Star Trek Movies Ranked

No introduction.  Just a list of the Star Trek films, my rating along with IMDb's rating for each film, and what makes them (not) great.

11. Star Trek: Insurrection (4/6.3; released in 1998)
Choosing to watch the ninth or tenth Star Trek movies is like having to decide between drinking your own urine or French kissing your sister: neither would kill you, but you could surely find better things to do with your time.  Insurrection, the ninth entry in the series and third movie mission for The Next Generation cast, is a 103-minute morality tale updating the question of whether displacing the few for the betterment of the many is morally justified into an alien sci-fi world.  Think Avatar without the mind-blowing 3D visual effects.  Very little redeeming qualities can be found in this movie and it would have been better served as an hour-long TV episode for the second Trek series.

10. Star Trek: Nemesis (4/6.4; released in 2002)
Whether Insurrection turned out to be the pee-drinking or the incestuous sister-kissing example in the above metaphor, Nemesis is the other one.  Deciding that Enterprise’s next generation had only four movies in them, this turned out to be the crew’s final mission on the silver screen, nearly killing the franchise.  The storyline for Nemesis, the tenth movie of the series, involves a clone of Picard created by the Romulans who needs Picard’s blood to survive.  A principal theme in the film is how nature vs. nurture plays out among alien races.  The presence of a Picard clone, inane chase sequences, lots of action, and satisfactory visual effects can’t equate to engaging storytelling or enjoyable viewing.  Even a shocking plot development is negated when it’s revealed a backdoor was left open to right the (space)ship.  Nemesis was a disappointing bow out for Picard and crew.

9. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (4/6.5; released in 1984)
Kirk and the gang hijack a wrecked Enterprise after returning to Earth from their confrontation with Khan, minus Spock who was left behind on a Genesis-transformed planet.  A Klingon commander races to the same destination in hopes of turning the Genesis Device into a weapon.  The Search for Spock, the third feature film of the series given a green light the day after release of The Wrath of Khan, has some elements that make it watchable.  This includes good performances from the cast, a few key surprises and twists throughout the film, and plot points that contribute to the setting up of future films in the series.  However, regarding said plot, it seems to trudge along at times never getting the viewer’s heart racing like its predecessor or other subsequent films of the series.

8. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (6/5; released in 1989)
Panned by critics and fans alike as the worst movie in the series, I give the fifth Star Trek film, The Final Frontier, more credit than most.  The Enterprise crew is dispatched to rescue hostages on a planet, only to find Spock’s Vulcan half-brother Sybok is behind the incident.  Sybok’s true plan is to use the Enterprise and travel to the center of the galaxy in order to find the creator of all things on the mythical planet Sha Ka Ree.  While everything loathed about the film, such as the dialogue, special effects, and William Shatner’s narcissistic directing, without a doubt make The Final Frontier a tough watch, the idea of searching for God in space intrigues me.  There are so many groups of people who want to find our Creator and seek His presence here on Earth, so why is it such a lame concept for an alien to have the same desire?

7. Star Trek: Generations (6/6.4; released in 1994)
The potential for greatest Star Trek movie was there.  Pitting two Enterprise captains against a former A Clockwork Orange maniac, what could possibly go wrong?  Generations proved combining the leadership methods of James T. Kirk’s reckless endangerment and Jean-Luc Picard’s disciplined common sense did not make for good movie watching.  Generations, the series seventh film, begins with The Original Series members Kirk, Montgomery Scott, and Pavel Chekov assisting in a rescue mission aboard USS Enterprise-B.  Kirk is believed dead after being transported into a strip of energy called the Nexus.  More than 75 years later, Picard’s The Next Generation crew, along with Kirk, must stop Dr. Tolian Soran from destroying a civilization in his attempt to re-enter the Nexus, as he was one of the ones rescued by the Enterprise-B.  I can’t say exactly what makes Generations an average movie because I’m not sure what it is that hinders it.  It simply doesn’t excite and intrigue like other Star Trek films.

6. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (7/6.2; released in 1979)
The pioneer mission that took Star Trek to the big screen proved that, unlike movies such as The Godfather or Jaws, the first is not always the best.  The Motion Picture is an adapted storyline from the abandoned continuation series, Star Trek: Phase II.  The Enterprise must determine how to stop a massive cloud of energy with a living machine at its center that is destroying all life in its path to find its maker.  The Motion Picture is a smart story that unfolds slowly, which is something a lot of moviegoers weren’t interested in after the popularity of sci-fi, action hits like Star Wars and Alien.  Many argue the plot is too similar to an episode of The Original Series titled “The Changeling,” but never having seen that episode I feel the film is a pleasant addition and breathed life into the series again allowing for future films and television series.

5. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (7/7.3; released in 1986)
The fourth film of the series and final part of a trilogy-arc storyline, The Voyage Home sends the Enterprise crew back in time to San Francisco in order to find now-extinct humpback whales that can answer the call of a deadly alien probe threatening Earth in their present time.  As director, Leonard Nimoy does a superior job balancing the environmental message with the comedy that comes from the future crews’ mishaps with what is perceived as primitive technology and people.  You can really tell the cast let loose with this movie and saw it as an opportunity to be more relaxed than in previous Trek films.  The Voyage Home is a fun movie that Trekkies and non-Trek fans alike can enjoy, proving Star Trek doesn’t have to have space battles, photon torpedoes, and alien villains to entertain.

4. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (8/7.7; released in 1982)
Many believe the greatest movie of the series is the second, The Wrath of Khan.  Not only a sequel to The Motion Picture, but also a continuation of the 1967 Original Series episode “Space Seed,” genetically-engineered Khan Noonien Singh seeks revenge on Kirk for deserting him and his people on an isolated planet.  Where Star Trek films like The Final Frontier and Nemesis nearly killed the franchise, The Wrath of Khan had a complete opposite outcome, giving new life to the series.  Ricardo Montalban’s Khan is a welcome return to the series as main antagonist and the parallel to Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is well-suited for a swashbuckling space adventure.  What hurts this movie is the acting, discounting Montalban and Leonard Nimoy, and the battle sequences, which have not aged well as computer technology and graphics continue to improve.

3. Star Trek: First Contact (8/7.6; released in 1996)
First Contact is the eighth movie in the series but a first in many categories, including first to feature no cast member of The Original Series and first to highlight the cybernetic organisms known as the Borg as the villain, which had been done on television but not in film.  The Borg travel back in time to colonize and conquer Earth, leading Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-E to stop it, while at the same time ensuring that the first test of a warp-drive vessel undertakes its mission without any interference.  First Contact combines great action, visual effects, and time travel and ends up being one of the most thrilling adventures Star Trek has ever offered.  A glaring misstep for the film is how heavily it relies on Trek-verse history and verbiage, leaving non-fans a bit in the dark on all the details, but not so much that a good time can’t still be had.

2. Star Trek (9/8.1; released in 2009)
Partly prequel, partly reboot, the eleventh film in the Star Trek series, appropriately named Star Trek, relates the origins of characters from The Original Series.  The plot involves a Romulan named Nero traveling back in time and seeking revenge on the Federation planets Earth and Vulcan for events that have not yet happened.  Providing a compelling story with plenty of action and humor makes this movie a well-received film by all moviegoers, but that the writers were able to seamlessly restart the series and provide an outlet for new stories is an amazing achievement.  Another benefit to this film is the stellar casting for every single Enterprise crew member, especially Karl Urban’s Dr. McCoy.  Obviously, Trekkies were going to compare the old and new actors, but the cast does a great job recreating the characters and adding fresh nuances to the characters.

1. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (9/7.2; released in 1991)
One of the elements that made Star Trek such a hit in the 60s was taking real-world events and putting them into science-fiction scenarios, leading to society looking through a microscope at the problems going on around the globe.  The sixth Star Trek film is in the vein of classic The Original Series episodes in that it chronicles what it would be like if the Berlin Wall coming down had taken place between alien races.  The Enterprise must oversee peaceful talks between the Federation of Planets and Klingons when an environmental disaster forces the two to work with one another.  The Undiscovered Country is well-paced, suspenseful as a whodunit plot unfolds, visually stunning, filled with action and comedy, and has great performances from the main cast and supporting characters, particularly Christopher Plummer as a Klingon general.