What I can say? They all are great! Some are better than others, but still is very enjoyable, why there is so mixed reviews about it? I can understand some specific complains, but that dosen’t make it bad.
I feel like that’s the Trek films in a nutshell - from a critic’s standpoint, they’re not necessarily all great, but they almost feel like long Star Trek episodes that you enjoy anyway.
Here’s my thoughts on each film:
- Generations: Honestly, I think pretty good with a solid overall plot. I loved Data’s arc - I feel like they did a great job not taking the comic relief too far. The fight scene was delightfully campy, and the “Time is a predator” stuff is so memorable to me.
- First Contact: I think it was a fun film. It’s almost the Wrath of Khan of the TNG films - a lot more action, with some Trek - which is probably why it’s considered the best. Personally, I prefer Generations, but this is still a good watch.
- Insurrection: There were a lot of fun moments, but the overall plot wasn’t that great - Picard’s new love interest that we never hear about again, the weird theme about “being in the moment” that I feel didn’t integrate into the plot all that well, etc.
- Nemesis: I think Nemesis had a lot of great things that didn’t quite land at the end. I think Shinzon did a great acting job, but could have been written better. They made him more irrational than I think he should have been, and the whole plot with “blowing up the earth” and “conquering the galaxy” felt way out of line for someone who is the product of and survived imperialism. As for B4, I feel they didn’t address the ethical concerns of throwing Data’s mind in him. At the end, blowing up Data didn’t help, but if the rest of the movie had been written better, I might have been fine with this choice, Chances are, whether through B4 or a Search for Spock-esque plot, we would have gotten another film where we got Data back.
Generations is one of my favorites. Frequently underrated, imo. I honestly might place it above First Contact but I love all of Gene’s children equally.
I honestly think Generations gets hated on more than it should because the Enterprise D is destroyed. People love that ship.
My sad take is that I felt like I noticed a shift in the opinions of fandom after that infamous Red Letter Media review in 2012. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love those reviews and think they’re hilarious, but a lot of Redditors (and Lemmy-ers) seemed to look at the Plinkett character as someone worth emulating instead of despising.
I thought the crossover element of Generations really brought it down. The original cast had a far better farewell in Star Trek VI, and I don’t think the writers of Generations had enough to say about Kirk’s character to justify the tortured story logic that brought him in.
Give me a Kirkless cut and I’ll be so much happier. All the pure TNG elements work fine for me, McDowell is great, and the D looks beautiful with cinematic lighting.
I just watched First Contact again a few days ago, and I honestly don’t understand why it is the highest rated TNG movie. I didn’t think it was very good.
Generations is a fun movie, but I demand an edit where Picard uses the Nexus to go back and save his nephew from burning to death and then uses his foreknowledge to defeat Soren easily.
Why is it okay to go back to save millions of Veridians but not to save Remy and then the Veridians by extension? Either way you’re messing with the timeline. Soren already won.
Semi-unrelated question: I’ve watched Star Trek Voyager with my gf, she doesn’t know any other Trek. I don’t think we want to watch TOS, but will probably continue with TNG and DS9 next.
Do you need to know the TOS characters like Kirk, Spock etc before watching their movies, or are they adequately introduced in the movies so you can watch them as someone completely ignorant?
For the most part, but maybe a quick skim of their Wikipedia pages would help. Or try asking Copilot to give you move spoiler free summaries of the characters. Bit of overlap but this should give an ok base of info. https://sl.bing.net/jeamSKws8G // https://sl.bing.net/jM0nsgjJa68
The ToS movies are still very good! Some of them are better than TNG movies. They’re a bit dated, with the Motion Picture being 1979, but they’re good nonetheless. I’m currently watching The Motion Picture, and I just watched The Undiscovered Country a week ago. That one was good enough that I decided to go back and watch all of them again. Kahn and the one with the whales are the most beloved, but Undiscovered is good too. I can’t speak to The Motion Picture yet, since I haven’t seen it in 30+ years, and I’m less than half way through it this time around. I think The Search for Spock is not considered great, but we’ll see here soon!
Star Trek Prodigy is the true sequel to Voyager. It’s all ages / family rather than the ‘kids show’ many fans take it for. I would watch that with your GF next.
Because Prodigy is designed to be an entry point for new viewers, it introduces many of the key legacy characters and much of the lore. It has a Star Wars vibe in the pilot, mainly to draw in viewers from other franchises, but it settles into being some of the Trekiest content ever by the 6th short episode of season one.
