Now that we have 12 Star Trek Movies, it's time to rate them from best to worst.
The Great
1) Wrath of Khan - Hands down, still the best Trek film, the one all the others tried to copy and failed. Done on a shoestring budget with recycled sets and scenes and models, it still stands heads above all the others. Why? Characterizations! Ricardo Montalban and his plastic chest chewed the scenery for all it was worth. The excellent Spock Death Scene. Some truly great battle sequences. All the elements the later movies tried to copy and failed to match with bigger budgets.
2) The Voyage Home Give them credit for doing a very different kind of movie here, and better than that, reminding us all that Star Trek can be a hell of a lot of fun. Without a lot of space battle stuff to do, they let the characters be the characters, and had fun with the minor ones. (Scotty and Bones in the Plastic Factory was awesome.)
3) The Undiscovered Country I think what keeps this film off the top of the list is the unneeded racism of Kirk. Let them die! And the whole Soviets/Klingons are our friends now thing doesnt seem to ring as true now. But there are some great adventure scenes. There are some fun moments.
The Good
4) The Search for Spock This film has some good parts, and Christopher Lloyd chewing the scenery left uneaten by Ricardo... This film is obviously an excuse for getting Spock back, and that works just fine.
5) First Contact Probably the only one of the TNG films I would consider even adequate. My biggest complaint, besides only really utilizing 2 out of 7 characters (A problem ALL the TNG Films had) was that the character of Picard was completely bastardized.
6) Star Trek Probably rating this higher than it deserves because it resurrected the franchise from the awfulness that was Nemesis. My biggest problem was the people who wrote it had no idea how real military organizations work.
The Mediocre
7) Insurrection- Would have been an awesome two-parter episode. But it was kind of inadequate as a major motion picture. F. Murray Abraham is totally wasted and makes you want to redeem him by breaking out your Amadeus DVD.
8) The Motion Picture A visual treat, with a slow, tedious plot that you simply dont care about. Even the actors looked bored. It opens with a great scene of Klingon ships attacking a space entity, and then .uh er . Yeah, were getting there. Eventually.
9) Into Darkness Besides failing miserably to copy Wrath of Khan without understanding what that movie was about, its just more of what movies have become in the age of Im desperately trying to get your attention! Loud, over the top and ultimately, forgettable.
The Truly Awful
10) The Final Frontier They let Shatner Direct. I could end the criticism right there, but Im just getting started. The silliness of finding God in the middle of the universe. Getting Lawrence Luckenbill to play the Passionate Vulcan and almost ruining Vulcans before Star Trek Enterprise could get around to do it.
11) Generations Lets take the most famous hero in the Science Fiction Genre and kill him. With Scaffolding. Yes, the way to truly Pass the Torch to the Next Generation Crew was to kill Captain Kirk with as little dignity as humanly possible.
12) Nemesis Not enough words in the English language to describe the awfulness of this turd. Data flying through space, a dune buggy chase, Crashing the Enterpirse into the other ship . Just simply awful in every respect.
The Great
1) Wrath of Khan - Hands down, still the best Trek film, the one all the others tried to copy and failed. Done on a shoestring budget with recycled sets and scenes and models, it still stands heads above all the others. Why? Characterizations! Ricardo Montalban and his plastic chest chewed the scenery for all it was worth. The excellent Spock Death Scene. Some truly great battle sequences. All the elements the later movies tried to copy and failed to match with bigger budgets.
2) The Voyage Home Give them credit for doing a very different kind of movie here, and better than that, reminding us all that Star Trek can be a hell of a lot of fun. Without a lot of space battle stuff to do, they let the characters be the characters, and had fun with the minor ones. (Scotty and Bones in the Plastic Factory was awesome.)
3) The Undiscovered Country I think what keeps this film off the top of the list is the unneeded racism of Kirk. Let them die! And the whole Soviets/Klingons are our friends now thing doesnt seem to ring as true now. But there are some great adventure scenes. There are some fun moments.
The Good
4) The Search for Spock This film has some good parts, and Christopher Lloyd chewing the scenery left uneaten by Ricardo... This film is obviously an excuse for getting Spock back, and that works just fine.
5) First Contact Probably the only one of the TNG films I would consider even adequate. My biggest complaint, besides only really utilizing 2 out of 7 characters (A problem ALL the TNG Films had) was that the character of Picard was completely bastardized.
6) Star Trek Probably rating this higher than it deserves because it resurrected the franchise from the awfulness that was Nemesis. My biggest problem was the people who wrote it had no idea how real military organizations work.
The Mediocre
7) Insurrection- Would have been an awesome two-parter episode. But it was kind of inadequate as a major motion picture. F. Murray Abraham is totally wasted and makes you want to redeem him by breaking out your Amadeus DVD.
8) The Motion Picture A visual treat, with a slow, tedious plot that you simply dont care about. Even the actors looked bored. It opens with a great scene of Klingon ships attacking a space entity, and then .uh er . Yeah, were getting there. Eventually.
9) Into Darkness Besides failing miserably to copy Wrath of Khan without understanding what that movie was about, its just more of what movies have become in the age of Im desperately trying to get your attention! Loud, over the top and ultimately, forgettable.
The Truly Awful
10) The Final Frontier They let Shatner Direct. I could end the criticism right there, but Im just getting started. The silliness of finding God in the middle of the universe. Getting Lawrence Luckenbill to play the Passionate Vulcan and almost ruining Vulcans before Star Trek Enterprise could get around to do it.
11) Generations Lets take the most famous hero in the Science Fiction Genre and kill him. With Scaffolding. Yes, the way to truly Pass the Torch to the Next Generation Crew was to kill Captain Kirk with as little dignity as humanly possible.
12) Nemesis Not enough words in the English language to describe the awfulness of this turd. Data flying through space, a dune buggy chase, Crashing the Enterpirse into the other ship . Just simply awful in every respect.
From the opening til the bar fight, I was instantly hooked.
