Not a good as its predecessor, but better than some that would follow.Without a doubt, the darkest of the original cast Star Trek movies, The Search For Spock had the task of bringing the popular character back to life. How'd they do it? Well, he was jettisoned to Genesis, which regenerates, meaning Spock (Leonard Nimoy) was gonna grow back from the corpse that he was to a full-fledged man. Problem was, before he died, he stuffed his conscience into McCoy (DeForest Kelley)'s head. Now his body's growing back without benefit of a mind, which is rattling around inside McCoy's noggin. Spock's father Sarek (Mark Lenard), tells Kirk (William Shatner) that the conscience must be exorcised, and they need the body for that. Thus begin the search of the title.
Planet Genesis is now off-limis, and the Enterprise is hobbled from the firefight with Khan from the last movie. Screw it. Kirk defies orders (shocking!) and takes off after the Genesis planet. But there's a Klingon named Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) who wants it for himself. He sets off after Kirk.
What follows are space battles between the Enterprise and a Klingon Bird Of Prey, a hand-to-hand between Kirk and Kruge and Spock growing up over the course of two hours. Kirk's son dies (setting off his hatred for Klingons) and the Enterprise gets blown to hell. Yeeha.
Darker than most of the other films, as I said before, and kind of intense (especially as Spock matures). Kruge is no Khan (he just can't be), although Lloyd does a decent job. Shatner doesn't embarrass himself, although he's a little hammier here than he was in Wrath Of Khan. The friendship between Spock, McCoy and Kirk gets a little more exposure, and we get to see the lengths Kirk will go to for his friends.Not a bad flick. Kind of in the front of the pack among Trek movies.
eFilmCritic.com: Australia's Largest Movie Review Database. Privacy Policy | HBS Inc. | | All data and site design copyright 1997-2013, HBS Entertainment, Inc.