Me too, although in different order.
What are your top 3 Star Trek films?
- Thread starter Trelane_Squire_of_Gothos
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Me too, although in different order.
The Search for Spock - my single favorite film in the franchise. It's Shatner's movie and he runs with it. The crew's bond is in the forefront and everyone contributes something. An amazingly touching score by James Horner and it's a downer of a film yet still has heart and laughs. It's great stuff. Spock's return is amazingly done.
The Wrath of Khan - dead serious space opera with wonderfully big performances, a great arc for Kirk and a super swashbuckling score by Horner. Almost as good as its follow up.
The Motion Picture - seeing everyone reunited is lovely. The ballet around the Enterprise is beautiful, everyone looks great, there's a genuine sci-fi plot in there and it all feels important. Jerry Goldsmith brings his a-game.
These three films are just what I consider the best of the film franchise, when Trek movies were aimed directly at fans and not a crossover audience. There was a sense of maturity in the stories and it wasn't all played for laughs. Each film feels exactly like the time it was made. 70's epic road shows (TMP), lower budgeted down and dirty adventure (TWOK) and high stakes, bright colors and big, expensive but just too ambitious for the tech to not be fake looking set pieces (TSFS).
Love all three.
The Wrath of Khan - dead serious space opera with wonderfully big performances, a great arc for Kirk and a super swashbuckling score by Horner. Almost as good as its follow up.
The Motion Picture - seeing everyone reunited is lovely. The ballet around the Enterprise is beautiful, everyone looks great, there's a genuine sci-fi plot in there and it all feels important. Jerry Goldsmith brings his a-game.
These three films are just what I consider the best of the film franchise, when Trek movies were aimed directly at fans and not a crossover audience. There was a sense of maturity in the stories and it wasn't all played for laughs. Each film feels exactly like the time it was made. 70's epic road shows (TMP), lower budgeted down and dirty adventure (TWOK) and high stakes, bright colors and big, expensive but just too ambitious for the tech to not be fake looking set pieces (TSFS).
Love all three.
The Wrath of Khan - Probably the highest quality of the TOS films.
The Search for Spock - Ties for my favorite TOS film with the TVH because I like Spock.
The Voyage Home - I love it.
If I could choose another it would definitely be First Contact.
The Search for Spock - Ties for my favorite TOS film with the TVH because I like Spock.
The Voyage Home - I love it.
If I could choose another it would definitely be First Contact.
The voyage home and first contact would be my top 2, then probably undiscovered country and wrath of khan
1 survived because of the Star Wars hype and special effects that were still novel, but Trek finding a unique edge to make it that much better. Aimed at fans but definitely brought in casual viewers, who became fans if they didn't fall asleep and/or looked at old episodes in reruns afterward. TMP may be long but the effects are spellbinding and worthy of gawking, most hold up, and the Enterprise beauty shots are a true love letter to the show, also showing the ship as a character. If it wasn't sold as one before (and it was.) They made it feel up close, tangible, and real, whereas star Wars is a bunch of long-shot perspectives of a zillion ships whizzing by. (Which still looked cool...)
2 brings back the dramatic edge. And needs to, which sells Khan perfectly. Without the story core being strong, no tone would buoy it and the tone is perfect - if not always for young kids, who won't understand or be grossed out. Heck, a person new to TOS (aged 42, woohoo) saw "Space Seed" and didn't care about "muh 1990s" - the core aspects and philosophies of the plot won him over with ease. (IMHO, shows are in their own universe, though as a kid I won't deny I felt they could be an extension of ours in the distant future. They're made with aspects of reality as a grounding point anyway, but the fiction allows so much more - the real issue is to sell it authentically and they nailed it.)
3 is a little toned down with less gore, but keeps the spirit alive and in big ways that suit the big screen yet without changing the characters. It's why the big screen version of Kirk in the 80s is a perfect extension and growh from the 60s origins. It feels like something Kirk would do if he had to. Your description suits it beautifully, it is a great ensemble piece considering all the characters involved. Those little moments mean a lot.
General audiences can become fans, but when you have more fans then risking losing them to a general audience that may not become fans is probably a possibility?
1-3 in ways are the best as they really are for the fanbase (but not ignoring general viewers, as enough dialogue does get people up to speed without need of seeing any of the other stuff), there's no 4th wall breaking comedy, insistence that the movies must be funny, or other things to bring in general viewers... but on the flip-side, NEMESIS is definitely an example of being too fanwanky - there really is a balance, it seems. TFF is also more fan-centric despite it all as, despite the mistakes, it's trying to recreate the feel of the 60s show - bold considering how 2-4 felt like a great revival with new paradigm in their own right. Something that TUC would return to, but with more humor (thanks to TVH starting and TFF continuing that trend, with only TVH getting it right due to the nature of "fish out of water" trope and note that most humor is subdued when they're in their 23rd century home...)
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