Review Detail

This was my first time revisiting this film since I was a kid, and the first time I realized why so many have called it a bad movie. It's not bad, and especially not in BionicBob's fanedit...but it's sure a big drop from The Wrath of Khan.

I wrote general thoughts about the film here: https://letterboxd.com/nottheacademy/film/star-trek-iii-the-search-for-spock/ but for this entry I'll focus on Bob's edit. In general, I'd say the little trims to the story manage to mostly improve the flow of the narrative and even enhance the emotional impact in several areas. I particularly appreciated his use of flashbacks via old footage to visualize the ending sequence. On the other hand, the flashbacks during that flight of the Enterprise over Genesis veered too much into fan service for me. It's something that I could've accepted in the actual final last Star Trek film, but not here. Most of the scenes cut out weren't really missed, though I felt David's fate was not shown clearly enough and it seemed an ambiguous and dodgy removal that lessened his character.

In terms of the other main focus of this edit, the TV-style presentation, I think Bob continued to improve in that area and it works even better here than in STI or STII. The opening recap especially felt like the old show and fit very well. However, all in all it's a bit of a mixed bag, as some of the music fits this feeling and some clearly does not. Some of the fadeouts and freezes fit and some seem to frustrate the flow of the film. The ending of the film is mercilessly left untouched by "commercial breaks"...which is both gratifying but also departs from the way the rest of the edit is cut. So I'm iffy on this main idea of the fanedit, though it's certainly a valid alternative to the main film.

All in all, this is an improvement on the theatrical version, so I can definitely recommend it. I'll be coming back for STIV.