary aliens fighting in space (though we do see Klingons get blasted by V'Ger in the first minutes), but about what it is that makes you alive – human, not in as in 'the race of people who are from Earth' but as in 'we seek until we die, and we try to do the right thing even though we are not perfect'. The theme of a quest for something, something needed but unknown as Spock points out, reflects the paths of both V'Ger and Spock.
The film has been first released in 1979, 10 years after the original series, and the actors are themselves older. William Shatner has not yet grown a pot-belly and still has pointy sideburns, James Doohan-Scotty sports a moustache and his girth has not yet expanded to an un-befitting size for a military man, Nichelle Nichols-Uhura and George Takei-Sulu are still their quiet and efficient selves with lovely voices, Walter Koenig-Chekov bounces on his seat with gusto, DeForest Kelley thankfully shaves his mysterious (and hideous) beard when he gets on board so that we can focus on his eyes and his grumbling about, we even get a few glimpses of Grace Lee Whitney-Janice Rand and Majel Barrett-Dr Chapel, but Leonard Nimoy-Spock's slightly older face and ever-deepening voice (one day that man will speak not from the nose, not from the throat, not from the chest, but from the Earth itself – it's already quite gravelly) have a reason to exist in the plot: a couple of years meditating in the deep Vulcan desert can indeed explain it away nicely. Poor Spock!
As for slashy moments, the Kirk / Scotty interaction in the little craft that takes them up to the Enterprise is quite suggestive: Scotty gazes at the Admiral, who stares at the ship, as if he hadn't seen him in ages. Later on there is McCoy's handshake to the Admiral who almost forces it out of the Doctor.
But the big, juicy moments are the Kirk / Spock ones. The film opens on Spock about to receive his Holy Bauble of Logic when he perceives something in his mind. Roddenberry wrote in the novelization that it was Kirk's mind and V'Ger's, er, consciousness, and movie-Spock himself tells McCoy & the Admiral that he felt a consciousness, but there is not much on it.
Anyway, Spock leaves Vulcan and runs back to the Enterprise, apparently without checking with Starfleet first since no one knows he's coming.
From then on, he is on the verge of insolence with everyone and Kirk in particular, whom he ignores completely and even (quite childishly) defies when the Admiral has to ask him to sit down several times.
And then, of course, comes the sickbay scene. Spock goes off to meld with V'Ger without warning anyone – knowing it's quite dangerous – and Kirk, just as careless with safety, apparently, goes off after him and looks all terrified when he finds Spock, unconscious or dead. The next scene is in Sickbay where Spock lies with his eyes open and unseeing, and Kirk is all anxious and then – Spock talks. And he says he should have known, and Kirk runs to his bedside, asks what he means, shakes him when he slips into unconsciousness, and that's when Spock makes his little speech about simple feelings, and they just gaze into each other's eyes and squeeze each other's hand and it's like all will be fine now, we've had our fight but now it's all over – and indeed it is.
Spock even sheds a tear for V'ger while on the bridge, and grasps the Admiral's arm before leaving V'Ger to urge him on, and McCoy and he stands behind Kirk's chair in the end. Just as it should be!
So, all in all, not the best Trek film, and it may not deliver as much as it wanted to, but it's not as bad as has been said. Yes, the plot is strangely similar to the 2nd season episode The Changeling, down to the Spock-melds-with-a-thing-and-gets-a-cuddle-from-Kirk thing; yes, Kirk and Spock are the only characters really developped; yes, it is a bit slow... but it's still very watchable.
I've tested it on a demanding audience, and it was deemed alright!