Star Trek (2009) - Various Artists

Advantages: Great music by James Horner
Disadvantages: Some think a little too repeating of Star Trek II

...After Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ended on a distinctly somber note with the death of Spock, some doubts were raised as to the future of Star Trek. With Spock gone what point was there to go on. But sure enough two years later a third entry did appear, entitled Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and directed by Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy. Continuing right where the last movie ended, Kirk and crew are on their way back to Earth while Kirk's son and Lt. Saavik (both introduced in Trek II) go investigating the Genesis planet just created. After Dr. McCoy starts behaving strangely, Kirk soon finds out that Spock had transported his Katra (soul) into McCoy before he went off to face death. Now Kirk has to get McCoy to Genesis in order to get Spock's body and take them to Vulcan. The problem is that Genesis has been declared off limits... Read review

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Advantages: Horner at his most inspired
Disadvantages: The album is too short

...All great composers have their beginnings and their first successes. For James Horner it was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in 1982. Horner poured all his inspiration into the music and created a fun, adventurous score that was a perfect fit for the film. Whereas Goldsmith's theme from the first film was a brassy fanfare, Horner opted for a more strings-on approach, making the main theme highly romantic and adventurously epic. Horner's main theme indeed is right at the top along with Goldsmith's more famous theme and can easily compete with it in quality, if not in equal memorability. The "Main Title" before proceeds into the wonderfully nautical and romantic string theme, that paints with wide strokes on an epic canvas. Khan's theme is a short motif played on brass or woodwinds. The motif itself is most familiar as Bavmodra's Theme... Read review

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Advantages: A Goldsmith classic, absolutely brilliant
Disadvantages: Main theme maybe too familiar

...When Star Wars exploded into the Hollywood scene in 1977, it sparked off a great interest in sci-fi and fantasy films. Many attempted to make another "Star Wars" success by making large scale sci-fi movies and TV shows like Battlestar Galactica, Moonraker and Star Trek. When it was decided to make a feature length film out of the cult-series of the late-1960's, Star Trek - The Motion Picture of 1979 was hoped to spark off the same kind of interest and fan-response of Star Wars. After all Star Trek had been growing in popularity through syndicated re-runs and the audience was certainly there. The budget given to the film was enormous, the special effects were first class at the time, the film was helmed by the legendary director Robert Wise, and the music was provided by one of the leading composers in Hollywood, Jerry Goldsmith who had... Read review

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