Which Star Trek Movie Do You Think Was The Best?

[RyuRoots]

Glad to see Wrath of Khan out front. Anything else would be a travesty.

I'd say it's a travesty that it IS out front...

Anyway, my vote goes to First Contact. It just hit everything out of the park, and used the Moby Dick references in a way that actually feels meaningful. That we got the Enterprise-E and the new uniforms as well is a sweet bonus.

Khaaaaaaaaaaaaan! You can not beat Star Trek Starships battling.

Sure you can. Two words: Fleet engagements. The short (but amazing) battle in FC and the larger Dominion War engagements were the best battles Trek produced IMO.

 

[Captain Frank]

The battles in The Wrath of Khan seem more realistic.
Having these massive vessels maneuver as though they were fighter planes in a dogfight is ridiculous.

Voted for "Khan".

 

[Kirby]

I was 14 when TWOK came out and it just completely blew me away. First movie I saw more than once in the theater.

 

[Too Much Fun]

Someone is complimenting the battles in "Wrath of Khan"? Yeesh! If anything, I think that should be a deal breaker that inspires someone to vote for something else. I can understand why many people like Star Trek II better than Star Trek VIII. Star Trek II does give us a lot more solid quality time getting comfortable with the characters and their conversations (instead of action sequences), but one area where "Star Trek: First Contact" is undeniably superior is in special effects. And that's not the fault of the filmmakers for being sloppy or anything, it's just the simple fact that newer special effects are naturally way more advanced, convincing, and cooler-looking than older effects, except in rare, timeless cases like "Metropolis" and "2001: A Space Odyssey".

I like to analyze things a lot and try to understand why they're good and why they're bad. Star Trek II and Star Trek VIII are two movies I have a lot of trouble finding flaws in because I find them both almost perfect, but the one thing I always remember being subpar about Star Trek II is the special effects, especially in that final battle with Khan's ship.

The whole movie built up to the battle beautifully, and then when it happened, it looked cheesy. That's disappointing. Kudos to them for making such a terrific movie on such a small budget, but at the end, we can finally see how small the budget was (something they concealed nicely for the rest of the movie's running time). Speaking of special effects, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" is a movie that has pretty much nothing going for it other than special effects. The characters and story are just so blah. It getting more votes than "Star Trek: First Contact" makes me a sad panda. I see that as a triumph of nostalgia and pretty imagery over good writing and acting.

 

[Kirby]

^ I'm ok with the final battle in TWOK because they were going for more of a submarine-type battle instead of fighter-jet combat that the newer movies are going for. I enjoy the slow "where are they?" style over the "shoot everything!" that we get.
The effects themselves aren't the greatest, and you're right, the budget was very small. Didn't they have to use a different effects house because Lucas was working on Jedi at the time? Meh, I can forgive the effects in this one. It wasn't about the kewl anyway. They were telling a bigger story.

 

[Captain Frank]

^ I'm ok with the final battle in TWOK because they were going for more of a submarine-type battle instead of fighter-jet combat that the newer movies are going for. I enjoy the slow "where are they?" style over the "shoot everything!" that we get.
The effects themselves aren't the greatest, and you're right, the budget was very small. Didn't they have to use a different effects house because Lucas was working on Jedi at the time? Meh, I can forgive the effects in this one. It wasn't about the kewl anyway. They were telling a bigger story.

No. ILM did the effects for TWOK. That's why they look so good.

 

[Galileo7]

^ I'm ok with the final battle in TWOK because they were going for more of a submarine-type battle instead of fighter-jet combat that the newer movies are going for. I enjoy the slow "where are they?" style over the "shoot everything!" that we get.....

Yes, like in TOS episode "Balance Of Terror" , I prefer the longer drawn out battle of one starship versus one starship of ST 2 WOK. I would have loved to have seen the Enterprise 1701-A have done the same versus one Klingon K't'inga class in ST 6 UC, alias that was never to be.....

 

[ST-One]

^ I'm ok with the final battle in TWOK because they were going for more of a submarine-type battle instead of fighter-jet combat that the newer movies are going for. I enjoy the slow "where are they?" style over the "shoot everything!" that we get.
The effects themselves aren't the greatest, and you're right, the budget was very small. Didn't they have to use a different effects house because Lucas was working on Jedi at the time? Meh, I can forgive the effects in this one. It wasn't about the kewl anyway. They were telling a bigger story.

No. ILM did the effects for TWOK. That's why they look so good.

Actually, they don't.
I mean, I like the more dramatic lighting and the new paint-job ILM did on the Enterprise, but technically the VFX-shots for TMP looked better.

 

[Xavier_Storma]

I know I am going to be stoned for this...

For me it's the TNG movies 7, 8 and 10.

GENERATIONS was the first TREK film I saw in the cinema back in 1994, and it was awesome. Even today the film looks fresh (something the TOS movies except for VI can only dream of), and it is the most mature film of the series, very philosophical. It is one of the few films which has this epic, cinematic feel to it... it feels huge, larger than life, well at least to me.

NEMESIS ranks in my TOP 3. Again for the philosophical parts and for the awesome space battle in the Rift. That was what I wanted to see on the big screen for ages. In my opinion it was a great sendoff for the TNG crew. The only point of criticism for me: They should have left all cut scenes in the movie. Sure it would have made it a 180 minute epic, but would have turned a damn good film, into the best of the series.

FIRST CONTACT for the obvious reasons: A great mixture of Horror, Sci-Fi, Action. Some critics compared it to ALIENS, and IMO this comparison does really fit.

My favorite TOS film would be THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. It has the best plot of the TOS films and mirrors the situation of the Cold War perfectly. It is truly a masterpiece. I just do not like one specific part of the film, the Rura Penthe sequence was slightly too long for my taste. They could have shown more action on Earth, the Excelsior or the Enterprise instead.

 

[Xavier_Storma]

Glad to see Wrath of Khan out front. Anything else would be a travesty.

I'd say it's a travesty that it IS out front...

Anyway, my vote goes to First Contact. It just hit everything out of the park, and used the Moby Dick references in a way that actually feels meaningful. That we got the Enterprise-E and the new uniforms as well is a sweet bonus.

Khaaaaaaaaaaaaan! You can not beat Star Trek Starships battling.

Sure you can. Two words: Fleet engagements. The short (but amazing) battle in FC and the larger Dominion War engagements were the best battles Trek produced IMO.

And do not forget the Enterprise vs Scimitar battle sequence, IMO the best ship to ship fight in the franchise.

 

[Captain Frank]

I could have done without the "Prison-flick" portion of "The Undiscovered Country".

That whole sequence could have been eliminated.
Kirk and McCoy would still have been tried for Gorkon's
assassination, but could have been held on Qo'noS while awaiting transport to Rura Penthe. Then, the heroes could have escaped and been running around the Klingon Empire's capitol city.
They could steal a small vessel, and rendezvous with the Enterprise.
Or, the Enterprise could sneak into orbit to beam them up.
(Hey! If we're going to watch them enter Klingon space, it may as well be all the way to the homeworld!)

 

[Saito S]

My vote goes to First Contact. It was a VERY close call for me between that and TUC (which represents the TOS crew/23rd century setting at their absolute best IMO). I think I like both movies roughly equally as movies, so in the end I voted for FC simply because I like the TNG characters more.

Runners-up for me would be GEN, TVH, and ST09. The remaining six movies all range from "meh" down to "EW".

I know I am going to be stoned for this...

For me it's the TNG movies 7, 8 and 10.

No stones from my corner! Obviously I agree on GEN and FC, though I will say on NEM... not so much. I didn't think it was awful like many seem to, and certainly had some excellent aspects (great effects, FANTASTIC music, some nice specific character moments), but overall I do think it's one of the weaker ones.

And I also liked what you said about GEN, in terms of a really big, epic feel that it somehow had. One thing I loved about it was the approach to ship cinematography. From the rolling close-ups of the Ent-B in the ribbon, to the crazy camera angle used when the Bird of Prey decloaks at the observatory, to the Ent-D/BoP battle (which had several brilliant shots filmed from in front of the Ent-D, with the Klingon disruptor bolts flying into the camera)... the ships were filmed in a very creative, very dynamic way. I haven't seen this in any of the Trek movies, before or since (not with the same consistency anyway; several of the movies have some shots like this here and there, but only GEN used this style as a standard for nearly all external ship scenes).

The one thing I didn't like about the battle was the simple fact that it was a Bird of Prey. I wish they hadn't cheaped out (they wanted to re-use their explosion from TUC ); the end result of the sequence would have been much more believable and satisfying if the Duras sisters' ship had been a Vor'Cha.

Sure you can. Two words: Fleet engagements. The short (but amazing) battle in FC and the larger Dominion War engagements were the best battles Trek produced IMO.

And do not forget the Enterprise vs Scimitar battle sequence, IMO the best ship to ship fight in the franchise.

I agree about the FC battle and the Dominion war stuff (especially "Sacrifice of Angels"), and sort of on the Nemesis battle. The effects themselves were excellent, and I enjoyed the battle aesthetically, but it's hard for me to get past how ridiculously stupid the Scimitar itself is.

 

[Xavier_Storma]

Yes, the SFX in GENERATIONS were just awesome. The starships appeared huge. Throughout the battle the Enterprise-D looked really, for the first and last time like it was a 600 meters long cruiser. I loved the visuals in this film, and they defineatly added to the greatness of this film.

I was just wondering that they destroyed the Enterprise-D, telling us, that it did not look right on the big screen.
As much as I love the Enterprise-E, the Enterprise-D never looked better than in Generations.

 

[Galileo7]

The one thing I didn't like about the battle was the simple fact that it was a Bird of Prey. I wish they hadn't cheaped out (they wanted to re-use their explosion from TUC ); the end result of the sequence would have been much more believable and satisfying if the Duras sisters' ship had been a Vor'Cha.

I agree about the FC battle and the Dominion war stuff (especially "Sacrifice of Angels"), and sort of on the Nemesis battle. The effects themselves were excellent, and I enjoyed the battle aesthetically, but it's hard for me to get past how ridiculously stupid the Scimitar itself is.

I agree with your GENERATIONS, FC, DS9 and NEMESIS opinions(especially the Scimitar).

 

[Too Much Fun]

I could have done without the "Prison-flick" portion of "The Undiscovered Country".

That whole sequence could have been eliminated.
Kirk and McCoy would still have been tried for Gorkon's
assassination, but could have been held on Qo'noS while awaiting transport to Rura Penthe. Then, the heroes could have escaped and been running around the Klingon Empire's capitol city.
They could steal a small vessel, and rendezvous with the Enterprise.
Or, the Enterprise could sneak into orbit to beam them up.
(Hey! If we're going to watch them enter Klingon space, it may as well be all the way to the homeworld!)

Exactly. That ruined the whole movie for me. This is the only Star Trek movie where I can say I liked the beginning and end, but hated the middle. That prison stuff was lame.

 

[JCooper]

Undiscovered Country - it has everything; action, adventure, character stories, mystery, piece of history - greatest Star Trek film that can be!

 

[bensmalls]

I know I'm pretty much alone on this one, but mine is "Generations".

 

[Xavier_Storma]

I know I'm pretty much alone on this one, but mine is "Generations".

You are not! I loved this one, too!

 

[Jochk]

First contact is always good, but, Nemesis is way more hard core. Thats just my humble opinion though

 

[Xavier_Storma]

This forum is so great. Unlike trek.com, where you will be ripped apart for liking GENERATIONS and NEMESIS, and for criticising XI, here people actually discuss and talk with eachother.

@ Jochk: I also liked NEMESIS very much.