Star Trek

Watching this now in my long marathon of TOS Movies and I got to thinking that what really messed this movie up was  the tone of the film. While it tried to stay lighthearted and fun like STIV did it should have, because of the plot, been more akin to The Motion Picture. That is to say, a more serious sci-fi movie about the search for our own meaning in the universe thus being a sort of follow up to TMP with the crew playing the role of V'ger searching for our supposed creator.

Maybe in the right hands it could have been a more well liked and remembered story. Don't get me wrong I don't really hate this film but it does need a lot of work.

What are your thoughts on it?

The problem has nothing to do with tone, it is the concept:

the ENTERPRISE crew going off on a deliberate search
through the cosmos, to intentionally find He Who Has
No Name on a distant planet, no less! It could not have
worked in anyone's hands, because nobody but William
Shatner, at that time in TREK's history, was going to
touch that with a 10 foot pole. And had he not forced
it on Paramount, contractually, to allow him to direct,
there would've never been a Kirk-Meets-Yaweh movie ...

Sorry I guess I didn't make myself clear enough. I don't think they literally needed to find god. (That why I said "supposed" creator) The whole angle of it being some trapped being isn't too bad of an idea with someone like Sybok (a religious nut) takes over the Enterprise to find him. But instead of the slapstick and quips make the whole movie more serious in tone.

I don't know that Sybok needed to be Spock's brother, but the idea of a corrupter Vulcan isn't a bad one, at least it was different.

Basically I just think that they shouldn't have used a lot of comedy in this one and it might have been a better flick,

Having a religious nut as the bad guy is not really
inherently bad, as long as his mission is to do any
thing, short of actually take a cruise to visit god.

If Sybok's mission was to brainwash the masses in his
own craving for glory, then yeah, that works. Having
him have visions from his "god" telling him to visit
this planet, to pick up one of his profits (him in
another form), then that makes more sense, too.

But to say, "I am the maker of all things, living on a
terrestrial planetoid, come visit ME. Come give ME a
rocket ride," is childish and nothing short of lame.

Yeah I can agree with that assesment. You ideas are a bit better than the actual execution. I think Sybok was just so brainwashed by that being by the time they got to the planet that he never really questioned why it needed a starship. I do like how it reveals itself to him though and he realizes his arrogance. 

Sadly, Shatner learned the hard way, direcitng a studio film involves most of your efforts keeping the stuio heads,who have NO IDEA HOW TO MAKE A MOVIE out of the process.

I think the proof is in the pudding that it was
Shatner's jealousy over Nimoy's directing success
which inspired the use of a Vulcan as the bad guy.
There's even more damning evidence of ego at work:

This is William Shatner's valentine to Captain Kirk.
Already, we're on shaky ground. Quite aside from that,
Meeting god in a movie can only disappoint. And how is
he going to reveal himself in a way more impressive than
the power of the Tholians? By the way, making "god" look
like The Cowardly Lion was Shatner's idea. Not the studio's.

I love it, how Shatner fans believe that it's Studio Interference that
made FINAL FRONTIER such garbage & not its incompetent director!

Nemoy made Star Trek III.. which is the WORST of the OT film series.   Where do you get the Jealousy?

You really think that Studio exces did not interfere?    Look at "Brothers Grimm"   Even Gilliam will tell you he lost control of the film via the stuido exce's.    

I'm gonna give the benifit of the doubt to Shatner that the studio wanted "humor" becuase that's what made The Voyage Home successful.   This is how films are made today.

Please cite any evidence, besides the film itself of Shatners "jealousy".

It's easy to forget that until STAR TREK III, none of its
actors were given the opportunity to direct ... something
Shatner wanted the most. Nimoy usurped him and received
many accolades in that capacity. Including the very successful
VOYAGE HOME. And had Shatner not DEMANDED he direct number five,
Nimoy would've been given that assignment, as well. But Nimoy
was sensitive to Shatner's Ego, so he didn't direct 6.

And had 4 not done so well, 5 probably would've failed even worse.

Shatner's talked before about his being intimidated by the studios
and caving in, when they came down on him to make changes. But
... Shatner was going to need ALL the help he could get, for sure.
Groom Lake was the only other major feature Shatner directed, other
than the STAR TREK-based interviews he'd had with the other captains.
Groom Lake is damning evidence of Shatner's near-total incompetence.

That may be your opinion, but Star Trek III was much better recieved critically than either TMP or Star Trek V and was a hit at the box office. Nimoy then followed it up with Star Trek IV, which was the highest grossing Trek film untill the new movie, and probably tied with Khan as the most famous entry in the film series, I'd say he had a pretty good run.

Star Trek III is great! Where in the world would you get the idea that it's the worst of the original movies?