TheRetroCritic

Kirk, Picard, in the same movie. As a kid, it seemed too good to be true. Turns out it was. Back in the day, the entire point of watching Generations wasn't really to see the first The Next Generation Star Trek movie but to see both iconic Captains together in the same place for the first time ever. It was a good gimmick and it totally worked: I loved it. Re-watching this seventh instalment for the franchise years later, though, made me realise just how flawed this entire movie was and how the gimmick I originally thought of as awesome actually hurts the movie more than it benefits it. The film opens on Kirk, Scotty and Chekov showing up on the maiden voyage of the Enterprise-B, then a big macguffin solar cloud in space appears and takes out some of the ship, seemingly killing Kirk, who promptly sacrificed himself to save the ship. I say "macguffin" because that's really all this plot rests on since that's what not only drives everyone's motivation

After two outings heavily reliant on comic relief and having a lighter tone altogether, The Undiscovered Country comes in with the director of The Wrath Of Khan at hand and a much more political plot far easier to take seriously than anything involving whales or crazy cat ladies. This was a return to form for the series which had become more cute and campy than legitimately involving sci-fi. Here we have what is basically the Cold War in space but with Shakespearian Klingons, sexy shape-shifting aliens and... Vulcan Kim Cattrall. All weird, wonderful stuff so far, I think you'll agree. This time, the overall tone mixes serious with playful much more convincingly and it never really goes too far one way or the other making this the most balanced Star Trek flick in a while. It has its fun moments with Kirk and McCoy having to deal with being unjustly exiled to some snow/desert planet and Uhura trying to get to grips with the Klingon language but it takes itself somewhat seriou

Why The Voyage Home is always included in the good even numbered Star Trek flicks is pretty darn strange. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't hate Star Trek IV, actually it's a pretty fun watch, it's just that... Whales? Really?! Star Trek has always had a sense of humour to it and that's fine. Usually in the Original Series it kept its lols for the very last scene, though. And that was usually enough. But a whole movie of just lols? I'm scared... The Voyage Home takes place right after The Search For Spock , though it really doesn't need to, and the gang is still using that Klingon ship Christopher Lloyd so generously lent them. The Federation is pissed off at them for going on their nutty searching-for-one-dead-Vulcan mission but it turns out that the Earth itself is in peril due to a probe that's... making whale sounds and that's... bad for some reason because... whales... don't exist in the future? No, I'm not making this up.

For me, this movie is why the whole odd numbers curse thing just doesn't work. Do people really love The Wrath Of Khan and not like The Search For Spock ?  Illogical doesn't begin to describe it... Yes The Wrath Of Khan was a good, fun movie but so is this one! I mean, no Star Trek movie is perfect and neither is The Search For Spock: some of the humour in it is a bit corny, the whole Spock-is-inside-McCoy thing is needlessly delayed (though Deforest Kelley acting nuts is ALWAYS worth it) and Leonard Nimoy's Spock isn't physically in the film for most of it. That said, there's plenty of great, epic stuff in the film. For one thing, there's plenty of action as Klingons finally take centre stage on the big-screen and follow-up on the whole using-Genesis-as-a-weapon thing and one of them is played by Christopher Lloyd, which is awesome in itself. Plus the actual search for Spock, besides being a mission I can totally get behind, is handled really well

After the relatively slow-paced, somewhat psychedelic, Kubrick-esque first movie outing for the Star Trek gang, they all returned for The Wrath Of Khan , a far more action-oriented sequel with a significant villain who isn't a giant space anus. Though personality-wise, he's not far off. This sequel is often on people's Best Star Trek Movies list, right at the top, and it's easy to see why: you've got a cruel enemy out for revenge, Chekov with brain bugs in his ears, Kirk screaming "KHAAAAN!", a doomsday machine of sorts, that infamous ending but, most importantly, it's just very entertaining and much closer to the Star Trek blockbuster format fans were hoping for. Ricardo Montalban is what most people remember about this one, mostly because of the ridiculous attire his character, we assume, made for himself during his banishment on a barren planet but also because of that glorious mullet, those weirdly toned old-man-pecs, his sadistic hate for C

As he took on the very first Star Trek movie, director Robert Wise certainly had his work cut out. Pleasing fans of the original series while translating a somewhat cartoonish 60's show into a legitimate, impressive 70's space opera to rival Star Wars was never going to be easy. How to bring these characters back together? How to update the look of the show without sucking all the iconic charm out of it? Turns out: by making a really long episode :S Yes this Star Trek isn't so much the big, awesome movie you'd expect but rather an extended episode of the original series with different sets, different costumes and better (but still mostly cheesy) effects. Which is not to say it's bad, even if critics and audiences over the years have panned it quite a bit, it's actually very decent (a very decent episode that is). As a movie... Star Wars this isn't. To give you an idea: it takes about 35 minutes for the main crew of The Enterprise to come togeth