Which Trek Film has the worst SFX

[Anticitizen]

Why aren't all the movies in this poll? My vote would have gone to The Voyage Home. Love the movie, but the effects were the worst IMHO. A Bird of Prey that drastically changes size every time you look at it, not to mention the opening shots of it sitting on Vulcan (compare to the final scenes of it in TSFS). Then there's the horrid crash-landing scene at the end, where it appears to be plummeting to the earth at a whopping ten miles an hour.

 

[Praetor]

I vote TFF, with INS close behind. To me, bad model work is usually worse than bad CGI work, and IMO good model work is often better than good CGI work.

 

[trevanian]

Why aren't all the movies in this poll? My vote would have gone to The Voyage Home. Love the movie, but the effects were the worst IMHO. A Bird of Prey that drastically changes size every time you look at it, not to mention the opening shots of it sitting on Vulcan (compare to the final scenes of it in TSFS). Then there's the horrid crash-landing scene at the end, where it appears to be plummeting to the earth at a whopping ten miles an hour.

In the theater, the stuff w/ Scotty in mid-air looked insanely grainy and matted, like it was farmed out to amateurs.

 

[firstjump]

Definitely TFF

 

[Candlelight]

TFF.

The only shots of INS I have an issue with are the ones with the Son'a ship exploding and the Warp Core explosion.

Funnily enough - two of the three shots from the movie that were done using models (the collector explosion was well done)!

 

[trevanian]

TFF.

The only shots of INS I have an issue with are the ones with the Son'a ship exploding and the Warp Core explosion.

Funnily enough - two of the three shots from the movie that were done using models (the collector explosion was well done)!

Warp core explosion had no miniatures, sorry. There was practical fire, but no model there, the ship was CG.

And the Son'a ship just used a physical buck shaped like the vessel, the actual image was the CG model. Same approach used for the long shots of the collector blowing up. The only miniature stuff that didn't involve CG over the top were the close-in collector panels blowing up as CG ENT passed over (best shots in the movie, prob'ly.) Even the interior collector miniature was mostly just a black metal box to explode pyro through, with CG detail laid on.

Wish they'd done the whole thing with miniatures, though admittedly the first son'a ship reveal where the briar patch material 'sticks' to the ship is one of the best uses of CG of that era, though I think the guy at SBS said it took five or eight times longer to render than anything else.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Final Fronitier for me. That movie is crying out for the SE treatment. Paramount are demented.

Not at all - it's called "refusing to throw good money after bad."

 

[cooleddie74]

Final Fronitier for me. That movie is crying out for the SE treatment. Paramount are demented.

Not at all - it's called "refusing to throw good money after bad."

Well, it wouldn't cost THAT much more money to Remaster it for a new DVD and BluRay release than it did to make, market and then issue the deluxe 2-disc Special Edition DVD a couple of years back.

 

[Destructor]

The four people who voted INS need to seriously get their eyes examined. Insurrection, while being a terrible movie, actually had pretty awesome effects. Watch the shuttle chase scene between Data and Picard- when their ships fly over the grassy field you actually see each blade of grass get pulled up in the shuttle wash. The effects are fine (the planetary views in particular look amazing).

TFF was an embarrassment. There are reasons behind it, for sure, but the effects fuckin' sucked.

 

[Dane_Whitman]

I voted for TFF, but Insurrection was very hit and miss with it's SFX work.

There were some gorgeous looking shots in the movie and overall I think it's not bad.

There are three shots though that bother me when I watch the film:

An inappropriate use of (bad) CGI which makes the Enterprise look far too clean and downright flat if you ask me. Unconvincing compared to the beautiful model that was used in FC, they should have used that for close-up shots of the ship.

The lighting on the drones and the natural lighting just doesn't correspond at all. What should be a very dramatic shot ends up akward and a bit laughable looking.

I don't like the look of the collector in this shot, especially the way the 'sails' unfold.

 

[trevanian]

Watch the shuttle chase scene between Data and Picard- when their ships fly over the grassy field you actually see each blade of grass get pulled up in the shuttle wash.

Not to dispute all of your post, but that shot is what kept most people I talked with out of the theater, saying how utterly shitty it looked in the ads. Personally, I think it is a great example of how doing 'real' elements synthetically doesn't work very well ... they'd've been better off creating a physical effect on the ground and then timing their CG to match to it, because as is, you have a fake ship generating a REALLY fake ground effect.

 

[David A. Sobral]

It's not really a fair question, considering that TFF & TMP were both severely hampered by circumstances beyond the control of the creators. That being said, the ORIGINAL cut of TMP had the worst fx, simply because they were incomplete. Personally, I never saw a problem with ANY of the TNG flicks..."Insurrection" has some beatiful shots in the "Briar Patch" & I really had no problem with "Nemesis", especially the collision course sequence. The BEST SFX...Abrams "Star Trek", hands down. I'm going to see it (again) tonite but, in the IMAX format which will be a first for me.

 

[Xerxes1979]

It's not really a fair question, considering that TFF & TMP were both severely hampered by circumstances beyond the control of the creators. That being said, the ORIGINAL cut of TMP had the worst fx, simply because they were incomplete. Personally, I never saw a problem with ANY of the TNG flicks..."Insurrection" has some beatiful shots in the "Briar Patch" & I really had no problem with "Nemesis", especially the collision course sequence. The BEST SFX...Abrams "Star Trek", hands down. I'm going to see it (again) tonite but, in the IMAX format which will be a first for me.

Which shots don't you like in TMP? The Enterprise has never looked better and the V'ger cloud is quite a nice piece of work. The finale special effect looked good in TMP and again when they used it in TNG Tinman. So they didn't finish the airlock scene. Big deal, my suspension of never stopped enough to be pulled out of the movie.

I am incredibly impressed by what they where able to do with such tight schedule and with 1970's tech.

 

[blockaderunner]

I can almost see the wires.

 

[Maurice]

I can almost see the wires.

If only there WERE wires. Those are photo cutouts.

 

[cooleddie74]

I can almost see the wires.

If only there WERE wires. Those are photo cutouts.

This was the movie where Starfleet made first contact with the First Dimension of the Cardboard Stock People.