Spoilers BEYOND in your new personal film rankings?
- Thread starter M-Red
- Start date
I'd have a hard time ranking it. While STID is certainly the most problematic of the three, and '09 has issues, that's a little unfair on '09 because it had to set up the story. STB works the best as an all-around story.
Now in terms of ranking ALL Trek films? I just can't. I judge each era by different conditions. TOS movies kind of are hands-off for me, so that the worst of those I would still likely rank higher than the best TNG movie.
If it counts for anything, the movies I go back to watch the most at the TOS "trilogy", TUC, and '09. With FC following behind.
Now in terms of ranking ALL Trek films? I just can't. I judge each era by different conditions. TOS movies kind of are hands-off for me, so that the worst of those I would still likely rank higher than the best TNG movie.
If it counts for anything, the movies I go back to watch the most at the TOS "trilogy", TUC, and '09. With FC following behind.
1. The Wrath of Khan
2. First Contact
3. Beyond
2. First Contact
3. Beyond
Wow. I thought you liked Into Darkness.
1. Undiscovered Country
2. Wrath Of Khan
3. First Contact
4. '09
5. Beyond
6. Final Frontier
7. Generations
8. Into Darkness
9. Voyage Home
10. Nemesis
11. Motion Picture
12. Search For Spock
13. Insurrection
2. Wrath Of Khan
3. First Contact
4. '09
5. Beyond
6. Final Frontier
7. Generations
8. Into Darkness
9. Voyage Home
10. Nemesis
11. Motion Picture
12. Search For Spock
13. Insurrection
That's the bit which is intriguing me.
Often people talk as if there is almost a unanimous view among fans of what are and aren't good Trek films, but these lists show a lot of variety.
I'm aware of the wide variety of opinion toward the movies themselves, what I find interesting is those different segments of the fanbase --those who have TMP at the top or on bottom....those who love TFF or hate it...those who are drawn to TUC and FC ---have all mostly positioned STB in their top cluster of films.
So, STB is being widely accepted by the many different --and often oppositional --schools of thought within the fanbase.
So, STB is being widely accepted by the many different --and often oppositional --schools of thought within the fanbase.
1. The Undiscovered Country
2. The Wrath of Khan & The Search for Spock (tie)
3. First Contact
4. Star Trek Beyond
5. The Voyage Home
6. Star Trek 2009 & Star Trek Into Darkness (tie)
7. Nemesis
8. Generations
9. The Motion Picture
10. The Final Frontier & Insurrection (tie position for least favourite)
2. The Wrath of Khan & The Search for Spock (tie)
3. First Contact
4. Star Trek Beyond
5. The Voyage Home
6. Star Trek 2009 & Star Trek Into Darkness (tie)
7. Nemesis
8. Generations
9. The Motion Picture
10. The Final Frontier & Insurrection (tie position for least favourite)
Last edited:
This will be subject to change but for the moment here goes:
1. The Undiscovered Country
2. The Wrath of Khan
3. First Contact
4. Star Trek (2009)
5. The Search for Spock
6. Generations
7. Beyond
8. The Voyage Home
9. Insurrection
10. Nemesis
11. Into Darkness
12. The Final Frontier
13. The Motion Picture
1. The Undiscovered Country
2. The Wrath of Khan
3. First Contact
4. Star Trek (2009)
5. The Search for Spock
6. Generations
7. Beyond
8. The Voyage Home
9. Insurrection
10. Nemesis
11. Into Darkness
12. The Final Frontier
13. The Motion Picture
Here's my ranking and explanations:
1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
It remains the leading generally-acknowledged classic of the film franchise for good reason. The character work and performances, the action and pacing, the story (barring some minor plot holes), the Genesis Device as a plot motivator -- all of these elements come together to work a magic that has thus far proved impossible to replicate.
2. Star Tek IV: The Voyage Home
"The one with the whales." Sporting a welcome sense of fun and charm after the lackluster outing that preceded it -- and a welcome return to the kind of sci-fi problem-solving storytelling that doesn't need a Villain -- The Voyage Home's ecologically-conscious storyline still resonates today. Although its fish-out-of-water farce premise hasn't necessarily aged all that well, there's a joyous energy about it that's infectious.
3. Star Trek: First Contact
The Next Generation's era of the film franchise -- which by that time the studio had plainly decided to try to turn into tentpole action fare -- stubbornly refused to play to the series' strengths. As close as it came, and by far the best big screen outing Picard's crew got, was First Contact, which delivered some very solid entertainment (in no small part thanks to an indelible guest turn by James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane) despite dubiously retconning TNG's most signature villains.
4. Star Trek Beyond
It's not the most original of Trek stories, basically just another take on villain-with-a-death-ray which the reboot movies have done from the start. This time, however, there's substance under the shellack. The plot might be basic, but it makes sense for a change, and we're spared awkward slapstick humour and gratingly stupid anti-science bollocks. Instead we get a fully developed and convincing take on the Enterprise crew from a cast at the top of its game, an adventure that balances humour, action and problem-solving skilfully, a setting that really feels like Trek... basically the reboot formula finally gelling into something all audiences can enjoy without reservation.
(NB: Spots 3 & 4 are basically a tie, so I just put them in chronological order.)
5. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
All the "Slow Motion Picture" jokes of its initial reception aside, people still watch this movie and still talk about it and it remains, bar none (including the reboots) the most commercially successful film of the franchise. Appreciated on its own terms -- instead of as a direct competitor for Star Wars' niche -- it's a perfectly solid film, not to mention an utterly gorgeous spectacle by the any standard, and perhaps the truest entry in the film franchise to the spirit of the show. Time hasn't been so kind to many of its sequels
6. Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country
The first movie to be tasked with resuscitating the film franchise after an out-and-out catastrophe, The Undiscovered Country looked to so good by contrast with its predecessor that it probably got more praise than it strictly deserved. Bringing back The Wrath of Khan's director, it featured a disappointingly silly allegorical plot and felt somewhat awkward and overstuffed, not to mention the cast by this time was looking a little long in the tooth. But it had a few memorable and plain fun moments, too, and at least represented a more dignified farewell for the original crew.
7. Star Trek (2009)
The second film tasked with resuscitating the franchise after even worse catastrophe, Star Trek brought the movies fully into the tentpole blockbuster era of bone-crushingly kinetic spectacle, while injecting badly-needed youthful energy and packing itself with plenty of nods and tie-ins to the old franchise. The reboot did so many things right that the things it got wrong were that much more frustrating: its storytelling was contrived and sloppy to the point of outright stupidity, its disinterest in ideas was palpable, its basic plot (such as it was) unoriginal and uninspiring. It got the job done mostly on effects and nostalgia and arguably would have enjoyed far less goodwill without the Trek brand.
8. Star Trek Into Darkness
Into Darkness is made even more frustrating than its predecessor by its outright broken plot and foolhardy determination to set itself side-by-side with the far better The Wrath of Khan. The effects spectacle and kinetic energy is still there, along with all the expected nods toward the older continuity; the charismatic cast is still plainly having a blast, and the villains are teased at first as having complex personalities and motives. But B-movie moustache twirling reasserts itself and a self-inflicted stupidity, incoherence and shoddiness continues to overshadow the proceedings, ultimately sabotaging the impression it finally tries to give of re-engaging with Big Ideas.
9. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Granted, literally resurrecting Spock may have gotten us The Voyage Home... but on its own merits it was perhaps one of the most creatively cowardly decisions in the film franchise as a whole, and the movie created to sell it was one of the original crew's least interesting outings. Christopher Lloyd's evident relish in the part of Kruge is a bright spot, but the Klingon commander is plainly meant to capitalize on the menacing charisma of Khan from the previous film and has none of the depth, poignancy and tragic madness that made that character work.
10. Star Trek: Generations
A muddled and mediocre movie meant to pass the torch from Shatner to Stewart and his Next Generation crew, Generations contains little to outright hate or to particularly praise. Mostly it is underwhelming, performing its intended function adequately but with few thrills. It tells a great deal about where the franchise had gotten to that a climactic action sequence featuring senior citizens Stewart, Shatner and Malcolm MacDowell tottering around a scaffold seemed like a good idea.
11. Star Trek: Insurrection
It gets points for at least trying to capture some of the flavour of the show, but ultimately Insurrection misfires on every level: its potentially interesting premise is executed in too dull and limited a way; its character work feels too awkward and off to sell the charming humour it reaches for; its supposedly menacing villains would be at home in one of the more forgettable televised episodes. Not as outright awful as it's sometimes made out to be, it is nevertheless thoroughly inessential and disposable viewing.
12. Star Trek: Nemesis
If Star Trek Into Darkness lives visibly in Wrath of Khan's shadow, Nemesis dies in it. Viewed on its own it's not quite the total cinematic abortion it's sometimes claimed to be, and actually features some strong action sequences and an underrated performance by Tom Hardy as Shinzon... but the loathing it attracts makes more sense in the context of its absolute refusal to play to any strengths of the TNG characters, its leaden and unearned use of Data to retread Wrath of Khan's Noble Sacrifice trope, and the bizarre decision to retcon the previously unheard-of "Remans" into the picture. Arguably it needn't have been as bad a bomb as it was, but it's completely understandable why it bombed.
13. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
On paper, the "quest for God at the center of the galaxy" premise of the Final Frontier seems like properly Trekkish material, albeit from the goofier end of the spectrum. Unfortunately this glorified Shatner vanity project is also the Trek film that's genuinely, solidly bad in almost every possible way: other Trek movies have featured bad characterisation, staleness and lack of excitement, muddled ideas and execution or outright broken and stupid plotting... but The Final Frontier is the only one to compass all of those flaws at the same time. Deservedly seen as flatly unwatchable by many, it's a minor miracle -- probably owed in part to the televised success of TNG -- that this outing didn't kill the film franchise dead.
1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
It remains the leading generally-acknowledged classic of the film franchise for good reason. The character work and performances, the action and pacing, the story (barring some minor plot holes), the Genesis Device as a plot motivator -- all of these elements come together to work a magic that has thus far proved impossible to replicate.
2. Star Tek IV: The Voyage Home
"The one with the whales." Sporting a welcome sense of fun and charm after the lackluster outing that preceded it -- and a welcome return to the kind of sci-fi problem-solving storytelling that doesn't need a Villain -- The Voyage Home's ecologically-conscious storyline still resonates today. Although its fish-out-of-water farce premise hasn't necessarily aged all that well, there's a joyous energy about it that's infectious.
3. Star Trek: First Contact
The Next Generation's era of the film franchise -- which by that time the studio had plainly decided to try to turn into tentpole action fare -- stubbornly refused to play to the series' strengths. As close as it came, and by far the best big screen outing Picard's crew got, was First Contact, which delivered some very solid entertainment (in no small part thanks to an indelible guest turn by James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane) despite dubiously retconning TNG's most signature villains.
4. Star Trek Beyond
It's not the most original of Trek stories, basically just another take on villain-with-a-death-ray which the reboot movies have done from the start. This time, however, there's substance under the shellack. The plot might be basic, but it makes sense for a change, and we're spared awkward slapstick humour and gratingly stupid anti-science bollocks. Instead we get a fully developed and convincing take on the Enterprise crew from a cast at the top of its game, an adventure that balances humour, action and problem-solving skilfully, a setting that really feels like Trek... basically the reboot formula finally gelling into something all audiences can enjoy without reservation.
(NB: Spots 3 & 4 are basically a tie, so I just put them in chronological order.)
5. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
All the "Slow Motion Picture" jokes of its initial reception aside, people still watch this movie and still talk about it and it remains, bar none (including the reboots) the most commercially successful film of the franchise. Appreciated on its own terms -- instead of as a direct competitor for Star Wars' niche -- it's a perfectly solid film, not to mention an utterly gorgeous spectacle by the any standard, and perhaps the truest entry in the film franchise to the spirit of the show. Time hasn't been so kind to many of its sequels
6. Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country
The first movie to be tasked with resuscitating the film franchise after an out-and-out catastrophe, The Undiscovered Country looked to so good by contrast with its predecessor that it probably got more praise than it strictly deserved. Bringing back The Wrath of Khan's director, it featured a disappointingly silly allegorical plot and felt somewhat awkward and overstuffed, not to mention the cast by this time was looking a little long in the tooth. But it had a few memorable and plain fun moments, too, and at least represented a more dignified farewell for the original crew.
7. Star Trek (2009)
The second film tasked with resuscitating the franchise after even worse catastrophe, Star Trek brought the movies fully into the tentpole blockbuster era of bone-crushingly kinetic spectacle, while injecting badly-needed youthful energy and packing itself with plenty of nods and tie-ins to the old franchise. The reboot did so many things right that the things it got wrong were that much more frustrating: its storytelling was contrived and sloppy to the point of outright stupidity, its disinterest in ideas was palpable, its basic plot (such as it was) unoriginal and uninspiring. It got the job done mostly on effects and nostalgia and arguably would have enjoyed far less goodwill without the Trek brand.
8. Star Trek Into Darkness
Into Darkness is made even more frustrating than its predecessor by its outright broken plot and foolhardy determination to set itself side-by-side with the far better The Wrath of Khan. The effects spectacle and kinetic energy is still there, along with all the expected nods toward the older continuity; the charismatic cast is still plainly having a blast, and the villains are teased at first as having complex personalities and motives. But B-movie moustache twirling reasserts itself and a self-inflicted stupidity, incoherence and shoddiness continues to overshadow the proceedings, ultimately sabotaging the impression it finally tries to give of re-engaging with Big Ideas.
9. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Granted, literally resurrecting Spock may have gotten us The Voyage Home... but on its own merits it was perhaps one of the most creatively cowardly decisions in the film franchise as a whole, and the movie created to sell it was one of the original crew's least interesting outings. Christopher Lloyd's evident relish in the part of Kruge is a bright spot, but the Klingon commander is plainly meant to capitalize on the menacing charisma of Khan from the previous film and has none of the depth, poignancy and tragic madness that made that character work.
10. Star Trek: Generations
A muddled and mediocre movie meant to pass the torch from Shatner to Stewart and his Next Generation crew, Generations contains little to outright hate or to particularly praise. Mostly it is underwhelming, performing its intended function adequately but with few thrills. It tells a great deal about where the franchise had gotten to that a climactic action sequence featuring senior citizens Stewart, Shatner and Malcolm MacDowell tottering around a scaffold seemed like a good idea.
11. Star Trek: Insurrection
It gets points for at least trying to capture some of the flavour of the show, but ultimately Insurrection misfires on every level: its potentially interesting premise is executed in too dull and limited a way; its character work feels too awkward and off to sell the charming humour it reaches for; its supposedly menacing villains would be at home in one of the more forgettable televised episodes. Not as outright awful as it's sometimes made out to be, it is nevertheless thoroughly inessential and disposable viewing.
12. Star Trek: Nemesis
If Star Trek Into Darkness lives visibly in Wrath of Khan's shadow, Nemesis dies in it. Viewed on its own it's not quite the total cinematic abortion it's sometimes claimed to be, and actually features some strong action sequences and an underrated performance by Tom Hardy as Shinzon... but the loathing it attracts makes more sense in the context of its absolute refusal to play to any strengths of the TNG characters, its leaden and unearned use of Data to retread Wrath of Khan's Noble Sacrifice trope, and the bizarre decision to retcon the previously unheard-of "Remans" into the picture. Arguably it needn't have been as bad a bomb as it was, but it's completely understandable why it bombed.
13. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
On paper, the "quest for God at the center of the galaxy" premise of the Final Frontier seems like properly Trekkish material, albeit from the goofier end of the spectrum. Unfortunately this glorified Shatner vanity project is also the Trek film that's genuinely, solidly bad in almost every possible way: other Trek movies have featured bad characterisation, staleness and lack of excitement, muddled ideas and execution or outright broken and stupid plotting... but The Final Frontier is the only one to compass all of those flaws at the same time. Deservedly seen as flatly unwatchable by many, it's a minor miracle -- probably owed in part to the televised success of TNG -- that this outing didn't kill the film franchise dead.
No, because they are also the greatest band to ever exist and I think their work will always endure.
For me, the movies are divided into 3 groups - the very good, the mediocre, and the just bad ones:
TWOK - by far the best
TVH
TUC
Star Trek '09 - plotholes, lens flares... but a new ST-spirit that was definitely needed
FC
TSFS - really see that as the 2nd part of a trilogy...
STID - too many villains to flesh any one of them out, an ill-used Khan, a rip-off that can't hold its own... but it had good character moments (and Cumberbatch *lol).
STB - way too much action, at least they reduced the number of villains but still didn't manage to flesh them out. Pop-corn movie without much depth, I'm afraid.
INS - works much better on TV than on the big screen
GEN
TFF - love the triumvirate which saves this movie.
NEM
TMP
TWOK - by far the best
TVH
TUC
Star Trek '09 - plotholes, lens flares... but a new ST-spirit that was definitely needed
FC
TSFS - really see that as the 2nd part of a trilogy...
STID - too many villains to flesh any one of them out, an ill-used Khan, a rip-off that can't hold its own... but it had good character moments (and Cumberbatch *lol).
STB - way too much action, at least they reduced the number of villains but still didn't manage to flesh them out. Pop-corn movie without much depth, I'm afraid.
INS - works much better on TV than on the big screen
GEN
TFF - love the triumvirate which saves this movie.
NEM
TMP
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