Talk about a hard act to follow! If you read my Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan review, you know that it is one of my favorite Star Trek movies. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock had some massive shoes to fill and in all honesty, it was near impossible for this Leonard Nimoy sequel to top what came before it. Yet, despite that being said, I still think that this is a very good movie.
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Continuing the Journey: The Movie Review
This is a direct sequel to the events of The Wrath of Khan and it sees our battered Enterprise led by Kirk limp back home to Earth. The crew is still in bad shape after losing Spock, but things get worse as the Enterprise is getting decommissioned and they are forbidden from talking about the Genesis device! I really like the way the movie gets right into the swing of things after the events of the last movie.
A New Villain and Strange Occurrences
As well as all that happening, two other major things are going down. First of all, a badass and crazy Klingon called, Kruge has found out about the Genesis device and is convinced it can be used as a powerful weapon. Kruge wants to get his hands on this weapon at any cost. I have to say, Christopher Llyod as Kruge is just awesome casting, he is so over the top and “Christopher Llyod” that he is a major highlight of the movie.
Add to this we also have something strange going on with McCoy! Turns out that Spock put his spirit/consciousness or if you want to get really nerdy “Katra” into McCoy and this is causing McCoy to act very strangely. To make this even weirder, a life reading is picked up and it turns out that the Genesis device at the end of the last movie, recreated Spock and now they need to bring McCoy with his Katra to the planet to make Spock whole.
A Tale of Two Plots
The whole Spock part of the story in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is very strange if I am being honest, but I still like it. It just feels so “Star Trek” if that makes sense. I actually prefer the plot about Kruge wanting to get his hands on the Genesis device. However, as much as I love Kruge, he had such a hard act to follow in Khan from the last movie.
In may ways, I feel that Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is kind of like two classic episodes of the show that have been melded into one movie. To be fair, this could have been a mess as we have two very strong stories playing out in the movie, but they do pull it off. I do not think that it is as exciting as Wrath of Khan, but it is still a very solid Star Trek movie.
Final Thoughts on the Trilogy
This is one of those movies that is hard to talk about because I really do like it. As a kid, I was so excited to see how they were going to bring Spock back, but even as a kid, I preferred the stuff with Kruge more. The thing with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is that it is so hard to talk about it without constantly comparing it to Star Trek II. I will say that this, II and IV make for a super fun trilogy of movies.
