Star Trek III - The Search for Spock

Star Trek III - The Search for Spock (1984)

  • 77% of critics liked it
    (39 reviews)

  • 61% of users liked it
    (60,486 ratings)

When last we left the crew of the star ship Enterprise, they were heading home following a skirmish with the despotic Khan. The unpleasant incident had cost the life of Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy)--or so it seemed. Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) is informed by Spock's father Sarek (Mark Lenard) that… More

PG, 1 hr. 45 min.
Directed By
Leonard Nimoy
Genres
Action & Adventure, Science Fiction & Fantasy
In Theaters
Jun 1, 1984 Wide
On DVD
Apr 18, 2000
Paramount Pictures

Critic Reviews

  • Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine

    These are classic directorial occasions, and Nimoy rises to them with fervor, in effect beaming his film up onto a higher pictorial plane than either of its predecessors.

  • Variety Staff, Variety

    An emotionally satisfying science fiction adventure.

  • Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

    This 1984 film's few and unimpressive special effects evidently qualify it as science fiction, but the genre it really belongs to is the male weepie: there hasn't been a gooier buddy romance on the screen since Joe Buck took Ratso Rizzo to Miami.

  • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

    This is a good but not great Star Trek movie, a sort of compromise between the first two.

  • Janet Maslin, New York Times

    The humanity of the Star Trek series, unexpected as it is in a sci-fi setting, remains the series' best feature.

Read all 17 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Michael E


    This is a major improvement over the second film for me. Its pacing is much better, and the plot is much more detailed to me, but I do find it kind of cheap to kill Spock off just to bring him back in the next film, but overall this is a great entry in the film series, and to me this… More

  • Mike S


    Far from exciting story-wise, but worth the watch. I can understand though why so many regard this as one of the weaker Star Trek films, because the writing in this one left a lot to desire. It also has a very dated feel to it, which (however much I tried not to be bothered by it) put… More

  • AJ V


    After seeing how The Wrath of Kahn ended, you need to see this sequel, which is obviously the third movie, but most people would agree that the first one didn't count. Anyway, it's another fantastic Star Trek movie, and if you're a Trek fan, you should see it.

  • Chris W


    While it is certainly not the masterpiece that The Wrath of Khan is, this films is still pretty damn good. It's quite a strange movie, but it does feature some nice ideas. Plus, the fates of both David and the Enterprise show that everyone involved wasn't afraid to take some… More

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

Cast

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