All in all, a modestly satisfying movie. But at times ST VI treads very close to the line of mediocrity. The issue is that it tries to do two things at once: be a serious drama while serving as a send-off of the original crew. That doesn't have to be a difficult task and generally it does work, but barely for me.
The problem is that it takes the campy fun too far. Mixed within serious drama it looked too contrived and sometimes only to be cute; the struggling with Klingon translations scene being the most wince-inducing. It goes back to ST IV, an entertaining movie that became a borderline screwball comedy almost because it knew it couldn't avoid self parody. The movies seemed to run out of compelling reasons to exist other than to just bring back the old crew. And that's a pretty flimsy excuse for a series that was so compelling.
But Trek fans would have none of this nay saying. We were going to get ST films even if we could not suspend disbelief that retiree-age star fleet officers could be on the front line battling Klingons.
The problem is that it takes the campy fun too far. Mixed within serious drama it looked too contrived and sometimes only to be cute; the struggling with Klingon translations scene being the most wince-inducing. It goes back to ST IV, an entertaining movie that became a borderline screwball comedy almost because it knew it couldn't avoid self parody. The movies seemed to run out of compelling reasons to exist other than to just bring back the old crew. And that's a pretty flimsy excuse for a series that was so compelling.
But Trek fans would have none of this nay saying. We were going to get ST films even if we could not suspend disbelief that retiree-age star fleet officers could be on the front line battling Klingons.