IR TV Review: STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE - DIRECTOR’S EDITION (4K Remaster) [Paramount+]
When director Robert Wise remastered and redid "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" for his Director's Edition 20 years ago, the CGI ability to enhance was just coming into play. Now in 2022, the texture is much further on. But with most older films, the key is seeing what came before, enhancing it but not messing with it too much. This is a tricky thing. That said, most people didn't have exceptional sound systems or AirPods that can recreate Atmos quite well even to the point it has gotten to in the last 5 years. From the overture at the beginning, one can hear the difference. This remaster premiering on Paramount+ before being available on physical discs in September sounds beautiful almost to the point where some of the score might sound like a new recording but it is not. Just from a sound perspective the dialogue is much more separated. Certain sound effects and even Chekov's voice at certain points announcing elements in battle throughout the ship are nicely enhanced. As a result though certain dialogue can sound almost ADRed.
As a viewer who has seen all versions before this more than a few times, it is subtle but there but the clarity is beautiful because the sound can go from bombastic to a whisper which is the kind of range that you want from a film like this where it did go from one extreme to another. The other visual enhancements definitely resonate in certain detail just in clarity (because if 4K) but with others it is simply better enhancement. The inside of V'Ger is mostly still practical but the enhancements of lights and edges are great. The side screens at Spacedock are more vivid. Even Spock's entry into V'Ger's mind (especially when he is approaching the machine planet) is even more intrinsic. Wise's Director's Cut back in 2000 added some editing notes so most of that work was already done and finalized so it is not adjusted in that way at all here. What is the best enhancement is the aspects of the Enterprise in low light when the nacelles are barely lit up when they come out of the wormhole. That keys in more into what we know now of Discovery and even the Kelvin Universe. But this is a late 1970s film but the care is taken making these new enhancements (there is almost a Borg feeling now when the V'Ger craft approaches Earth with its green electricity) that are both familiar and yet still true. A-
By Tim Wassberg
