I don't consider "
THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK
" to be bad.
I actually liked it.
I do realize that it is not 1 of the popular "
STAR TREK
" Movies out of all 13 of them but I still liked it.

I'm really surprised this one isn't rated higher. I think it's one of the best Trek films. I would say it's the most emotional Trek film, with Kirk showing how far he's willing to go to save his two best friends. In addition, it's a rollercoaster ride of an adventure movie. The space dock escape is terrific, and from there we get a tense space battle, the death of David (who I was actually getting to like at this point), the resulting destruction of the Enterprise (which was a highly emotional scene in its own right), and the final fight between Kirk and Khruge while the Genesis planet collapses around them. And then there's the moving reunion with Spock at the end that makes the wringer the crew went through worth it. Really an excellent film and I seem to like it more and more every time I watch it.

The Search for Spock
for a lack of a better word, is probably the closest (or among the closest) that
Star Trek
ever really gets to becoming a "science-fiction fantasy" (a la
Star Wars
). The point depending on your tastes, can get really bizarre and disturbing. In a way, it's like a body horror movie w/ the whole thing involving McCoy being "possessed" by Spock's katra and then the reborn Spock having to relive his puberty on the Genesis planet.

This message has been deleted.

I'm guessing that people are also hard on
Search for Spock
because after all of progress that
Wrath of Khan
made (for better or worse), it essentially reverts back to the status quo. Spock dies at the end of
WOK
, only to be brought back at the end of
SFS
. We're introduced to Kirk's son only for him to be killed off by the Klingons in
SFS
. We're introduced to a new Vulcan character in Saavik in
WOK
only for her to be recast (Kirstie Alley to Robin Curtis) in
SFS
. The only really thing that sticks out is the destruction of the Enterprise and the risk that Kirk and his team will lose their careers in Starfleet (which of course, is anti-climatically resolved in
The Voyage Home
).

Remember the theory that the odd numbered Trek movies are mediocre at best, while the even numbered movies are supposedly good (at least until Nemesis dispelled that theory)? Where exactly does Search for Spock fall into this category? With The Motion Picture, many are quick to point out it's flaws such as being to slow and talky. The Final Frontier is undisputedly considered to be the very worst of the Trek movies.
At the time III was generally considered a good film. obviously not as good as II but light years ahead of TMP. It was only years later people started to diss III..maybe after V or VI when it could be conveniently unceremoniously lumped in with the Odd=bad/Even=good rule - a view which became strengthened with the TNG films. until Nemesis of course
The Search for Spock[/i/] just seems like the odd man out among the "Genesis Trilogy". It had the unspeakable task of having to be the immediate follow-up to arguably the greatest
Trek movie in Wrath of Khan. It it came just prior to more crowd pleasing, commercially accessible Voyage Home. It's as if The Search for Spock solely exist to inevitably resurrect Spock (which kind of makes you wonder why they even bothered killing him off in the first place, in the movie prior).
the original intention while filming II was that spock would die and stay dead. it was something of an after thought to place threads in there (mind meld, torpedo on the surface) that would be explored to bring him back in III..(i cant remember if those scenes were filmed after test reactions to the death proved somewhat negative or if they were done at the time- Im pretty certain the torpedo scene was done very late on and against the wishes of the director)
I consider III to be the 2nd best of the entire Trek movies- its like the Empire Strikes Back of the 'Genesis trilogy'