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

[Bolty]

And it is Leaps and Bounds ahead of any other version of this movie the theatrical, special longer version, original director's edition.
But I guess with all the pristine elements out there now every fan can go ahead and make their own dedicated cut that conforms 100% to their sensibilities. You know a hundred thousand fans a hundred thousand separate cuts.

[Deciazulado]

IDICuts

[Jeyl]

Originally Posted by Bolty

And it is Leaps and Bounds ahead of any other version of this movie the theatrical, special longer version, original director's edition.
But I guess with all the pristine elements out there now every fan can go ahead and make their own dedicated cut that conforms 100% to their sensibilities. You know a hundred thousand fans a hundred thousand separate cuts.

I was going to do that, but this new Director's Edition went ahead and did my idea for me. GOD! I still can't get over how awesome of a moment that was.

[TheBlayman]

Originally Posted by Movierottweiler

Would I be right in assuming that there are no new editorial changes to the Klingon sequence (beyond what was already altered in 2001)? In other words, the sequences from the Apogee showreel have not been included?

Not happy about that sequence not being redone/upgraded. The outlines of the cruisers look horrible.

[The Admiral]

I think I can echo pretty much what has been said so far. The opening credits look very bad and quite amateurish indeed. Very odd. Why they couldn't keep the original ones from 2001 is beyond me. But, oh well, despite the slightly cheap video, home-made look of the opening credits, it's really not anything to write home about.

The lounge scene is not great either, I agree with what was said. There is something odd about the lighting of the background and in the last few seconds something odd happens to McCoy's face, which gets kinda blurry - other than that, it's nothing major.

The San Francisco bridge insert did not particularly bother me, I never thought it looked more out-of-place than the 2001 insert.
The overall aspect of the movie looked a little bit too smooth for my taste, as in, not very grainy and somehow it looked like the framerate was higher than 24fps but - that's likely the app on my TV (that app is not great, to say the least) and the fairly high compression on the stream.

However, the overall sharpness, clarity and colour saturation of the picture are quite spectacular and very enjoyable, even for someone who has already seen the movie at least 20 or 30 times. Yes, there are a few dings and issues now and then but then again the original release was full of them as well. The sound was very clear and pleasant but I cannot output Atmos through the TV app so can't comment on that.

So, bottom line for me: not perfect, could have been better, but good enough and a clear upgrade from the DVD and the 4K theatrical (the space dock!!), apart from the lounge scene. Can't wait to get the 4K disc.

[Mose Harper]

Originally Posted by 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.

I'd sign a petition to have the lounge scene reverted back to the original TC version for the September disc release.

I won't be seeing this new DC till then, and hell, I'd prefer anything that is pulling people out of the experience because of shoddy cg to be left out entirely.

I'm tired of the push and pull with these kinds of projects. Ill conceived or executed work that pulls you out of the film, jockeying with truly well done work that pulls you back in. The repetitive wash, rinse, repeat is more frustrating that satisfying, which is not the taste these projects should leave.

Sounds like most of it is a rousing success. Instead of letting those scenes drag the experience down, ruthlessly cut out the chaff (that they unfortunately spent time and money on) and it will be more of a success all around.

[Bolty]

It's a stunning release. And like absolutely everything that has anything to do with Star Trek the motion picture -- it's not perfect. I'm going to enjoy the hell out of it when it comes to disc and continue to enjoy it on streaming in the meantime. The people who did this were absolute fans of Star Trek of the movie itself and of Robert Wise. For whatever reason they didn't produce a perfect product. Whoever was in charge of transferring the theatrical version into 4K resolution made 2 or 3 changes and they were unnecessary and poorly executed. The people involved with this directors Edition made thousands of changes and not surprisingly they also made a couple of errors.

[Deciazulado]

Originally Posted by Mose Harper

I'd sign a petition to have the lounge scene reverted back to the original TC version for the September disc release.

I won't be seeing this new DC till then, and hell, I'd prefer anything that is pulling people out of the experience because of shoddy cg to be left out entirely.

I played with the image a little moving the ship into my preferred scale.

[Show spoiler]

[david_blu]

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

I played with the image a little moving the ship into my preferred scale.

[Show spoiler]

The amount of effort for this scene is truly amazing, it's a room with a window, it shouldnt be that difficult or massively over thought. No one cares about the background when we are chuckling how long it takes for "Spock Will You Please sit down".

I mean honestly, I can't see the new cut yet and have no idea how to see it in the UK but of all the things I could care about in ST TMP this would literally be bottom.

Can anyone share some stills of the new titles even if via a phone, I need to see this travesty people are talking about.
It sounds like from the descriptions they have made the titles resemble the poster font is that right?

I am looking forward to this but I don't mind the Theatrical so this is a bonus to me anyway.

[KMFDMvsEnya]

Some are literally making a mountain out of a mole hill, there are far more positives than negatives and the Theatrical Cut is available and mostly correct-ish whereas TDE is an alternative version to watch if one chooses.

Agreed that some of the new VFX shots for this version are not as seamless as we would prefer but for this edition they managed to extract as much quality from the original VFX elements whenever possible and that is amazing in of itself, in addition to the new elements which more often than not work well.

Maybe they might tweak a few things before the physical release to refine and smooth out some of the contested new elements but it all depends on whether there is any funds left to do so.

This might be it so enjoy or ignore.

[Roonan]

Originally Posted by KMFDMvsEnya

This might be it so enjoy or ignore.

It might be it, or it might not, so what's there to lose by putting a spotlight on the inexplicably mediocre shots?

[Bolty]

They were lucky enough to find the original negatives for all the composite shots for the Enterprise in space Dock and leaving space dock. They also found other shots that they were able to re-composite as well. So now those shots look better than they ever ever have going all the way back to the premier in 1979 and all over the internet I'm seeing people complain about how they can still see matte lines around the Klingon ships. Instead of being thrilled about other upgraded shots that look beyond pristine they want to complain about the shots that don't look AS good. As if all the special effects elements in a movie of that scale are going to be 100% equal. they weren't able to re-composite certain shots then the best they could do was clean up the negative. Do matte lines "take you out" of the movie experience when you're watching a shot of mythical aliens attack a sentient 80 Mi long spaceship surrounded by a cloud 200 million miles long?

[batman2000]

[QUOTE=Deciazulado;20002027]I played with the image a little moving the ship into my preferred scale.




1) is this the only bad shot 2) what was it intended to look like?

[BillieCassin]

I think the reason the early matte shots are getting the attention is because, after all this hype and hullaballo, we start with the overture...then the "what was that?" credits, and finally get to the the opening shots of the movie after ten long minutes and...it don't look like there was any immediate improvement.

It wasn't just the Klingon ships, either, as we move into the star base, etc. - I saw jumping matte lines on one of the little moving pods in the center of the screen - like someone drew around it with a marker and messed up. I can't help but admit I was like, "Um, they did all this painstaking work and they didn't fix that?"

I can't really comment on the whole thing overall yet - I sat down with my hubby to watch it, and we only made it about a half-hour in. We both love Trek, and it was my fault for hyping it up - but we really came to the conclusion that new special effects weren't changing that it is still the same slow-as-hell movie it always has been, LOL. Especially since we just watched it six months ago with the 4K theatrical. We fully intend to complete it, but it's going to be in bits.

I'll buy the 4K UHD as well, just so they keep releasing this stuff...but I just have to admit, I do think it is my least favorite classic Trek movie to rewatch, and this new version hasn't changed that.

[batman2000]

Originally Posted by BillieCassin

I think the reason the early matte shots are getting the attention is because, after all this hype and hullaballo, we start with the overture...then the "what was that?" credits, and finally get to the the opening shots of the movie after ten long minutes and...it don't look like there was any immediate improvement.

It wasn't just the Klingon ships, either, as we move into the star base, etc. - I saw jumping matte lines on one of the little moving pods in the center of the screen - like someone drew around it with a marker and messed up. I can't help but admit I was like, "Um, they did all this painstaking work and they didn't fix that?"

I can't really comment on the whole thing overall yet - I sat down with my hubby to watch it, and we only made it about a half-hour in. We both love Trek, and it was my fault for hyping it up - but we really came to the conclusion that new special effects weren't changing that it is still the same slow-as-hell movie it always has been, LOL. Especially since we just watched it six months ago with the 4K theatrical. We fully intend to complete it, but it's going to be in bits.

I'll buy the 4K UHD as well, just so they keep releasing this stuff...but I just have to admit, I do think it is my least favorite classic Trek movie to rewatch, and this new version hasn't changed that.

So your basically saying that a few of this new editions shots could benefit from the dreaded word on here a fanedit.

[KMFDMvsEnya]

Originally Posted by Roonan

It might be it, or it might not, so what's there to lose by putting a spotlight on the inexplicably mediocre shots?

I am in favor of discussing and dissecting issues discovered in this remastered version, especially with a slim chance the commentary might lead to some improvements if possible just find it odd that some are outright declining to watch this release just because of a few shortcomings.

[SilverFox84]

I sat down to watch it, I might go into more details later when I have more time. Frankly, I was a little disappointed, the 'errors' are really glaring and when watching it on a large OLED screen it does kind of smack you in the face. During the weekend I'll post the screenshots of all the scenes I have an issue with.

Honestly, the first half of the movie looks unfinished, there is no way if I was in charge I would have been happy to release that. But it does improve considerably when the enterprise reaches V'ger, all the effects look a lot better, and obviously, this is where all the focus and time went. Although the "explosion" right at the end was a bit overcooked and should have dialed it back a fair bit to how it was in the Tc

[infiniteCR]

Originally Posted by stvn1974

Does V'GER still shoot first in this new edition?

Great question

[gpn]

I watched the first half last night (will watch the rest tonight) and it feels like a mixed bag to me. The sparkly opening credits were bad, that lounge scene was god-awful, some of the hard outlines on composited effects didn't look good to me, and I thought there was overall too much DNR used. I thought the overall color balance was better than the theatrical UHD, the sound seems much better too. I thought the dock scenes looked better for the most part without the weird smearing, but the Enterprise seemed overly brightened to me.

I'm hoping that since I'm watching in 1080p and it's streaming that that's the source of some of the issues and that it will look better on the UHD (and hopefully they'll address some of the egregious issues).

[AllOuttaBubbleGum]

Originally Posted by Bolty

The movies main problem has always been the pacing. And that was always going to be the problem once the movie was scored. Because the number one unanimous positive of the movie always was the musical score altering the movie after it's been released would cause the score to be by necessity trimmed shortened altered. And they didn't want to do that back in 2001 and they certainly didn't want to do that in 2022 now that mr. Wise has passed away.
The movie could be shortened by about a dozen minutes easily. Without even hardly touching the dialog. At about 2 hours long the movie would go by in such a way as to it it wouldn't seem like such a chore to watch people watching a screen. The audience is looking at a screen watching people watching a screen for half the movie. On the series whenever they were looking at the screen it was generally they were communicating with an alien or an adversary or they were in a battle. Here they're just looking at incredible special effects. But the audience also sees the special effects so why are we looking at them looking at special effects when we're looking at special effects?
And then because they used the script meant for the pilot of the TV series one of the main focuses of the movie is two characters who are going to be gone by the end of the movie whereas in the TV script the characters were going to survive and become regulars. We learn nothing about Scott Sulu Uhura Chekhov or even why McCoy needed to be drafted. Why was he not in Starfleet anymore. You shouldn't have to read the novel to find out what one of the main three characters has been up to for the last several years.

But despite all that I still enjoy the movie it looks great it sounds great and it got the ball rolling for the remainder of the movies.

I think the point was to appeal to a sense--a dying one in this day and age--of awe and wonder in the audience as they drink it all in, enhanced by the Bridge Crew doing same.

As complemented by Goldsmith's score, I've never failed to savor these sequences, which I am frankly amazed survived the studio process (I guess I can be thankful it was rushed since I appreciate the longest version of the flybys in the theatrical version.)

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