With the upcoming release of ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ barely a week away, it’s certainly a good time to do a little retrospective on the Star Trek franchise. After all, it has had a pretty unique run over the last few decades. When it began in the 60’s, it was just a single TV series that only lasted for three seasons. But since then, it has become such an iconic part of pop culture that it would spawn a larger franchise that would also see four other TV series and a film franchise amongst other things. But to keep this post from going on for way too long, this will only be a look back at the ‘Star Trek’ films. I might consider doing a post sometime later where I review the five major ‘Star Trek’ TV series, but that will have to take a while (it certainly won’t happen during ‘Trek Week’) because at this point, I have only seen episodes from the original Star Trek series and ‘The Next Generation’. I have yet to watch anything from ‘Deep Space Nine’, ‘Voyager’, or ‘Enterprise’.
Before I begin, let me just address something about my experience with this franchise. I did not grow up with ‘Star Trek’. While I was growing up, ‘Star Trek’ really wasn’t that big, which I guess was partially due to the poor performance of its tenth film, ‘Star Trek: Nemesis’. In terms of sci-fi franchises, I was more into ‘Star Wars’ (but even then, that wasn’t a franchise I really grew up with either). My first experience with ‘Star Trek’ was the 2009 reboot and it was that film that introduced me to the ‘Star Trek’ franchise. In fact, in recent years, I’ve actually found myself preferring ‘Trek’ to ‘Wars’ because I feel that ‘Trek’ has been better written (*cough* Prequels *cough*) and has had better stories and characters because at its core, the franchise is about exploration (‘To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before’) Like any long-running film frnachise, while there have been some less than stellar ‘Trek’ films, there have certainly been some exceptional films.
STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (1979): (2/5)
When it first came out, ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ was a really big deal. This was a decade after the original series had ended in 1969, and while there was also an animated series that aired from 1973 to 1974, there wasn’t much ‘Star Trek’ for most of the 70’s. So here comes Trek’s first motion picture… and the end result is straight up boring. That’s this film in a nutshell… nothing really happens in the film. Most of the time, the film is focused on its visuals which do look great for the time but on another hand, this film hasn’t really aged well in that regard. In fact, sometimes the visuals could give you a headache just trying to figure out what you’re looking at. To the film’s credit, it does actually do a pretty good job at staying faithful to the TV show, but as the first Star Trek movie, it’s one that I recommend skipping.
STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (1982): (5/5)
I don’t think I have to say much about this film because everyone’s done so already. ‘The Wrath of Khan’ is one of the best Star Trek movies ever, if not the best. It’s certainly the best of the films starring the original cast. Even though this film is the second Trek film chronologically, you do not have to sit through the boring first film just to watch this one. The only thing you would need to watch first would be ‘Space Seed’, an episode of the Original Series that introduced one of Star Trek’s greatest villains, Khan, who returns in this film as the main villain (hence the name of the movie, ‘Wrath of Khan’). Ricardo Montalban’s terrific performance as Khan is one of the many great things about this film, from the writing to the acting. Even if you’re not a Star Trek fan, this is a must-see in the sci-fi genre.
STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK (1984): (3.5/5)
First off, let’s get the obvious fact out of the way; ‘Search for Spock’ is not as good as ‘Wrath of Khan’. Perhaps the biggest reason why I say this is because this film is kind of a cop-out when you think about it. ‘Wrath of Khan’ ended with the very emotional death of Spock which, on that note, was a fitting conclusion to a great Star Trek film. But then in this film, they bring him back just after one movie. It’s great to have Spock back and all but I’m not going to lie, what then was the point of killing him off in the last movie if you just bring him back one movie later? But despite that, there’s nothing really bad I can really say about the film. In the end, it’s an entertaining film but as a follow-up to ‘Wrath of Khan’, it doesn’t really hold up.
STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME (1986): (4/5)
‘The Voyage Home’ is sort of ‘the black sheep’ of the franchise mainly because it’s pretty different from any of the other Star Trek films. For one thing, the plot is rather… out there. Basically, what happens is that the crew of the Enterprise travels back in time to 1986 San Francisco where they have to collect humpback whales to bring back to the future so that the whales can ‘talk’ with a giant log-like entity that ‘speaks’ in a language that only humpback whales can understand. Yeah, if you’re scratching your head at that plot, don’t worry… you’re not the only one. But despite the strange plot, Star Trek IV benefits from something else, and that is its great use of humor. This is thanks in part due to the film’s ‘fish out of water’ premise, which has the crew of the Enterprise navigating through San Francisco in a time that is strange to them and this leads to some very funny moments. While it isn’t really a must-see like ‘Wrath of Khan’, this is another film that works well for both Star Trek fans and general audiences.
STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER (1989): (1.5/5)
Oh boy… let’s get this one out of the way. After a rock-solid trilogy of films (yes, Star Trek II through IV was a three-part story arc), ‘Star Trek V’ hits theaters and as producer Harve Bennett put it, it nearly killed the franchise and for good reason. This is easily the worst Star Trek film to date. Where do I even begin? While ‘The Final Frontier’ does a pretty unique premise, which sees the Enterprise literally searching for God, the execution on the film is horrendous. For one thing, the humor in this film really doesn’t work unlike the last film, and the film suffers from other issues like characterization, plot holes, and MANY production goofs. There’s an interesting twist surrounding the main villain Sybok as he is actually Spock’s half-brother, but the only explanation as to why it was never brought up before is that Captain Kirk ‘never asked’. This is another Star Trek film that I recommend skipping, unless you really want to see the film that nearly killed the franchise.
STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY (1991): (4/5)
The final film to star the cast of the original Star Trek series is easily a huge improvement over its predecessor and a much more fitting final film for the cast. Thankfully, ‘Final Frontier’ didn’t kill the franchise and, more importantly, wasn’t the original cast’s final film. ‘The Undiscovered Country’ benefits from a well-written script that has a bit of ‘end of the Cold War’ influence to it, as it revolves around Starfleet and Klingons trying to work together. This film is also notably much darker in tone than its predecessors, from the lighting/settings to the overall tone of the film. The film isn’t exactly perfect, though. The age of the cast is a little distracting and the main villain of the film isn’t really that good (despite the fact that he’s played by Christopher Plummer). But at the end of the day, ‘Star Trek VI’ is a rock solid Star Trek film that ends the original cast’s run on a high note (to an extent (see next film for more on that)).
STAR TREK GENERATIONS (1994): (3/5)
So here we have the first Star Trek film to star the cast of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’... a film that also crams in a few members of the original cast and yet the filmmakers don’t really give them anything to do. They’re just… there, and that’s all. Because of that, the film is a bit uneven in that the filmmakers didn’t just let the ‘Next Generation’ cast take over in the place of the original cast. But hey, what about the fact that this film has Captains James T. Kirk and Jean Luc Picard meeting each other? Well, that is pretty cool but Kirk plays such a minor role in the film and yes, his death at the end of the film is rather dishonorable to the legend that he is. Malcolm McDowell does a pretty good job as the main villain Soran but as a whole, this film is just ok.
STAR TREK FIRST CONTACT (1996): (5/5)
Like with ‘Wrath of Khan’, the Next Generation’s second film is easily their best. It features another great Star Trek villain; actually I should say villains because it’s not just a single character. Instead, it’s the cybernetic race known as the Borg (‘Resistance is Futile!’). Overall, ‘First Contact’ is the best written of the ‘Next Generation’ films and it also succeeds with its darker tone (this is notably the first Trek film to be rated PG-13). Admittedly though, this is probably the only ‘Next Generation’ film I really recommend because none of the other ‘Next Generation’ films were really as good as this one.
STAR TREK INSURRECTION (1998): (2.5/5)
The third ‘Next Generation’ film is on the same level of ‘The Motion Picture’ in that it is a rather dull film. Like ‘The Motion Picture’, it does stay pretty faithful to the TV show it’s based on but as a movie it just doesn’t live up to some of the franchise’s better entries. It just feels like a two-part episode of the TV series. This is another one I don’t recommend and instead I suggest you just watch one of the actual two-part episodes from ‘The Next Generation’. It’s not the worst ‘Star Trek’ film, but it’s not really that good either.
STAR TREK NEMESIS (2002): (4/5)
‘Nemesis’ is another film that you could say almost killed the Star Trek film franchise, as it fared poorly at the box office which would ultimately lead to the series getting rebooted seven years later. But, as a whole, Nemesis actually isn’t that bad. The biggest problem with the film is that it’s a bit too dark. The dark tone doesn’t really work here as it did in ‘The Undiscovered Country’ or ‘First Contact’. It seems like this film shares many similarities with ‘Wrath of Khan’, even ending with the death of a major character (in this case, Data). But while ‘Wrath of Khan’ did end on a pretty uplifting note, ‘Nemesis’ just ends on a really depressing note. To its credit, the film is entertaining and its premise is pretty good, as the film sees Picard facing off against his clone (played by none other than a young ‘Bane’ himself, Tom Hardy). ‘Nemesis’ is not as bad as some might think but as the final ‘Next Generation’ film, it could have been much better.
STAR TREK (2009)
A Full Review will be coming in the next few days…
Rankings:
11. Final Frontier
10. The Motion Picture
9. Insurrection
8. Generations
7. Nemesis
6. Search for Spock
5. The Undiscovered Country
4. First Contact
3. The Voyage Home
2. Star Trek (2009)
1. Wrath of Khan
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