Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984) ***

Star Trek III:L The Search For Spock had the same duty as Return of the Jedi, Temple of Doom, and the upcoming third part of Christopher Nolan's Batman franchise- it had to follow up a great film that it would obviously be compared to. These are always no win situations because people will find flaws with it no matter what and film makers will almost try too hard to capture some of the magic from the previous installment.

Now to give Star Trek III its due, I will say that it's a good sci-fi film and serves as the bridge in what I have been told is the Genesis trilogy. The film opens right where Star Trek II left off with the crew of the Enterprise led by Captain Kirk (William Shatner) bringing their wounded ship home from the Genesis planet. What no one realizes is that Spock (Leonard Nimoy) (and I'm going to say this in lingo so that non-Trekkies like myself can understand) uploaded his files to Dr. McCoys (Deforrrest Kelly) hard drive. Yes, Spock is dancing around Bones' head. Kirk, after learning that it may be possible to bring Spock back ends up stealing the Enterprise and going to Genesis to save his friend, but there's a catch: Klingons (led by Christopher Lloyd) have already landed on the planet looking for the secrets of Genesis.

So does it hold up to the previous installment? Yes, it does stand on its own, although it tends to play like an old audio cassette with the tape being warped. One moment it drags down and feels slow, the next it's going way to fast, mainly in the last twenty minutes. You can't say much about the acting other than the core characters are there playing the roles that they were typecast in years ago. Lloyd actually isn't bad as a Klingon, even though while he was on screen I kept imagining him screaming "Run for it Marty!" in Klingon.

Leonard Nimoy directed this installment, ushering in the era of Star Trek actors getting to direct with a good eyes even though the film does have its up and downs. He doesn't waste huge amounts of time on the space shots like the original film, which I thank him profusely for. Bless you, Mr. Spock.

Star Trek III stands as a middle of the road sci-fi film that gets its glory from having the words Star Trek in its title. It's an enjoyable film. Nothing to spectacular, but it will entertain.