Shat-tastic!, 23 Jun 2004

I saw this in the cinema when I was 8 years old and thought at the time it was the best film I'd ever seen. My opinion has lessened sligtly, but there is still an enormous amount to recommend and it pains me to see this constantly voted the weakest Trek film (when every Next Generation movie after Generations was absolutely abysmal).

For a first-time director Shatner utilises some awesome cinematography, there are superb displays from Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley, Lawrence Luckinbill gives a layered performance as Spock's half-brother-turned-religious-manic, and some deep philosophical issues are at least raised, if not entirely satisfactorily explored.

Most people reading this will be Trek fans anyway, but if you are say looking to build up a Trek movie collection and thinking of giving this one a miss due to some of the other (unfairly) negative reviews, my advice would be to get it and make up your own mind. Not perhaps AS essential as Treks 2 and 4, but still an unheralded classic.

If you want lots of explosions, ghastly OTT CGI, some excremental dialogue and no cerebral engagement you will want First Contact or Nemesis instead.

As far as the odd/even argument goes, I feel the rule should be re-written as 1-7 good, 8-10 bad. Not that I hated the Next Generation crew on telly, quite the reverse, but with the exception of Patrick Stewart, none of the cast were capable of making the transition to the big screen, and Frakes was a shockingly poor director. Remember that next time you slate Ol' Bill for his Final Frontier.