This is the first movie with the Next Generation cast, it follows the outstanding 6th movie (Undiscovered Country), and Paramount decided that the Next Generation was an unproven entity, so the budget was arbitrarily low. Expectations, therefore, should not be too high for this movie.
By the good movie, bad movie pattern of Star Trek movies, this movie already has a black mark against it. There's little chance that it would be as bad as Star Trek 5, but the pattern is believed by many for a reason. As it sits, this is just a knock against this movie from the start, but it doesn't have to be true.
There are a lot of Star Trek fans out there who despise the Next Generation and everything it stands for. They stay firmly with the original series and think that Gene Roddenberry was smoking something when he decided to produce this as a series. To them, I say: You are missing out on some very good stories and fine acting. Okay, everyone has to deal with Johnathan Frakes' questionable acting talent, but don't we have to deal with a crappy Scottish accent and a horrid Russian in the original series? I say this knowing that supporters of the original series will dismiss Shatner's acting horrors as an interpretation of the character. I probably can't convince them of something they have already made up their minds about.
And the budget. All of the old TV sets were used. They were allowed to build one or two sets for the movie, but they used the original sick bay, bridge, etc. As a result, they tried to make it look more expensive and have more depth by adding darkness. They removed the lights from the series and made everything more moody. This doesn't work very well. At one point, Riker walks out of the Captain's Ready Room into what I can only assume is deep space - there is no light at all on the other side. One of the few new sets they created makes no sense: Stellar Cartography. So, you set aside a fairly large room in the ship to look at space in 3D... which you could do just as easily in one of the holodecks.
So, on to the actual movie. It's not great. The Next Generation crowd tends to pay attention to the little things - like when you somehow managed to stop all fusion on a star, it doesn't mean that the star suddenly loses mass. Likewise, inside the Nexus, Guinan says she can't go back with Picard because she's already there. But so is he.. right? I mean, we saw him film this scene once.
On top of that are the scenes that just drag on. I do not need this much of Patrick Stewart interacting with kids that I don't know in some kind of perpetually Christmas combination of a futuristic and Dickens holiday. Likewise, Data's emotion chip struggles are drawn out and Riker - well, there's just too much Riker.
Malcolm McDowell does a very good job with his villain, and he delivers lines that might seem needless if not delivered correctly, but the exchange between him and Patrick Stewart is very good. Until Shatner arrives. I'm not saying it's Shatner's fault, either. The story was so spliced together that it just doesn't seem natural to have Kirk in this movie.
I once saw Marina Sirtis talk, and she said that it seemed to her that the first time Troy got to fly the ship, she wrecked it. And if I were to complain about any of the special effects, it would be the crash. There were way too many points where it was clear that we were looking at a model. And you're telling me that this massive ship crashes, and the one significant point of damage is directly above the center of the bridge (which was on top and untouched)? I call bull.
One quick note on the costumes - I really like that they introduce the new style uniforms slowly though the movie. It's almost imperceptible.
Acting was generally very good
Direction was moderate
Editing was okay
Special effects were generally good
Story was not fantastic
Dialogue was downright brilliant at times
3.0/5