I like all of them but Nemesis. Generations was the closest to the show, I think. I never thought it was a bad movie at all. Some of the quotes from Generations were pretty good, and I think it brought closure to the story in a lot of ways. It does have its faults in the storytelling, but it is a lot less offensive than the forced comedy of the others. In other words, it didn't feel like a studio exec was hovering over the set all commissar like. First Contact may have been the best, but it definitely had that problem. I've watched Genesis the most but I could watch all of them any time except Nemesis. It brought some closure to the story with Diana and Riker finally getting married, but the movie was definitely not what Star Trek is to me. With Picard acting differently: I don't think it's that glaring. I think it is much closer to the show than movie Kirk, who really seems more like Shatner doing Shatner, not the TOS character.
I have all Trek movies and series on DVD. I don't pull out the TNG movies to watch that often , though. FC is the best of the bunch. GEN is fine. I don't see why people hate it so much. I saw it at the age of 12, so I may be affected by nostalgia. Insurrection and Nemesis were...not that good, even at the time, I remember feeling a bit disappointed by them.
Insurrection is basically just like an episode of the show. I never thought it was terrible, just not the most intriguing thing ever. It definitely didn't ruin anything though, because it fit in pretty well and was supposed to be a part of The Dominion War and all of that. The only thing about the movie that really bugs me is Data's situational humor. I've watched Generations a ton, First Contact every so often (I even saw it in the theater), and the others almost never. Nemesis is terrible in so many ways except for the ship to ship stuff.
I watch Generations maybe once a year. It's not perfect by any means, but I think psychologically, part of my compulsion was that it was so hard to find on network/cable TV in my teens, so catching it on the TV schedule was a treat. It's weird: I liked it enough to make it a special occasion whenever it was on TV, but didn't like it enough to actually buy the VHS. First Contact, I'll watch maybe twice a year or so. It still holds up for me, though the uniforms are starting to look dated (for some reason, dark futuristic costumes were en vogue by then; a few years later, we got the Matrix and the trend hit full-throttle). Insurrection and Nemesis: I just cannot be bothered. I'll tune in for a few minutes here and there, but then I'll remember that I have other things to do.
INS was on HBO Family over the weekend. I watched, for the first time in years. Alls I can say is, I can't believe I used to defend that piece of garbage.
I'm not a TNG fan but I like First Contact a lot, in fact I think it's the most successful Trek film overall. It's really down to the script. I'm not up on who wrote what on which film, but FC is tight, engaging, with much good character stuff and minimum cheese (plus looks great and is conceptually interesting), and it's a shame the same formula was never quite there for the other ones. I agree about the problems with Generations. Here is how Kirk should have died: Kirk has to single-handedly pilot a ship (preferably his Enterprise) carrying a doomsday device into a sun. The camera tracks in, showing sweaty intensity gradually replaced by calm acceptance of death. At last he smiles, and says "It was fun" (that was a good line), then the image fades to brilliant white.
Watch this to see what is so awful about GEN and how it could've been much better: http://confusedmatthew.com/star-trek-generations.html
No. Ultimately, the films (including First Contact--the only once-tolerable entry of the bunch) suffer from the same problems as TNG: not enough character-motivated heart. Instead, the characters were too stale and patrician, all trying to say the so-called right thing at all times, while on the journey of spreading Berman-ized sociopolitical perfection. The TNG were there just to be there, and have not aged well.
I do not watch the films as complete movies, I prefer to put a disc in and go directly to a particular scene I really like and enjoy that. (The TOS films I do watch as complete movies except to 4 and 5)
I love TNG by my feelings about the movies have changed over the years. I loved them when I was younger but I've started to view them as inferior to the TV series. For instance I don' think that any of the films can compare to "All Good Things". For whatever reason TNG never translated as well to the big screen, the characters and stories never felt right. On top of that there were some bad story decisions and wacky writing. Generations: The Kirk crossover was unnecessary, TNG was a huge success in its own right and TOS had its send off in TUC. The logic surrounding the Nexus, the characters decisions regarding it and Soren's star killing was laughable. Kirk being brought back just to have a fist fight on some metal platform and die when it collapses was silly. First Contact: Good use of the Borg and the drama with Picard on the Enterprise. But, the scenes on Earth didn't fit the tone of the main story and the comedy fell flat. Also, Picard became way too homicidal and went against everything we had seen of him in the TV series. He had dealt with the Borg before and even had the chance to wipe them out entirely. Insurrection: Picard risks his career to save 600 white JC Penny catalog models from being relocated off a planet that wasn't even there's to begin with. Relocating them could have saved the lives of millions and they could have just been provided a supply of the regenerative radiation on there new planet. Picard was willing to carry out orders to forcibly relocate two populations in the past, including a group of American Indians. In the end Picard battles the villain on a CGI ship model that someone found on a old hard drive left on the set of Babylon 5 and trades one liners while a bomb timer winds down. Nemesis: Rips off TWOK, has a nonsensical villain, wastes its Romulan political premise, degenerates into tired action movie cliches and becomes a vanity project for Brent Spiner: while most of the main casts looks like they are about to fall asleep. All of the Movies: Endlessly reset and then rehash Data character development that we already had 7 seasons of and ignore most of the other main characters.
I'm not saying that it's a perfect movie, but I didn't think Picard was that out of character. He was against the idea of rehabilitating Hue in the first place. It was the unexpected result that he DID regain his humanity to a degree and was basically an innocent child that saved him. That and the possibility that he could have undone the collective in some way was a big part of Picard's decision to let him go. I don't know if I really like Descent. I think giving Lore a good send-off was a good thing, but they could have made up a race of other sorts of androids to do it with. Picard was emotional about the whole thing, but he was only wrong because he was acting too stubbornly. Everyone has their limits, and it ironically took someone from a more primitive time to make him realize this. I also think that any sort of idea of detente with or respect for the Borg as a species is absurd. They basically enslave people completely, so death as an alternative that almost anybody would choose. I only bring it up because I saw it in the IDW comic about the Borg, where Picard has had some sort of change of heart about their species. It doesn't make sense because they are no more a species than any other slave culture.
GEN and FC, about once a year. When I was younger, I watched my VHS copy of INS way too many times. I can't go back. As for NEM, I never quite feel a desire to rewatch it.
I definitely agree with you about the Borg. I always felt the argument that they had a right to live like any other species to be hollow simply because they aren't actually a species. Just individuals taken captive, altered and used against there will. As for FC, I found Picard's hatred of the Borg pretty believable but not the fact that he was willing to callously condemn his crew to death in a battle that they couldn't win, instead of blowing up the Enterprise. All because he couldn't stand the personal defeat of the Borg taking his ship from him.
Just "First Contact" and maybe Insurrection. Generations is by far the worst Trek movie I've ever seen. Nemesis comes close.