I remember that, at least amongst the people who I knew (who were fans all from the curious to the big) were very let down by how bad Trek 5 was. I even remember a friend making a crack that TFF looked as if the FX was made by an amateur. Neither of us knew back then how accurate he actually was.
I liked TFF. I know it could have been much better, but it has the best character moments in all the movies.
TFF, by no means a masterpiece, was a precursor of sorts to those comedic sci-fi films that made Will Smith famous ("Men in Black," "Men in Black II"). I actually enjoy TFF more than I enjoy the 4 TNG feature films. Those 4 TNG feature films were actually "worse attempts" at humor and romp than TFF ever was. TFF at least displayed passion and heart.
^^^ When you yourself as a viewer is more moved by the death of Sybok at the end of TFF than Data at the end of NEM, those "TNG people" clearly are in a lot of trouble...
Maybe I'm a cruel, heartless bastard, but I was moved by neither death. In fact, I chuckled when Sybok tried to meld with the god-image of himself. "I see you have a secret pain." Yeah, that I willingly subjected myself to this tripe.
You're subjected to far more on a daily basis around here than in any movie theater. At least the "tripe" in TFF was fun & entertaining, despite whatever shortcoming it suffered from. Thanks, Harve. Oh, if only they'd listened....
That part I did like, heck even TNG did the same thing with Picard in "Tapestry" where Q made hm realize that the mistakes he made as a youngster are what made him who he is.