Slimmer, faster, but not better than the original Star Trek movie. The larger scale and contemplative tempo of the earlier one were perfectly suited to a ten-year reunion party and to the unveiling of the new suits and hardware. With those formalities out of the way, the follow-up can just get on with business. Its storyline, bringing back a villain from a 1967 episode of the TV series, is perhaps too much in the shoot-em-up mode which the 1979 movie seemed such a welcome backlash against. But it still has the other movie's rich sense of character — or of one character anyway. Admiral Kirk is celebrating an unspecified birthday, and his menopausal anxieties seem to seep into every corner of the movie. Indeed, the focus of attention is arguably too much on him to do justice to Spock's much-publicized demise (and strongly suggested Dracula-style resurrection from a flag-draped coffin). In this, the movie relies overmuch on our past feelings for Spock, and fails to do its own proper work. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Ricardo Montalban; directed by Nicholas Meyer. (1982) — Duncan Shepherd
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