Ranking every Star Trek film in franchise history according to metrics
By Chad Porto
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Final Score: 65.7
Fans flocked to see The Search for Spock in part because Leonard Nimoy was returning to the role. Yippie. The only problem is they mostly had to wait through the entire film to finally get Nimoy’s Spock back as they fully expected him to be. Not exactly the film most thought they were getting.
That doesn’t mean it’s bad, by any means. It’s a disappointment, sure, just look at what came before it. It just doesn’t make it bad. The film’s story is contrite, Bones McCoy has a new cologne called Essence of Spock, and it has a nasty side effect of allowing Vulcan souls to glom onto you just in case a contrite and fairly random plot point evolves just right; allowing you to return to your newly rejuvenated body.
Either Spock is lucky as a duck, or that dude is a precog. There’s no real reason to believe that Spock knew he’d get a chance at his body again. Hoped, sure. Yet, he was willing to put poor Bones through hell just for the chance that the right series of events transpired the way they did. That jerk.
The film’s swiss cheese plot isn’t the only issue, as Search for Spock also has a cardinal sin of killing off Kirk’s son David in the most underwhelming way possible and then barely letting it play into the rest of the story. You’d think Kirk would be devastated by the end of the film, but nope, he’s there smiling with a resurrected Spock as if he’s not consumed with grief. So weird.
But there are some cool bits, like Kirk and company watching the Enterprise explode and break up in the atmosphere of Genesis. That was probably the saddest moment of the film. This, again, should tell you something about how poorly this film’s plot was written.
Oh, but Christopher Lloyd’s in it, so another point for it, I guess.