What's new

Rank the Star Trek movies

S

SimonSays99

Guest
Whats your ranking on the Star Trek movies?

STII - The Wrath of Khan
STVI - The Undiscovered Country
ST - First Contact
STIV - The Voyage Home
STIII - The Search For Spock
ST - Resurrection
ST - Nemesis
ST - Generations
ST - The Motion Picture
STV - The Final Frontier

not really a fan of the NuTrek movies - only watched the first mostly because of Leonard Nimoy and Winona Ryder - but you can include them if you like
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Either, this is going to open a whole can of worms with @furie and @Howie, or they're not going to be trekkies and it'll be peaceful.

I'm rooting for the former:
2016.06.28_can-of-worms-by-jason-crislip-jpeg1.jpg


I've never seen any of the original Star Trek movies - they're "before my time". I have seen all of the new ones (from the 2009 reboot onwards), and I do really enjoy them. I think they're visually very impressive, have good soundtracks, and keep me entertained for a couple of hours.
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
I've never seen these old Trek films, and I'm pretty old. I've seen 2 of the 3 newer ones, the first new one was excellent.
 

witchfinder

Hyper Poster
Any of the original SW trilogy easily thrashes the best of the Star Trek films.

I do like the unofficial trilogy of parts II, III and IV, with The Voyage Home being the best of them. I tend to think of Star Trek as being quite serious and boring (a feeling that The Motion Picture didn't help dispel) so I like the ones with humour in them best. I watched Insurrection recently and was pleasantly surprised by the light-hearted outing by the Next Generation cast.

The Motion Picture, The Final Frontier and Generations are all dog****.

I've generally enjoyed the reboot ones, the first one being the best of the bunch.
 
S

SimonSays99

Guest
^ I give The Motion Picture that it is a watchable scifi movie - if not a good Trek movie - more in the realm of 2001 and The Day The Earth Stood Still.
 

furie

SBOPD
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Either, this is going to open a whole can of worms with @furie and @Howie, or they're not going to be trekkies and it'll be peaceful.
Howie will like all the odd numbered ones but think that The Undiscovered Country is the best though because it has fluffy Klingon dogs.

I'm not a Trekkie, as I don't really like Star Trek massively, but as a sci-fi lover, I do know a lot about it and have seen masses of it.

See, in the years between Star Wars and Empire Strike Back, the late 70's and early 80's became a hot bed of sci-fi. It was like it is at the moment for super hero programs and films.

Leading it were Star Trek and Doctor Who, with shows like Blake's 7 and Battlestar Galactica joining in.

Star Trek was on repeat though and I loved that 6:00 p.m. BBC 2 slot (three channels back then!!!) with Star Trek. It was never "good" like Star Wars and was always a bit silly and tedious, but it was still enough to slake that sci-fi thirst. In terms of story and character, Blake's 7 is actually the best of all that era's sci-fi deposits, but the woefully under budget show is barely watchable now.

Anyway, when The Motion Picture was announced, I went to see it at the cinema, expecting another Star Wars. I was amazed by the scale of the film. It was really impressive to see on the big screen, but it's so dull. Such an absolute chore of a film to watch. There was a lot of drug induced, high-brow sci-fi about at the time, and The Motion Picture showed how not to mix it with popular culture. Never as clever or engaging as 2001, as exciting as Star Wars or as heart wrenching as Silent Running. It's a dirge.

Thankfully, all was made right with the brilliant (for the time, it has aged badly), Wrath of Khan. It followed the brilliant lead of Empire by having a downbeat, sacrificial ending. It was tense, moving and at times quite horrific. If you knew the characters from the TV series, it was a superb foil to their tin foil adventures and showed that there was actually real depth to these characters and the universe.

Then Search for Spock happened. Worse than Jedi. Just a bland, meandering tale of nothing, punctuated only by the final ultimate sacrifice in terms of Star Trek (the loss of NCC 1701).

The Voyage Home is a brilliant bit of historical film now. Putting the crew in contemporary California (late 80's). Awful in so many ways, but one of the few Trek films to actually be "entertaining". Still utter bobbins.

I have very little memory of The Final Frontier. I remember it was utter dog **** and that's it. Watched it once and never wish to see it again. Turd, turd, turd.

I liked The Undiscovered Country, though part of it is for more personal reasons. I used to regularly go and see these kind of films with my Dad. He'd take me to anything Sci-fi from when I was really young. This was the last film we went to together before I left home. I think it was probably 15 years before we went to see another film together, just the two of us to see something we both wanted to watch. Anyway, it's a decent enough Trek romp, that kind of twists the story into the way that The Next Generation (popular on TV at the time) portrayed the Trek universe.

The Next Generation films I find all a bit bland. I also found the show a bit bland too and each episode was pretty much identical (except the one where Tasha died). Open on mystery. Examine mystery and behind the scenes, something is nefariously (or to shake it up on occasion, accidentally) causing havok and ruining things. All hope is lost until one character uses their own special skills (empathy, anger, engineering, logic, being able to step over the backs of chairs, etc.) to come up with a brand new form of technology that solves the problem. Every. Week.

Anyway, in terms of films.

Generations. Garbage. I went to see it straight after seeing Leon, one of the best films ever. It never stood a chance. Awful, awful, awful.

First Contact. Next Gen do The Voyage Home. No whales. Meh

Insurrection. Next Gen do happy home and garden of Eden bollocks. Bollocks, but okay to a degree.

Nemesis. The ride's better.

New films?

I love the reboot. I think it's really good. It captures the feel of the series and stuff, but it manages to be stupid action entertainment at the same time.

Into Darkness? Not Wrath of Khan. Some good action tied together with obvious plots and pointlessness. It doesn't work, but the set pieces are good fun.

Beyond. Good romp. Bad plot. Actually all three of these are great cinema popcorn experiences. Trash, but just great to watch. Poor on the small screen.

In terms of the series, I got bored. Original Trek is piss poor. Next Gen wishy-washy. DS 9 is good, but it's a Babylon 5 wannabe and fails at that. Voyager was bobbins (but also kind of interesting), Enterprise I never watched past the first three episodes because it was rubbish.

Ranking?
Wrath of Khan
Star Trek Reboot
Into Darkness
Beyond
Undiscovered Country
First Contact
Insurrection
The rest are all turds I would never bother watching again.
Return of the Jedi

Never read any books or seen the cartoon.
 

Howie

Donkey in a hat
^Dude, what's with the f***ing essay?
Nobody cares what you watched at the 6pm timeslot on BBC2 in the late 70's and early 80's.
Rank the Star Trek movies. That's all he asked. :p

Me? I'm not a Trekkie. Couldn't say for certain that I'd even seen them all, let alone rank them. They're ok, I guess.
The J.J Abrams reboot was really good, the sequels less so.
Here endeth my opinion of Star Trek movies.
 

furie

SBOPD
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
It's justifying opinions by giving context. Something non-ewok fanciers do because they have more then two braincells

Sent from my E6683 using Tapatalk
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Haha, it was only a matter of time till we jumped to the Trekkie side of things!

In general, agree with a good deal of furie's assessment. While I subscribe to both the Star Wars and Star Trek ways of life... I identify more as a Trekkie, enjoying the socialist plots of how out of WW3's embers humanity built the perfect civilization and created new focus for space exploration :p . Star Wars is a space-age Homer's Odyssey, while Star Trek is a space-age Plato's The Republic.

With that, on to the movie rankings:
1. Wrath of Khan (Star Trek II) - If you are to only watch one Star Trek thing at all, just watch this. The plot is fantastic, and plays out moreso as a 18th century battle-at-sea naval drama. It's also the Kobayashi Maru reference (a no-win scenario); perfect reference to drop on your fellow sci-fi nerd friends. This is the Empire Strikes Back of Star Trek.
2. Star Trek (Star Trek 11) - I really enjoyed the new reboot and general "JJ Abrams"ification of Star Trek. This movie is what gave me faith in JJ's leadership with new Star Wars.
3. First Contact (Star Trek 8) - Great suspense, action film, that gave me nightmares for weeks when I first watched this as a kid. By far the best TNG movie, though Generations is the more iconic of this franchise.
4. The Voyage Home (Star Trek IV) - this is the one that has whales in it. It's quirky, it's funny, and it's an interesting storyline.
*Also worth noting, the previous three movies feature time travel - no, the Star Trek reboot was not the first instance. We are probably due for another time travel Star Trek, as Chris Hemsworth has been confirmed as reprising his role of Captain Kirk's dad in the next film.*
5. The Undiscovered Country (Star Trek VI)
- If this isn't a Cold War reparations homage, I don't know what is. Good murder mystery whodunit. The bad guy in this one is my personal favorite of all Star Trek villains, especially for his love of Shakespeare spoken in "original Klingon".
6. Generations (Star Trek 7) - While technically a cross-over, it is really 80% TNG, 20% Original Series. Novel plot, and Malcolm McDowell plays the bad guy in this one, whom I enjoy as an actor. I will say though; Kirk deserves a better death.
7. Star Trek into Darkness (Star Trek 12) - I love this movie on the sheer basis of using Benedict Cumberbatch as the bad guy, but also understand the plot doesn't keep pace with the action sequences. Still, solid movie.
8. Search for Spock (Star Trek III) - This one has a weird premise, but is still some good plot writing that resolves some story arc from Wrath of Khan (and partly sets up for Voyage Home). Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown from Back to the Future) also plays the bad guy, so there's that?
9. Beyond (Star Trek 13) - Great action, lesser plot, good bad guy. Also has a hot-elf sidekick. The least of the reboots, but good merit.
*From here, we enter what I deem the unwatchable realm - lots of stuff bogged down with bad acting, loopy plot, or films that simply haven't aged well*
10. The Original Motion Picture (Star Trek I)
- Man is this plot slow. It's pretty cool; looming dangerous alien vessel destroying all in it's path - but the action sequences (if that's what you even call them) are few and far between. Some of this movie is carry-over of Star Trek Phase 2, the cancelled tv series that was conceived before TNG - I don't feel it translates well.
11. Nemesis (Star Trek 9) - It this movie was made 10 years earlier it would be perfectly fine. But it wasn't, and everyone looks really old - except for a young Tom Hardy who plays our villain. Great plot development, but everyone just looks so tired; it was time to put TNG to bed after this movie.
12. Insurrection (Star Trek 8) - This would have made a better TV episode than full-length movie. So many Star Trek films focus on BIG events - main character deaths, dooms day devices, destruction of humanity - while this plot is one side mission of the TNG crew.
13. Final Frontier (Star Trek V) - Directed by William Shatner with low-quality special effects (circa 1989), campy dialogue, and the only weird mention of Spock having a brother; this is the worst of the Star Trek franchise.

What I enjoy most of all about Star Trek is the scope of story - far greater than Star Wars' soon-to-be 9 movies (and 3 spin-offs). These movies only encompass two Star Trek crews; while Deep Space 9, Voyager, and Enterprise add in even more story and context. Truth be told... Deep Space 9 is my favorite of all the Star Trek series. *ducks bottles being thrown*
 
S

SimonSays99

Guest
^also love DS9

my fav series and eps

DS9 - In The Pale Moonlight, Our Man Bashir, Way Of The Warrior and Past Tense (this is so post-Trump USA its scary)
TNG - The Inner Light, Best Of Both Worlds, First Contect (the ep!), All Good Things
TOS - City On The Edge Of Forever, Trouble With Tribbles, Errand Of Mercy (Colicos best Klingon ever!), Mirror, Mirror

Paramount somehow lost me with Voayger and Enterprise - catched some re-runs of the latter lately and was quite and liked In A Mirror Darkly. On VOY loved Future's End (Starling is great mixed Gates/Jobs analogy) and Future's End.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Oh man, favorite TV episodes for Star Trek? Now we're really dialing into peak Trekkiness. :p
 

Howie

Donkey in a hat
Sorry, you've lost me, waaaay too Trekky.
But if someone were to start a 'Favourite Episodes of Buffy' thread, I'd be all over that like a rash ;)
 

TommyAlex

Mega Poster
Of the ones I've seen:

1. Undiscovered Country
2. Voyage Home
3. Beyond
4. Into Darkness
5. 2009
6. Generations
7. Wrath of Khan
8. Search for Spock
9. Nemesis
10. Final Frontier


I claim to be a movie fan, but it's my opinions like this that make me question my own credibility.
 
Top