Star Trek The Motion Picture Director's Edition 4K UHD/DLX (1979)

[mikesncc1701]

I also like the

[Show spoiler]Chekov intercom stuff. First to engineering, then relaying info about the sonic shower during the introduction of the Ilia probe

. The elements they dug up for this is astounding.

[Shatnerman]

And did you notice they fixed the gaffe thats been in it forever! Spock and McCoy's field jackets are exchanged on the last shot on the bridge, Spock w McCoys green division sleeve and McCoy with Spock's red. THEY FIXED IT!! YAY!!

[SpaceBlackKnight]

My thoughts from the stream:

There's plenty of grain but it seems they did selective degraining with certain shots and close ups of faces tend to be on the waxy side.

The recomps (with 65/35mm footage used) look fantastic! Far clearer than the ones in the theatrical! The added CG VFX stuff OTOH, still looks tacky and way off. They could have done filmouts of those or something to make them mesh better with the 35/65mm footage (the Enterprise takeoff shot is better, but the ship is the only 35mm footage while the rest around it is obvious digital work with hardly any effort to blend it in better). In some cases the CG shots look worse than the somewhat shoddy FX work done back in 1978.

Audio was fine for the most part coming from the SFX, MDE stems, and soundtracks elements. But some of it sounded a bit weird like sections of dialog being VERY noisy and hissy, and obvious new SFX appearing after (or on top of) older sounds.

The new opening credits look absolutely gawdawful! The "sparkle" on the title card exhibits low framerate flickering, almost like a early 90s FMV cutscene or the render software seriously lagging out. It's also very strange that they kept the original Paramount logos from the theatrical cut. I was completely expecting newer Paramount logos there since this is a new revised version like Godfather III Coda.

[mikesncc1701]

[Show spoiler]Who the hell is it sending a signal for?

Then answered by the Ilia probe. Even better insertion of sound bites.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by Croweyes1121

Man, does that enterprise leaving spacedock shot smoke the ever loving out of the 4K BD, not that that took much, but wow…gorgeous…

And there is just NO WAY that observation lounge scene is finished and won’t be retweaked before a physical release. I mean good-NESS…

So then they're currently streaming a work-in-progress? That sounds professional. I hope you're right though, because based on the screenshot, it's laughable as it is.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by Ben_UK

My problem with inserting modern effects into older films are just that, that they stick out like a sore thumb. I think the worst example of this was the Donner Cut of Superman II. Not only did they insert CGI into a 1980 film, but they inserted cheap CGI and it looked bloody awful. If they could have found a way to do it with CGI but have it look like late 1970s composites then that would have been ideal.

The thing is, they went overboard in Superman II for sure. They claimed they would make it look like it was from that time period to match the rest of the effects in the film, so it wouldn't look as good as modern effects, but the new effects looked worse than the originals, like when Zod yells "Freeee!" - it looks worse than any shot in the original theatrical version.

[Darthbooth1978]

Is there any way to relay some of the concerns people are talking about back to the folk who worked on this? Obviously sounds like most of the work they did sounds fantastic, but hopeful they tweak this even more for the physical release.

[Paul Cordingley]

Mixed feelings about this. Just finished it. Echoing what others have said and some of my own thoughts:

* The opening titles are really cheesy and out of place. I had a sinking feeling as soon as I saw those. What were they thinking? They need to be redone.
* No effort to integrate new tack-sharp CGI with the original film look. Very strange and again they look out of place and take one out of the movie.
* The observation lounge is seriously not good, and ruins the scene completely. The original is much better.
* Instances of destructive DNR in the V’ger clouds - either that or the stream was compressed, however when it jumped back and forth to the bridge, the bridge was always good.
* Agreed on the added and cheesy Jetsons sounds on the shuttles in the opening scenes. Totally unnecessary, and again take you out of the movie. Why?
* Much of the CGI looks amateurish. The walkway bridge “bricks” coalescing outside of the Enterprise at the end for instance - just looked pretty bad. V’ger at the very end again looked jarringly bad.

Plenty to applaud though, which makes these clunkers all the more jarring.

[oddbox83]

Based on what other people have said, I wonder if a bit more grain overall might have sold it better?

You really need to DNR live action that will be part of new effects for a clean key, but it needs regrained afterwards to match back in, including full CG shots. We know they did this for the 2001 edition, but is this what they've done, I mean, is the grain consistent over CG elements? It's probably going to need to be more accurately matching grain in 4K as well, rather than just "grain" which was sufficient for SD. If it's not, that's going to take the viewer right out of the suspension of disbelief even if they don't realise why.

[Croweyes1121]

Originally Posted by Shatnerman

And did you notice they fixed the gaffe thats been in it forever! Spock and McCoy's field jackets are exchanged on the last shot on the bridge, Spock w McCoys green division sleeve and McCoy with Spock's red. THEY FIXED IT!! YAY!!

Except for the last four frames, where Spock’s armband goes back to blue. Now you’ll see it every time. You’re welcome.

[Bufo1966]

Chekov's added ADR line "photon capacitator" is a keeper. Really, "capacitator?" Way to go, Pavel.

There's a new POV shot added when Spock first passes through the Vejur orifice. The new shot shows the row of glowing rings he's about to pass through.

The image on the DVD is a little squished left to right and usually shows a sliver more image on the right of the screen than the 4K image does.

The shot of Scotty and an engineer reacting to Kirk's self-destruct order has been reframed. Now you can see the reaction of another engineer at the left of the screen as well. Gives the moment a little more weight.

The opening credits look bad on the 1080p stream, but we'll see how the forthcoming physical release looks.

Spock's armband reverting to blue at the end of the shot is an oops. Hopefully that will get fixed.

The entire back wall has been replaced in the lounge scene. Maybe it's a better frame composition than originally, but the new version could use some more work.

Overall a vast improvement in video and sound, and a better film, with a handful of new flaws to fuss about.

[starmike]

Originally Posted by Darthbooth1978

Is there any way to relay some of the concerns people are talking about back to the folk who worked on this? Obviously sounds like most of the work they did sounds fantastic, but hopeful they tweak this even more for the physical release.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Star...ciationsociety

[mcrowell415]

The remaining flaws do not outweigh the improvements in my opinion. It was an enjoyable experience and I look forward to the 4k release.

[ExcaliburZeta]

Watched it last night. All in all I really enjoyed it. Brought back some good memories of the DVD, and I loved some of the added ADR dialogue that was placed in. Some of the scenes have never looked better.

Will agree with the other criticisms, however. The opening credits were a bit distracting, as were many of the new CGI inserts — but goodness nothing was as bad as the observation lounge scene. That took me right out of the movie with the real sloppy editing there.

Not sure if they were crunching for a First Contact Day release or not (which would be ironic considering the original release date crunch is what hurt the original TMP edit) — but would love to hold out a slim hope they could fix some of this before the disc release this fall.

[DMRI2006]

Originally Posted by Paul Cordingley

Plenty to applaud though, which makes these clunkers all the more jarring.

Great list, I agree completely with you.

That's why I'd love to have a cut that's just the theatrical version with the necessary additions from the old TV version -- Spock's tear for example -- spliced in. Like a reconstruction of the 143 min ABC TV version. Scenes that improve the movie, but minus these FX changes and unneeded soundtrack alterations. Many of these simply aren't needed.

[Bolty]

They would have to swallow a lot of Pride to do so but if they can't fix the officers Lounge scene they should just go back to the previous version. I'm not an expert so I don't know if the current version of the lounge scene can be brought up to the needed quality. Other than that I don't have any problems with the movie at all I think it's magnificent in its latest form.

Really can't believe some people are going with the TV cut is the best version of the movie. LOL. It has a lot of nostalgia value and it's where we got to see most of the added material for the first time but it's a dreadful cut of the movie. The last thing the movie needs to be is nearly two and a half hours long.

[DMRI2006]

Originally Posted by Bolty

Really can't believe some people are going with the TV cut is the best version of the movie. LOL. It has a lot of nostalgia value and it's where we got to see most of the added material for the first time but it's a dreadful cut of the movie. The last thing the movie needs to be is nearly two and a half hours long.

Some of the material isn't needed, you're right. But at the same time these cosmetic alterations are not well executed here. I'd be fine with the "key" scenes Wise added back in the first time, but without these modern "enhancements" -- the mediocre compositing work, the lame opening titles, the "Lego Steps" at the end of the movie and the Jetsons sound effects plastered over the music. This cut is not an enhancement on the older DC.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by starmike

Why was the line "The new screens held" removed? It actually explains why they didn't get zapped like the Klingons.

Probably because TMP was the only time in TREK the shields were referred to as "screens". Too bad they couldn't massage the line into "shields" and get George Takei to record new dialogue.

I really hated the new alert klaxon in the 2001 DE and still hate it in the new version. They reused the original "BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP" alert SFX in other TREK films (notably II & V) so I don't see the use for the replacement.

Miss the computer voice too - especially the "INCOMING FIRE! AHEAD ZERO MARK ZERO" - now everyone springs into action like they know exactly what's going on except there's little indication of that. And the timing/reading of Spock's arrival on the Enterprise is screwed up.
Someone mentioned the Enterprise's computer should have sounded "female" to begin with, but people forget that this was Decker's Enterprise so any changes could be explained by that.

[Spud_Almighty]

Originally Posted by TheThomasTrinity

I have not seen the first 6 movies. Should I wait for this to come out before watching the rest of them? I normally like to watch the director’s cut or the unrated version over the theatrical version.

No, watch the original first and foremost. You'll gain more appreciation for the director's cut when it come out.

[BerryTheMusicMan]

I think it looks great except for the officers lounge scene CGI .