The crisis that broke out on the neutral-zone sand planet of Nimbus III seemed to be just another act of local rebellion wanting only to attract the attention of the Federation – but not this time.

Now the rebels have a leader, a native of the planet Vulcan named Sybok, who even by Vulcan standards has outstanding parapsychological abilities – all he needs is a brief chat for a human or other alien to feel an undivided trust in him.

Saibok declares himself the new messiah and plans to go in search of – who do you think? – God! And at just the right time the Enterprise and its crew will be forced to carry out this mission, because even Spock, one of the few who have not succumbed to compulsion, can not raise a hand against his… sibling.

Their way is to the center of the galaxy, beyond the Great Barrier, to the mysterious planet of Sha Ka Ree, where, according to ancient books, the Great Creator himself awaits them in all his glory. But will they find what they believe, what they wish to find, or will the myth forever remain a myth? All the answers are in Sha Ka Ri.

The most amazing voyage of the Enterprise begins…

4k movies reviews
I liked the beginning. A stylish, beautiful prologue, a touching outdoor recreation scene of a trio of friends, then a challenge – terrorists have captured three important dignitaries from all three important states in the galaxy…

And then, oh gods, what a load of nonsense.

The basis of the plot is an extremely primitive fusion of the original Apollo series and the Lucifer cartoon series, with the addition of a cartoon series about some Mayan or Aztec god, I do not remember. Hello, guys, we’ve already flown to the center of the galaxy! We’ve already had conversations with the gods and the devil! How could Shatner forget that, since he was involved in the making of both series, albeit as an actor?

The behavior of the crew of the ‘Enterprise. That’s out of the question. Don’t they have shrinks there in the bright future? Are the crews not trained to counteract the brainwashing? A crazy preacher says: ‘I see your pain, open it to me’ – and Chekov, Sulu, Uhura, all the ship’s nameless workers are like docile sheep, butting in on their oaths, their personal loyalty to Kirk, their own dignity? By and large, only Kirk (does his halo not sting, director?) behaves impeccably. I don’t believe it.

The apotheosis of this: Spock almost betrays Kirk (Nimoy writes in his autobiography that he almost beat that ‘almost’ out of Shatner with his fists; in the original script, Spock actually betrays Kirk). How?! Spock is Kirk? More like hell freezes over, as the Americans say. It’s more likely Spock would shoot himself. And there it was possible to resolve the issue without killing the antagonist (the fact that Spock didn’t dare to kill – okay, Vulcan values of non-violence and family ties, personal attachment, well, stretch that). But to give up like that? And Kirk then so easily forgives this under-surrender. Yes, it would be like a knife in his throat with his character and even more so in the light of what he recently did for Spock and what he sacrificed.

As for McCoy and Spock’s psychoanalysis, um… well, okay, McCoy does have a psychological problem, but many people live with the same or a similar one (some, for example, have to surrender their elderly parents to the hospital… some, yes, at any rate, consider euthanasia). And for Spock to twist ‘I’m an underdog, my dad doesn’t love me,’ after his dad has quite recently made it quite clear to him that he does and is proud of it, is just silly.

From the last third of the movie, an extremely boring chunk begins that I could barely resist skipping through. Ten minutes could easily have been cut there. Nothing happens there! They’re walking slowly toward their goal… What is this, Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’?

The climax. Oy-wey. This is what we shot over an hour and a half of film for?

Here’s the final act of the antagonist – that’s cool. Here he suddenly showed himself to be a man (or rather, a Vulcan) of honor and great personal courage. Which doesn’t really tie in with his behavior in the beginning, by the way.

What else is good… The Klingons aren’t bad, and the main one, who’s been chasing Kirk (everyone gives a shit about Kirk, in the third film someone wants to personally whack him) – he’d be a gorgeous-looking man, if it weren’t for the Klingon forehead. And it’s about time the Klingons had a little peace of mind…

There are some funny moments. True, the one with the naked Uhura is kind of, uh… weird. Disrespectful to Uhura.

Anyway, I understand that Nimoy couldn’t help but cede the director’s chair to his best friend. In his autobiography, he brushed Shatner off as best he could, repeating that Shatner was not to blame for the film’s failure, but it’s still clear – and Shatner included.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (61.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
German: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles
English SDH, Danish, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish.