I understand the criticisms, it does move at a glacial pace & it is lacking character development. But I still like it!

Personally, I think it'd be a pretty decent film if it was trimmed down a fair bit. If I had the editing skill, a digital copy of the film, and no fear of the legal consequences, I'd take a shot at making my own trimmed-down version that just focuses on the essential plot points. That alone should help a good deal, because I've found that, one you get into the meat of the story, it's actually not that bad of a story...it just takes, like, a half hour to an hour before you're really getting into the good stuff of the plot--too long for any story to be effective.

TMP is a guilty pleasure.

The script is not great. The pacing…I mean, did it even have an editor? I think Wise literally cut everything the filmed in there (and yet somehow there where still scenes to be added back in for the broadcast version and later director’s cut??).

Nevertheless, I love rewatching TMP and have honestly rewatched it more than several other films in the franchise. Granted, sometimes I just like to have it on almost as background noise, but I do legitimately find it more entertaining than TFF, INS, the entire Kelvin series, and even the beloved TVH (even though it’s an objectively better film). It’s my 4th favorite TOS film (after TWOK, TUC and TSFS).

It really was the birth of modern Trek — think about it: it’s success led to 4 sequels and spin-off series in just 10 years after it’s release, and their success led to additional films and series. From a production standpoint, the films and TNG-era series owe it so much, from sets, props, models, costumes that would be recycled repurposed, even the TNG theme.

It may be cheesy as hell, but I still love it. The 14-minute reveal of the Enterprise in dry dock…this is classic stuff.

My gosh, is that dry dock scene really 14 minutes long? I've never actually timed it myself. I knew it was long enough to get me wondering and glancing at my watch, but...really? 14 minutes?

I mean, I get it, it's a very iconic scene with impressive visuals...but five minutes total probably would've more than sufficed, and even that feels like it might be pushing it. Look at WoK, after all. Reuses the same sequence but at only a fraction of the time, yet still manages to convey the same sense of "wow" factor (indeed, I see WoK as the superior version mostly because it doesn't overstay its welcome like TMP did).

That's TMP's real problem--it had some really impressive special effects shots for its day...but it never seemed to know when to stop filming those impressive special effects shots and get on with the more important parts of the story.

And it's a shame, really. When TMP did work, it actually worked pretty well.

Lol no, I was being sarcastic, it’s not really 14 minutes. It’s probably 3-5. But it sure seems a lot longer, doesn’t? As does the scene when they enter the V’Ger cloud…there’s about 8-10 minutes of film with very little sporadic dialogue.

Oh thank goodness. :-P But yeah, the fact I genuinely believed it could've been for a moment there still only kind of proves the point, doesn't it? It might not actually be that long, but it still feels like it is to the viewer, and that usually not something you want your audience feeling.

It’s beautiful but ponderous. I love it but I think 2 and 4 are much more watchable movies.

To be clear, it is not my favorite Star Trek film. I just appreciate it more and more with each viewing. I would go:

TUC

TVH

TSfS

TWoK

TMP

Generations

First Contact (VII & VIII often flip-flop in my ranking)

FF

Insurrection

Nemesis

Star Trek

Beyond

Into Darkness

I only have two issues with TMP.

Firstly, the uniforms, for obvious reasons. They’re awful. I know it’s 1979 styling, but still. Thankfully they fixed that in WOK.

Secondly, and I’ve mentioned this in another thread before, but the “canon image” of V’ger, the one that’s the long, blue ship looking thing with the six points sticking out in the middle of it, that’s not *actually* seen anywhere in the film. All we ever see is the “blue cloud” on the outside, and the inside of V’ger’s “ship”.

But other than that, I agree. I watched it a few weekends ago because it was on TV, and it was the first time I watched it in years, and I never realized how good it actually is.

I agree that it doesn't have much character development, it has a weak villain, and parts of it feel way too long, slow and boring.

However, it gets better each time you watch it. When I first watched it, I just thought it was boring, but now I appreciate its sort of unique style and sense of awe and wonder and mesmerizing enough scenes that make it enjoyable as a philosophical suspense mystery.