Ranking Star Trek movies

[PicardWasTaken]

this is my ranking of the star trek movies. feel free to make your own down below.

13-Insurrection
boring, bad effects, no reason to rewatch

12-into darkness
bad remake of a good film, letdown after what the first reboot film was.

11-nemesis
not as bad as insurrection, but a letdown as the last TNG film.

10-the motion picture
to slow for me, and it felt like the pike pilot episode in the sense that things weren't fully worked out, and were completely revamped for the wrath of khan.

9-the final frontier
a cheesy movie is better than a bad one, and ill leave it at that.

8-Beyond
entertaining, but a little shallow when it comes to plot.

7-the search for spock
a movie without much spock is a movie worse off, especially when the movie has his name in it.

6-generations
a shallow villain, but not a disaster.

5-Voyage home
a jump from 6th place, the voyage home was a fun, likable movie, and a nice departure from its more dark predecessors, especially considering the mess that the next movie was. deserving of the title 5th place

4-first contact
a Borg movie is a good movie, even if the trailer made it sound better. just saying. also this movie provided a little more lore for the fanbase, with a look into the 2060's, and the Borg.

3-the wrath of khan
great movie, khan deserved a movie plot, and he got it.

2-the undiscovered country
we say goodbye to the TOS crew, in a fairly good finale movie, a cinematic experience for sure, and a Klingon who quotes shakespear.

1-star trek 2009
a flashy star wars type battle packed movie, with great origin stories of the TOS characters.

 

[donners22]

13 - Insurrection
Dull and downright cringeworthy in parts. I took friends to see it, and remember sinking into my cinema seat and wanting to be swallowed by the floor due to sheer embarrassment.

12 - The Motion Picture
Slow, pretentious, horribly acted and a clumsy pastiche of stories already done by TOS.

11 - The Final Frontier
Some decent character moments, but thoroughly underwhelming.

10 - The Search for Spock
Contrived and utterly forgettable.

9 - Nemesis
Flawed (not least that ludicrous buggy chase), but has its fun moments.

8 - Generations
Decent, with a standout performance from Stewart, but the Nexus bits drag and the much-anticipated Picard-Kirk meeting is underwhelming.

7 - Wrath of Khan
Cheesy and riddled with holes, but certainly has some memorable scenes.

6 - The Voyage Home
Trite but fun.

5 - 2009
Has great scenes, albeit moving around too fast to allow those scenes to have the full impact they deserve.

4 - Into Darkness
Love the first two thirds; I just wish they hadn't gone with the Khan angle.

3 - Beyond
Great character moments and spectacular presentation.

2 - First Contact
Stomps all over canon, but put that aside and it's a wonderful ride.

1 - The Undiscovered County
So many wonderful scenes. Doesn't take itself too seriously, yet tells a compelling story.

 

[dupersuper]

Best to worst:
Voyage Home
Wrath of Khan
First Contact
Undiscovered Country
Search for Spock
Beyond
Motion Picture
Final Frontier
2009
Generations
Insurrection
Into Darkness
Nemesis

I at least like all but the bottom three (Kirk's return in the Shatnerverse novels cancels out his death in Generations for me).)

 

[ichab]

Undiscovered Country
First Contact
Wrath of Khan
Voyage Home
Star Trek - 2009
Nemesis
Generations
Search for Spock
Beyond
Insurrection
Final Frontier

These are the only two I refuse to watch again because they were so horrible.

Into Darkness - I AM KHAN!!!! (NO YOU ARE NOT!)
Motion Picture - I agree with Nimoy

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[Galileo7]

Best to worst:

1. The Motion Picture
2. Wrath Of Khan
3. Undiscovered Country
4. Into Darkness
5. Final Frontier
6. Search For Spock
7. Voyage Home
8. 2009
9. First Contact
10. Beyond
11. Nemesis
12. Generations
13. Insurrection

 

[dupersuper]

These are the only two I refuse to watch again because they were so horrible.

Into Darkness - I AM KHAN!!!! (NO YOU ARE NOT!)
Motion Picture - I agree with Nimoy

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For me seeing the last three on my list (Insurrection, Into Darkness and Nemesis) once was enough. The rest are at least rewatchable.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

I havne't seen most of them recently enough to rank them all. But I'll say that my favorites are "Save the Whales" and "First Contact;" my least favorite by far is "Insurrection," with "The Motionless Picture" and the one where God wants a starship closely following.

 

[Vale]

First rank:
First Contact
The Undiscovered Country
Insurrection
The Motion Picture

Second rank:
The Voyage Home
The Wrath of Khan
The Search for Spock

Third rank:
Generations
Beyond
Star Trek (2009)

Garbage:
The Final Frontier
Into Darkness
Nemesis

The order within each category is rather fluid. I believe that The Motion Picture and The Search for Spock are underrated and The Wrath of Khan and The Voyage Home are overrated, and there's a big gap between the second rank and the third rank. My biggest issue with Picard, which otherwise I like, is that it forces me to acknowledge that Nemesis happened. Previously I was quite content to omit it from my personal headcanon.

 

[Lord Garth]

I have a four-tier system myself, even though the order of the films in the top tier is locked firmly in place.

1st Tier - My Favorites
TWOK
TVH
FC

2nd Tier - Just Underneath (the order here isn't set in stone at all)
TUC
TMP
2009
TSFS

3rd Tier - "In The Middle"
TFF
Beyond

4th Tier - And then there's the rest (the order here also isn't reliable)
GEN
INS
NEM
Into Darkness

I think Picard Season 1 made lemonade out of the lemon Nemesis gave it.

EDITED TO ADD:
Average Tier for TOS Films: 1.83
Average Tier for Kelvin Films: 3.00
Average Tier for TNG Films: 3.25

 

[Vale]

I think Picard Season 1 made lemonade out of the lemon Nemesis gave it.

Agreed.

 

[Paul755]

Best to worst…

Wrath of Kahn
Voyage Home
First Contact
Search for Spock
Undiscovered Country
Beyond
TMP
Generations
Final Frontier
Trek ‘09
Insurrection
Nemisis
Into Darkness

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Best to worst:

Into Darkness
The Motion Picture
The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek
The Search For Spock
Generations
First Contact
Beyond
The Undiscovered Country
The Final Frontier
The Voyage Home
Insurrection
Nemesis

 

[Eddie Roth]

It's always interesting to see how tastes vary, and yet there's always this apparent consensus about e.g. the even-numbered films, which in turn seems to influence how we see the comparative merits of these films. I'll try to be unbiased and simply go by the order in which I desire to re-watch them (which may be a good measure of how much you truly like them):

1. The Voyage Home
2. The Wrath of Khan
3. The Motion Picture
4. The Undiscovered Country
5. Generations
6. The Search for Spock
7. Nemesis
8. Star Trek 2009
9. The Final Frontier
10. First Contact
11. Insurrection
12. Into Darkness
13. Beyond

 

[Oddish]

Been awhile since I've seen some of them, so I'll do my Top 5.

5. The Motion Picture.
It wasn't perfect, but there was awe and wonder about the scale and power of V-Ger.

4. The Search for Spock.
Great premise, great action, and Christopher Lloyd is a great villain.

3. The Wrath of Khan.
A bit slow early and in the middle, but the starship battles were great, and Spock's sacrifice was heart-wrenching.

2. The Voyage Home
Hilarious fish out of water story, with some very funny bits. An inspired ending to an amazing trilogy.

1. First Contact.
It wins by dipping generously into the TV series. Worf and the Defiant, and his cutlery, Picard's Dixon Hill, Barclay, time travel, and the Borg.

 

[Qonundrum]

"The even numbered" rule would have people arguing as to when precisely it started to falter... there's no real rule anyway, as nobody is setting out to make a bunch of sequels that consistently alternate between "great" and "manure" on such a regular pattern... never mind the passage of time and mindset. Sometimes beliefs are consistent. Sometimes not...

...of the 13 so far, from worst to best so I might recommend you scroll all the way down and work upward for each entry. Or randomly, or in the following order... just don't jumble words between entries around arbitrarily as I've enough trouble doing that while writing these to begin with :

1. ST2009. Just a collection of set pieces and hit moments from the original films, with something scribbled around it, sort of like how "The Brady Bunch Movie" was except ST09 isn't an intentional comedy. On the plus side, how it came up with this enveloping plotline is clever - and is the first time I can recall when "parallel/alternate timeline" trope was used in such a strong and significant way. I wrote parallel universe fluff in high school creative writing stories and this is not the stuff that general audiences can often figure out either, no matter how base you tell them "we changed history because of ___" and regardless how big the sledgehammer is used. But I expected more than surfing on stereotyping with everyone being flanderized. Oh yeah, it also commits the same atrocities as NEM had, but despite it all a nice ramming scene is more exciting than a screen filled with bunch of ships for the sake of the CGI farms.
2. NEM. TNG deserved better, especially as they tried to ditch comedy to make something grittier again. It's even worse how often we, the audience, had seen young-Picard before...someone making this atrocity felt the audience might not be able to make the connection that they had to make a photo of young Picard bald or else nobody would buy into it? Um, okay... But what else didn't the audience buy into? 1. a pale rehash of TWOK, complete with previous scenes and set pieces from that movie cut'n'pasted. And from TSFS too... 2. Too many impossible developments and coincidences that stretch in-universe credibility way too far, never mind audience suspension of disbelief. 3. As far as rehashes go, it's also too Data-centric, no single aspect is worth highlighting because it's all been done before and far better before. The ramming scene is cool as a token set piece, but the build-up involving how they could make such a perfect ship is simply incredible... even the attempt to make Romulans into besties falls flat, because the franchise was so worn out by this point in time.)
   
3. FC. Looks nice overall, even despite silly and oversized plastic engine room set. But is more banal than even the worst Doctor Who escapade and with dreadfully worse plot points. Stupid jokes galore. Even a joke regarding urination, which is right up there with titledropping from a character in the least intriguing way. Borg nanoprobes are quick to assimilate. Everything otherwise feels like a cast reunion party than a movie with stakes. Anyone could do an advert saying "It's the borg! Time travel!! Pee jokes!!! Everything we know you want!" Erm, not quite...
   
4. INS. Half-baked, glides on manufactured points, and given the previous film used insurrection as a lame joke (in a scene loaded with incongruity), now using it as dead-serious plot fodder doesn't really work.
   
5. STID. This one alone isn't bad, and might have been far higher up if they did some minor tweaking and ditch the fanservice to let it be its own thing... but coasting even more on tropes, namedrops, nostalgiabate, and even waddling about on Earth even more than ST09 had just cobbles it. Never mind the sop ending with kicking a really big dislodged machine component into place - something that even Khan or John or any single human could not do despite any augmented strength... never mind the reversal of who dies and who shrieks. On paper, having Spock scream should be epic. Except these are not our original Kirk and Spock and crew; there's not been enough time to be as enamored with them as the originals and NuSpock wasn't given enough tangible development with "I battle my emotions because I hate them" shtick for this to have paid off. 1.8 films' worth of time isn't enough. TOS needed a whole season, and making everything ADHDTV doesn't accelerate this process either. The climax is on Earth (one we can't relate to, so why coddle with that BS?). With that out of the way, what's wrong with John himself being a baddie and with his gaggle of augmented people?
6. TVH. Too jokey and up its own self-congratulatory tone. Even feels like an overly long sitcom. "Fish out of water" prevailing, many jokes sadly haven't dated well. It also started a trend that mandated Trek movies must be loaded with comedy, which slowly strangled the franchise as the earlier and more serious elements enthralled and gripped audiences and with them wanting more. The sitcom feel alone almost had me pegging it at the sheer bottom. But the main story is still original enough despite the comedy (which is inevitably the preference of the individual; very little comedy is truly universal... and I laughed at some of the jokes too...)
7. STB. The best of the Kelvin era, it's what STID should have been. Still a few nostalgiabate moments, but feels the most confident. Even then, 30-something NuKirk acting like TWOK Kirk feels a tad weird. But there's more to this movie that makes up for it (original villain, good action scenes later on, a rare case of using modern day music in a future sci-fi movie that actually works and as with The Prodigy, I never cared for Beastie Boys until I heard a song placed cleverly in a movie... though The Matrix used The Prodigy's Mindfields song a tad better...)
   
8. GEN. The movie was rushed and the result is a mess so grand that even Leonard Nimoy balked. Not since TWOK has there been a topic on mortality . Kirk's handling is pretty bad and even his originally intended death had more dramatic weight (never mind one that didn't invite a slew of sub-cornball jokes involving a bridge.) Either way, the biggest joke is that Picard "buries" him by fetching dozens of rocks - that's not going to deter any number of scavenging rodentia, vermicular things, or others, but any of them that find their way up top will wonder why they had to climb frigging Everest for such a gristly morsel. But, as with most TNG movies, the plot nitpicks would all be a series of chapters on their own and Red Letter Media would point 98.6% of them out anyway, including the daft burial...
   
9. STV. In some ways, it was dated at the time - it's trying to recreate the feel of TOS TV, rather than continuing the 80s movie vibe. Most "big three scenes" are great, especially when Sybok tries to break them. The comedic aspects are a huge let-down, but not unpredictable. While even Kirk gets to be the butt of a joke, the crew are largely maltreated and some of the humor is so corny that even I wouldn't have gone where everyone had already gone. Even an interview with James Doohan showed him grimacing when they were about to show the scene of "I know this ship like the back of my h---" *bonks head onto pipe*. It's on youtube and to post it would make even me feel dirty.
10. TMP. It's Trek's most pure sci-fi outing. Which is a blessing AND a curse. But it's grown on me. And while it does take various plot bits from old TOS episodes, it's innovating and using them in better ways. I can't even stand "The Changeling" anymore, but the writers knew that story had some good bits that could be used more effectively. It's also the first time we see future technology malfunction or even fail. The movie could have been a little tighter, but what it had hasn't aged poorly. Especially with Kirk micromanaging; those under his command know their jobs. Even handing out hints could have been seen in an unflattering way, especially if the hints are outdated - which happens in this movie, as Decker and McCoy point out. Kirk often micromanaged in TOS, and back then he knew everything on everything, but in TMP there is a recurring theme - one that TWOK makes personal. Also, this is the only movie that really sells the scale of the ships and its crew so amazingly well. It feels tangible. Other movies show the ships flying and zapping things, but only in TMP does it really feel so tangible.
    
11. Rarely, when a franchise burns out, is there any light left. VI hit all the right notes and with an amazing cast. It's so good that even the repurposed TNG sets don't often stand out, but the story and direction needed to be that much stronger. Had they been bad, everybody would - rather than being glued to the screen during the battle - would just crack jokes about the TNG plastic engine set. There are some nitpicks, but generally feel less annoying because everything else works so solidly.
    
12. TSTS. The writers once said the script almost wrote itself. And I believe them. The story moves fluidly along, with great suspense and reasoned action from characters we've grown to love and are given more depth to. I've griped before on the protomatter issue and how Saavik is in the wrong to be bashing poor old David - she of all people should be clocking the differences between testing something in an intended environment and a grossly unintended one. But Kirk is really going out of his way on what amounts to faith, and yet Roddenberry of all people didn't pick up on that. More, despite everything Kruge did, Kirk was still going the high road until Kruge directly tried to kill him. Kirk was never written any better. Or more natural in flow. Kirk did that for two reasons - the first is that he's sincere (but becomes decidedly antithetical (yet not too out of character) by VI), and he knows the bigger picture about the peace treaty.
    
13. Galaxy Quest TWOK. Anyone who sat through TOS as a young adult, or even kid, will eventually have this movie resonating with them at some point. And even today the movie's pacing and flow aren't too slow or dull. It largely manages to grip and keep the flow going. But themes like middle age, growing old, wearing glasses, having a collection, feeling like becoming part of said collection... Kirk's always been a maverick and in command and really should be in command rather than pushin' paper. Not unlike in TMP only this time he's more well-rounded... and not because they replaced the tight-fighting pajama outfits with shoulder-pad bulky jackets. Many of these 80s Kirk-era movies have vignettes of poignant themes swimming around in one form or another, which one doesn't always pick up every last one in a single viewing, but TWOK really belts out a homer. And thematic; "Space Seed" - the tv episode that TWOK is based on - also shows Kirk being tripped up by his foe, except in TWOK he doesn't immediately know (much less be able to guess inanely) just who had "Khanandeered" the Reliant, making this even more engaging. (Note that we don't see Kirk and Khan together, because we know Khan would win in an instant, so the way they kept the two apart is nothing short of being done brilliantly, feeling true to both characters throughout.) We also see the crew on other assignments, folding back into the Enterprise crew in a very satisfying and authentic-feeling way. (Something TNG and later would only get right once, and even then they bung up Worf's return with inconsistencies. I'll let Red Letter Media belt out that First Contact review for the rest... I hope you read my entry for FC earlier, though if you did hopscotch around - kudos. The random number generator can be ever refreshing so... ) Lastly, this is the only Trek film that uses beautifully-animated phaser shots, rather than a generic pencil-thin beam of cartoon cel blue.

 

[Oddish]

It would be Ok to include Galaxy Quest, actually. I mean, it's not a Star Trek movie... but it sort of is.

 

[Vger23]

1. TWOK
2. TSFS
3. TMP
4. TFF
5. 2009
6. FC
7. TUC
8. TVH
9. NEM
10. BEY
11. GEN
12. ID
13. INS

 

[M.A.C.O.]

1. The Wrath of Khan

2. First Contact

3. Star Trek 2009

4. The Undiscovered Country

5. Beyond

6. Nemesis

7. The Voyage Home

8. Generations

9. The Search For Spock

10. Into Darkness

11. The Motion Picture

12. Insurrection

13. The Final Frontier

 

[Verteron]

1. The Undiscovered Country - i love this film and will fight you if you don't
2. The Wrath of Khan - everyone loves this film
3. First Contact- it's got Picard, Data, Borg, splosions, time travel, and James Cromwell, what more do you want
4. Star Trek (2009) - never that pleased with the Kelvin split but this was a great film
5. Generations - didn't like it that much years ago but it's grown on me
6. The Motion Picture - slow paced, but it's a real Trek story on the big screen, the story is fantastic
7. Beyond - vastly underrated, but unfortunately no-one saw it. Yorktown is gorgeous.
8. The Voyage Home - a fun outing but where is the Big E? Hasn't aged particularly well
9. The Search for Spock - not as bad as a lot of people think, David Marcus' death hits, Lloyd is great as Kruge.
10. Insurrection - meh, it's not that bad, but it's also not that good
11. Nemesis - plot makes little sense, some good action, but Picard out of character and rest of the crew have bit parts, Data's death is unfulfilling
12. The Final Frontier - plot makes no sense, pacing is all over the place, bunch of weird continuity issues
13. Into Darkness - if you're gonna straight up copy half of TWOK at least do it in a way that makes some f***ing sense, the callbacks are cringeworthy

 

[dupersuper]

It would be Ok to include Galaxy Quest, actually. I mean, it's not a Star Trek movie... but it sort of is.

In that case:

Best to worst:
Voyage Home
Wrath of Khan
Galaxy Quest
First Contact
Undiscovered Country
Search for Spock
Beyond
Motion Picture
Final Frontier
2009
Generations
Insurrection
Into Darkness
Nemesis