Here's a good review of "The Search For Spock," clipped from The Washington Post, dated June 2nd, 1984. It does manage to give away a major surprise, that of the Enterprise being destroyed, as well as basically tell you that Spock is found alive and well, only not in so many words. Granted, that was pretty much a given, but the ship's destruction was supposed to be a shocking moment that was best left unspoiled by reviewers. Oh, wait, you didn't already know about that? Oops, sorry!
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And below is the Time magazine review of the film, clipped about the same time. I'm throwing in the "Ghostbusters" review as a freebie.
Bonus: the last of the four TOS coasters in the Newfield set... this time, featuring that flying butterdish named "Galileo II."
Bonus: The next of the "Trek Talk" features from "The Monster Times," dated January 1976, issue #45. (View all these I have posted by using the "Trek Talk" tag on the sidebar.) It makes note of the passing of James Blish, which was a sad bit of news to those of us that read and re-read all of his adaptations. These time capsules of Trek history are neat to read now, aren't they?
Speaking of revealing surprises... I'm still angry (well, a little upset) at that Ghostbusters review for spoiling the nature of the final bad guy. It wouldn't have been that hard to write the sentence in the review without mentioning specifically what form the "final evil" would take. One joke, and a pretty major one from the film's perspective, ruined. Yes, yes, critics: you get to see the films before we do. The filmmakers spend years and millions of dollars to bring us these goose-bump raising (or laugh-inducing) moments, but heck, you can achieve the same effect by just typing a few extra words into your review. Why not use the power?
ReplyDeleteI'm overreacting a little, but it is true that I have remembered that line from that review for the past 16 years, and as soon as I saw it on your blog today I scanned the article till I found the sentence that I knew would be there. (How funny to see the review... I hadn't remembered that it ran the same week as the review for The Search for Spock, and it never occurred to me that I would ever see it again. :-) )
Assuming you're going in order, your next Time review will be for The Voyage Home, where the guy (presumably Time's other reviewer, Richard Corliss, since Richard Schickel seems to like Trek) compares Trekkies to Moonies. Trekkies are weird! Might as well put that into a review too.
Doug,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the neat comment, funny it should have stuck in you memory for so long!
It's time to let go of the anger now... just let it go, brother.. :)
But I know what you mean, for sure! That's what bugs me about so many reviews. Some of them seem to take a mean glee in spilling the surprises.