Also, I have to say that when i was a bit younger, i'd watch each star trek flick without any preconceived ideas of what was considered a 'flop' or a 'success' in the eyes of the movie critics or fans or whatever, so i watched each movie with an unbiased eye, and i think that gives you a better idea of what was a genuinelly great star trek film or not, and i feel it makes you less cynical and hypercritical of films generally.
I really think there's something to this. My introduction to Trek was a collection of the first five movies that my father owned on VHS. I was in 2nd grade or so (born Janurary 1981). At the very same time Fox was showing TOS reruns and he was watching those as well. I had no notion of Trek fandom or history; it was all new to me, and I had no clue that those TOS episodes I watched were filmed twenty-and-change years prior to the time I watched them.
So, you see, when the Enterprise travels to the center of the galaxy to find God, it didn't seem any more out of place to me than finding the god Apollo alive on a remote planet; and Uhura's dancing and Scotty's hapless headsmack on the bulkhead didn't seem any sillier than Kirk neighing like a horse while Spock sings under the influence of telekinetic aliens, or Abraham Lincoln and Surak battling Ghengis Khan and Kodos the Executioner (or whoever was in that episode).
To me, STV is the ONLY of the flicks to capture the spirit of the series. If I was bothered by the cheesy special effects I wouldn't have liked TOS. If I didn't like the silly humor then I wouldn't have been able to stomach the idea of alien planets run by Chicago mobsters.
Most importantly, it was the only movie to capture that rare essence that only TOS had: the spirit of exploration. There's a great moment in The Final Frontier: when Kirk, Spock, and McCoy have proven themselves unable to be roped in by Sybok's brainwashing, and yet, as the Enterprise is to traverse the barrier to the center of the galaxy, we see they're actually dying to know what's on the other side - not through coersion, but because they want To Boldy Go, and that's why they're on that ship.
I'm not going to say it's the best movie of the lot. The Nick Meyer movies, TWOK and TUC, are so immersive and polished and just
tight that they're impossible to top from a production standpoint, but let's face it, they're hardly reminiscent of ANY episode of the series you ever saw, in mood or spirit.
But I will say that, as a kid raised on the movies and series simultaneously, The Final Frontier just fit. It felt right. It still does!
), and the character interaction between the main three. Also, I have to say that when i was a bit younger, i'd watch each star trek flick without any preconceived ideas of what was considered a 'flop' or a 'success' in the eyes of the movie critics or fans or whatever, so i watched each movie with an unbiased eye, and i think that gives you a better idea of what was a genuinelly great star trek film or not, and i feel it makes you less cynical and hypercritical of films generally. With that in mind the only one i've ever watched that i never really found myself waching more that once or twice was Nemesis, i don't hate the film but something about that one never really clicked with me. Data's death didn't help, but it wasn't just that since STII had Spocks death and that's one of my faviroutes, anyways i'll leave that one for another thread lol.
