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most disappointing Trek movie?

most disappointing

  • TMP

    Votes: 11 5.5%
  • TFF

    Votes: 29 14.5%
  • GEN

    Votes: 24 12.0%
  • INS

    Votes: 19 9.5%
  • NEM

    Votes: 57 28.5%
  • STID

    Votes: 34 17.0%
  • BEY

    Votes: 8 4.0%
  • TWOK

    Votes: 6 3.0%
  • TSFS

    Votes: 1 0.5%
  • TVH

    Votes: 1 0.5%
  • TUC

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • FC

    Votes: 3 1.5%
  • ST09

    Votes: 7 3.5%

  • Total voters
    200
I believe the actual saucer was a prop but some of the destruction around it apaered like a visual effect

I believe the whole thing was a practical effect, including the dust and dirt it throws up. I think the only thing that wasn't was the aftermath shot which looks like a matte painting (which you could still say is a practical effect I guess)
 
I believe the whole thing was a practical effect, including the dust and dirt it throws up. I think the only thing that wasn't was the aftermath shot which looks like a matte painting (which you could still say is a practical effect I guess)
Most of the time I'm asleep before the crash even happens anyway lol
 
Nemesis. It was the first time a Trek movie was so in-your-face bad that I started counting the errors while in the theater. I'm not real pleased with TFF, GEN, or INS ... but with those, it took a while after viewing for the problems to sink in.

I'm no more happy with the Abramsverse movies, but can't say I'm "disappointed". It's mainly because I lowered my expectations as soon as the lens flares and 'sploshions started up. And never raised them again.
 
Oddly, TMP is both the most disappointing while remaining one of my favorites. I grew up on the original show while in syndication and really just wanted to see Star Trek, the TV show on the big screen with the same actors, costumes, ship, sets, designs, music etc.

Being an avid reader of Starlog magazine, I was well aware of the design changes before the film opened but it certainly wasn't what I wanted to see. Add to that a plot that seemed like an amalgamation of a few episodes and characters who seemed altogether different than their TV versions. As a result the entire film felt like a HUGE letdown to that 16 year old kid who waited so long for that moment.

Flash forward to the Blu-ray release and suddenly the film felt "new". Gone were my old preconceptions, all my desires to see Trek the TV show on the big screen. Suddenly I could watch the film with a fresh eye and found I really enjoyed it despite it's slower moments (which don't seem that bad to me anymore either).

Nowadays, I'd have to say that TUC remains the most disappointing film with the original cast and Insurrection as the most disappointing Trek film overall, regardless of which cast is featured.
 
TMP is disappointing if one only watched the 1st two seasons of Star Trek and never saw the 3rd and went into it expecting an action movie. From the trailers I'd seen, the film pretty much expresses what it hoped to be, an immersive motion picture experience and to explore the human condition. From the other Star Trek trailers I'd seen based on the previous success 3 TSFS and 5 TFF and TNG movies the advertisement mislead me thinking it would be something that it definitely wasn't; another bad sign I've discovered lately is when the trailer spoils the piece with all of the decent material of the movie on the reel.

I had to disengage my thinking of TMP as a movie and looking at it as pure cinema, a film which is trying to express a point through pictures, visuals and performances. Looking at TMP with a different mindset has allowed me to slowly love the piece because it's not a popcorn movie, it's design made me embrace it with the need to understand the narrative more and look at it more closely. Tag line wasn't lying that is was the Human adventure.
 
Nemesis. I don't count any films after that; they've been blown out my airlock.

As bad as the two TNG films were before it, Nemesis is specially bad and unforgivable for many reason, the most prominent off the top of my head:

* It was advertised as the last TNG movie, so it had big shoes to fill. It came in with rinky ding tiny used Elf slippers.

* It took any idea involving the Romulans that could have been great, and instead took a huge dump and then poured gasoline on it, and set it on fire.

* And it pointlessly killed off a main character, when they knew there weren't going to be anymore films and thus Brent had nothing to worry about.
 
Nemesis. I don't count any films after that; they've been blown out my airlock.

As bad as the two TNG films were before it, Nemesis is specially bad and unforgivable for many reason, the most prominent off the top of my head:

* It was advertised as the last TNG movie, so it had big shoes to fill. It came in with rinky ding tiny used Elf slippers.

* It took any idea involving the Romulans that could have been great, and instead took a huge dump and then poured gasoline on it, and set it on fire.

* And it pointlessly killed off a main character, when they knew there weren't going to be anymore films and thus Brent had nothing to worry about.
That's what I found appalling about the advertisement it claimed to be the last but the movie didn't feel that way to me. For some reason there was some weird calling card for a Search for Spock type vibe by the end which was opening the door for a sequel. Having its cake and eating it too and failed. A final TNG film should've been about the Borg, they were their big baddies and deserved a resolution to their differences. Sigh, oh well.
 
* And it pointlessly killed off a main character, when they knew there weren't going to be anymore films and thus Brent had nothing to worry about.

Even though that sacrifice was reminiscent of TWoK and a bit forced, I thought it was also a nicely surprising moment, a death nicely unusual for TNG finale, and also that it may have been necessary to invoke TWoK in order for the film to not feel too much like just TUC again instead.
 
Honestly, when you say disappointment, I immediately think of TMP. It's not the worst of the franchise, by a long shot. It's actually not that bad, for what it is, & has some redeemable qualities, & a phenomenal score, but it certainly wasn't what we were expecting, obviously, considering the almost complete 180° the next film's direction took, & succeeded at.

I've been let down by plenty of Trek movies, GEN & NEM chief among those, but I had started expecting less of them by them, especially by the time of the latter

Even TVH was something of a letdown, when you face the reality that it's just a gag reel version of Star Trek, like they were parodying themselves, but I've never been more crestfallen as I was when I saw that 1st one, because it wasn't right, & I really felt they may have blown their shot. I'm glad they didn't, despite some other missteps over the years. I never remember being more put off by Star Trek, & that was probably because we were so damn excited for it to finally happen
 
because I came rather late onto the scene, the only film I have seen in cinemas is Beyond. I had already heard of the odd number rule, (which I think is complete rubbish, by the way.) but I watched The Final Frontier with an open mind. It didn't help.
 
I actually quite like TUC but that's mainly down to the assassination scenes and the trial scenes. Rest of movie, meh.

At the time, I did laugh at some of the jokes but after a few years it dawned on me that it's too much at character expense. The same problem was in TFF, so it's strange TUC would continue to go where TFF shouldn't have gone before. Arguably for some of TVH too...

Oddly, TMP is both the most disappointing while remaining one of my favorites. I grew up on the original show while in syndication and really just wanted to see Star Trek, the TV show on the big screen with the same actors, costumes, ship, sets, designs, music etc.

Same here, though seeing TMP was impossible at the time...

Being an avid reader of Starlog magazine, I was well aware of the design changes before the film opened but it certainly wasn't what I wanted to see. Add to that a plot that seemed like an amalgamation of a few episodes and characters who seemed altogether different than their TV versions. As a result the entire film felt like a HUGE letdown to that 16 year old kid who waited so long for that moment.

Yeah, it's not very original in terms of plot - relying on TOS scripts way too much and not doing enough to embrace and make the plot points and tropes its own and, yeah, it is disappointing when one sits there and goes "Oi, they took that from this episode and episode x and y episode." When that happens, all is more or less lost. Like INS and NEM.

I will say this, TMP does a better job at taking "Obsession" and using it in a better way...

But had the visuals not been so spellbinding, detailed in so many ways (and in proportional scale!) , and genuinely epic for the time, and most of those hold up to this day perfectly or at least above-average, I'm not sure TMP would have held up as well.

Flash forward to the Blu-ray release and suddenly the film felt "new". Gone were my old preconceptions, all my desires to see Trek the TV show on the big screen. Suddenly I could watch the film with a fresh eye and found I really enjoyed it despite it's slower moments (which don't seem that bad to me anymore either).

It's weird how that can happen. I still tend to gravitate back toward "Lame rehash" but not as often. Again, their take on the human condition of obsession is legitimately superior and it's important to the movie's progress.

Nowadays, I'd have to say that TUC remains the most disappointing film with the original cast and Insurrection as the most disappointing Trek film overall, regardless of which cast is featured.

TUC could have been better but after TFF, no matter how good it would be... in ways it's one of my favorites but it's still a letdown in others.

For overall Trek film, the most is still one of three of the four TNG movies outside GEN. Even FC is a letdown, just in different ways. Maybe NEM as, after 4 years, I was expecting better.
 
TMP is disappointing if one only watched the 1st two seasons of Star Trek and never saw the 3rd and went into it expecting an action movie. From the trailers I'd seen, the film pretty much expresses what it hoped to be, an immersive motion picture experience and to explore the human condition. From the other Star Trek trailers I'd seen based on the previous success 3 TSFS and 5 TFF and TNG movies the advertisement mislead me thinking it would be something that it definitely wasn't; another bad sign I've discovered lately is when the trailer spoils the piece with all of the decent material of the movie on the reel.

^^pretty much.

Also, TMP's visuals and treating the ship as a character help make up for the pacing imbalance, but watching it 5 times in a row and expecting something big other than visual detail to pop out- nope. I still prefer the plot and character adventure content (TWOK is clearly much reduced in budget but carries it a lot better than TMP) but TMP has its own charm that, for me, is an exception to the rule.

I had to disengage my thinking of TMP as a movie and looking at it as pure cinema, a film which is trying to express a point through pictures, visuals and performances. Looking at TMP with a different mindset has allowed me to slowly love the piece because it's not a popcorn movie, it's design made me embrace it with the need to understand the narrative more and look at it more closely. Tag line wasn't lying that is was the Human adventure.

^^this

They went all-out with the visuals and nuances therein, selling a proportional sense of scale and distance that is even more jaw-droppingly cool than Star Wars spitting out half a zillion TIE Fighters. Maybe that's the exception, now that I think about it, as any movie can plop on screen a zillion things going pew pew and wouldn't be again ever since 1977's game changing flick came out. Ship planetary crashes and ship rams innovate on big budget extravaganzas (and are more personal since they're up close and all) but not a bunch of ships whizzing by going pew pew, especially if we know ahead of it all the good guys will win, but I digress. TMP was selling the scale and hugeness of the ship, along with space travel* since VGER is close enough to our solar system (I hate it when that happens because the 1701 is always the only ship within interception range, which begs a lot of silly yet horrid questions every time a Trek movie upchucks this convenient plot detail...)

* save for the scene where Enterprise and half the solar system's planets are shown on screen at the same time, oops... but one can't have everything and the close-ups around the ship** more than made up for it!

** Scotty was definitely wasting time with the fly-by around the ship so the crew could get that much more done before Kirk could hem and haw at everyone over why things weren't done rabidly fast... and then came the wormhole because he wanted to rush rush rush while on meth, ecstasy, and poppers. Probably with some Special-K doped in there too... This is part of the human condition as well and it's among other things a lost art and I'm not referring to the ADHD people like me...
 
* save for the scene where Enterprise and half the solar system's planets are shown on screen at the same time, oops... but one can't have everything and the close-ups around the ship** more than made up for it!

I believe you are talking about the few shots of the Jupiter flyby which showed Jupiter and its moons, not the entire solar system. At least that's how I've interpreted those shots. These shots are confusing since the sun is in the middle of the shot resulting in the lit crescents of the various moons and Jupiter being all over the place, dependent on where the moons are located in the frame. Technically the shot is accurate but the scale and speed of the Enterprise seems as well as the size of Jupiter and its moons all seem "off". I understand what they were trying to achieve but those shots aren't the best designed or executed of the film.
 
TFF is the worst form me, terrible story and awful cgi/fx.

I'd have Insurrection as second worst for the same reasons, it seemed more like a below average TNG double episode and not a big budget film. Star Trek films do suffer when they don't use ILM.
 
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TFF is the one. After the big success of TVH and TNG, I was prepared for the next film to be a winner- and it was a piece of crap. I got the biggest headache in the theatre and didn't watch it again for 10 years, although I did buy Jerry Goldsmith's album. (it wasn't his fault).
Second biggest: Nem. FC had been really good and INS was such a disappointment. I didn't want to believe they would bomb another one. I read a leaked script 3 months before it came out and was prepared for the worst. It was EXACTLY as the leaked script, to my dismay.
 
They are all disappointments on some level.:devil: Which fan hasn't found one thing he or she couldn't gripe about?

I like the music, costumes, and the acting in the Kelvin films but little else. The Next Gen films are pretty much garbage.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is too slow and humorless.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is too small scale and The Enterprise interiors are poorly shot.
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock has an absurd plot and the sound stages were poor choices for the planet Genesis.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is more of a comedy than a Star Trek film and the music is awful.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier takes too long to get going in terms of plot and some of the effects are terrible.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country has plot holes, Klingons quoting Shakespeare, and officers preparing dinner as if starships did not have replicators.
 
No CGI used that movie, as far as I know.

Okay maybe not cgi for TFF but they did use a model and special fx, just look at the ships movements in TFF, let just say the fx don't look that special. I read somewhere that Shatner didn't want to use ILM for TFF as their A team was working on Indiana Jones, while their B team was working on Ghostbusters 2 and that's why they had another company work on it.

I think it was a similair story for Insurrection, ILM had their best teams working on The Phantom Menace and were unable to work on the Star Trek film.
 
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