Seeing these rankings is always infinitely fascinating. It's great to hear what others like and dislike about it. Also, because I just want to say it, the second film on your list could have been called "Second Khantact" *booo* I can hear them now.
I remember when I first saw the trailer for Star Trek '09, seeing it and hearing the music that was played reawakened within me my love of Star Trek. It's called "Freedom Fighters" by Two Steps from Hell, and it was powerful, chilling and somehow healing. Pike: "Your father was Captain of a starship for 12 minutes. He saved over 800 lives... including yours. I dare you to do better. Enlist in Starfleet." Sarek: "You are capable of deciding your own destiny. The question is... which path will you choose?" Nero: "James T. Kirk was a great man... but that was another life." McCoy: "We've got no captain and no first officer to replace him." Kirk: "Yeah, we do." (takes his place on the captain's chair.)
I split the movies into Eras, so in order of preference of Eras and Movies: Era 1: VI, II, III, IV, I, V. (VI can stand on its own, II needs the other parts to be complete.) Era 2: VIII, VII, X, IX. Era 3: XI, XIII, XII.
Great list! This is my order: 13 The Motion Picture 12 Insurrection 11 Beyond 10 First Contact 9 Nemesis 8 The Final Frontier 7 The Voyage Home 6 Into Darkness 5 Star Trek (2009) 4 The Wrath Of Khan 3 The Search For Spock 2 Generations 1 The Undiscovered Country
My ranking, worst to vest in the Star Trek movies: In 3 brackets, the bad (ignore these if you can), the ugly (it is trek, but I usually have better things to watch than this) and the good (I see them more than once every 4 years). There is also my top 3... The bad 13. The final frontier (boring) 12. Beyond (slapstick humor at Star Treks expense) The ugly 11. Insurrection (there is enough space fighting action to keep it entertaining) 10. The Undiscovered Country (great characters by great actors, story is less IMO) 9. Generations (passing the torch, must watch ones, re watch at your own peril) 8. The Motion picture (classic, albeit slow original, with an absolute killer soundtrack) 7. The Search for Spock (good to watch, not to re watch) The good 6. Star Trek, the new beginning (nice backstories aka character development) 5. Into Darkness (best of the 'new treks') 4. The Voyage home (Good humor, proper Trek movie) Must watch, even if you are not a trekie 3. Nemesis (Finally some Romulan/Reman action imagine this be the Romulans in the series, the best space battles of the series) 2. The Wrath of Khan (the classic Star Trek movie that conquered time) 1. First Contact (perfection in Star Trek style or when the Borg were the main antagonist, properly done) As stated in the begining, this is my ranking, it ain't edged in stone, enjoy the ones you like... but DO NOT talk bad about the top three... Nah just kidding, watch em all and be your own Star Trek judge, impersonating Q.
Another outstanding video from you; my complements! With your permission, I have a few random comments: IMO ST Into Darkness was the worst of the worst. Not only was it almost entirely derivative, but it had the chance to do something original with Benedict Cumberbatch's character and blew it. If you remember, Khan nearly died in the opening scene of the Space Seed episode, so "John Harrison" could have been a wholly original character (one of the other Augments) and he certainly behaved very differently from RealKhan. Oh, also, the plot had plot holes big enough to fly the Enterprise through. STV was a terrible movie, but I've developed a real appreciation for Sybock and his relationship with Spock. Sybock clearly loves Spock as much as any brother could, and Spock seems to want to reciprocate, but can't quite do it due to his Vulcan stoicism. Also, Sybock is one of the best Tragic Protagonists that I've seen in film (I'm totally serious.) His intentions are entirely benevolent, yet he had a particular genius for making a mess of things for both himself and for everyone else around him. Generations and Nemesis IMO were two potentially great Trek movies that very, very badly needed script doctoring. Both of those screenplays needed somebody very detail oriented - and, preferably, also a long time Trek fan - to go through line-by-line and send requirements for corrections back to the writers. Plus, the Enterprise-B and Captain Harriman were wasted (though I would argue that Harriman was facing his own personal Kobayashi Maru, no-win scenario). The Reboot is the prototypical J.J. Abrams movie. It has good effects, lots of action, and a very, very appealing cast; all of this covers up the fact that, to be blunt, it's a really dumb script. Drilling to the center of a planet? Black Holes being created by "...Red Matter..."? Please, make the bad sci-fi stop! As much as I love First Contact, it's no Wrath of Khan. ST the Motion Picture is NOT why Trek exists as a franchise to this day, Wrath of Khan is the reason; it was the last chance that the movie studio was going to offer to make a viable Trek movie, and it needed to do it on a budget. Not only did it succeed brilliantly - and Ricardo Montalban dominated every scene that Khan was in (again) - but it was arguably William Shatner's best performance in anything Star Trek.
They should have spent just a BIT less on Generations' Stellar Cartography scene, so the blowing up of the Duras' sisters ship wasn't just recycled footage of Chang's ship exploding in Undiscovered Country.
@@bestoftrekworstoftrek I'd like to also point out that Shatner was a Shakespearian actor as well. He actually performed with Plummer in many productions in Stratford, Ontario -- known for it's Shakespeare festivals.
I respect your opinion in this, though I would swap the positions of Wrath and First Contact. You should read the books. A lot of the questions you asked are answered in them. Scotty brought his Nephew to the bridge because the turbolifts were out and he had to reroute and then go down through the primary hull from there.
How the hell was Spock doing ANYTHING on the Genesis Planet, if he didn't have his katra? Either they're not necessary, or Genesis Spock grew up rapidly with an entirely different one that got tossed out when they did the ritual I don't remember the name of?
Those top 3 are just about as good as one another. I started out with the premise that TWOK was the best movie, and TMP was the worst, but opinions change when you try to get serious about it. Thanks for watching!
Very few people seem to be. Movie ranking seem to have a much wider variation than a lot of television episodes. Thanks for checkin in though! It's ok to not agree!
I generally agree with your take on...most of the movies, if not the rankings you assign them. First Contact is absolutely the best of the TNG films, though that certainly isn't saying much. It is also certainly great among the Trek films as a whole, but that is also not saying a great deal. Finally, it is in no way better than Wrath of Khan, not by any measure. It pains me to say it because I've always had a soft spot for Star Trek, but...Wrath of Khan is the *only* Star Trek movie that can be called objectively good in a general sense and worth paying full price at the theater to see. That being said, Search for Spock, Undiscovered Country, and First Contact were worth seeing in the theater. A few below that are rentals at best (Final Frontier, Voyage Home, the first Kelvin timeline movie maaaaaybe) and the rest (Motion Picture, Generations, Insurrection, Nemesis, and the remainder of the Kelvin films) are "stream it for free". As far as why people don't like Generations, that's easy---it's because the writing is inexcusably bad. The plot is so full of holes it borders on nonsensical, even by science fantasy space magic standards. Soran is making missiles that blow up stars (and, naturally, their entire planetary systems) to steer the Nexus space ribbon to a specific planet he has chosen to wait around for it on....because...uh...why? He literally got sucked into it along with at least a large handful of other people (including Guinan) on the ship he was on in the prologue. Even the throwaway convo between Picard and Data explaining why he couldn't buy/rent/steal a warp-capable ship and fly/beam/kamikaze himself into the Magical Gimmick MacGuffin Thing makes zero sense because it conveniently and blatantly throws out exactly what happened at the beginning of the movie with no explanation as to why. I would also put it to you that if the Nexus is so violent and unpredictable that it would potentially destroy whatever vessel you were in before you could get properly sucked in, why would you fare any better against the same giant cosmic lightning bolts of death standing on a planet and waiting for it to hit you in the face? It was all quite clear that the movie, which premiered in theaters just under 6 months after the final episode of TNG aired, was thrown together in pretty short order with the simple goal to have Kirk and Picard on screen at the same time when Star Trek's paying audience was at its peak. This was a perfectly understandable (if a bit predictable) move, but they executed it in a way that was almost shockingly---and completely unnecessarily---stupid.
I thought Beyond was a fair installment. I enjoyed it way more than into darkness for example. I get your reasoning, and I know this is largely opinion based but compared to some stinkers you have above it, I can't agree 100%. I think I largely agree with the rest of your rankings.
The Voyage Home in the middle of the pack is a crime. Undiscovered Country at 3 is a travesty. Of course The Wrath of Kahn should be #1, but in these lists, you put the best at #2 so you can seem "edgy" with your number 1 pick, which, obviously is what happened here. Drop First Contact into the #3 or #4 slot, because it was original, and move everything else up and you will have a moderately logical ranking.
Ok, you admitted Final Frontier is better than TMP. I was afraid we were gonna have to throw down. Bat'leths at dawn. *about 20 minutes later* YOU THINK FIRST CONTACT IS BETTER THAN WRATH OF KHAN??? Oh, I'm getting my bat'leth, bro.
It's a fun movie without a ton wrong with it, like many other Trek movies. It's ok if you love it, I just happen to think there are better Trek movies. Thanks for watching!
Well, my take. STAR TREK 1979 4/10 Unlike Abrams, at least it meant well. ST 2 WRATH OF KHAN ✝ 10/10 ✝ GOOD FRIDAY ✝ ST 3 SEARCH FOR SPOCK ✝ 10/10 ✝ EASTER SUNDAY ✝ ST 4 VOYAGE HOME 8/10 Great interaction in strange environment. ST 5 FINAL FRONTIER 10/10 Deeper than we think. ST 6 NDISCOVERED COUNTRY 10/10 Chilling Mystery! GENERATIONS 7/10 Kirk, Soran, Picard! FIRST CONTACT 3/10 Oh! Get out of here with that! INSURRECTION 9/10 Riker and Deanna together again! NEMESIS 🥶 10/10 🥶 My blood is frozen. 🥶 GALAXY QUEST 10/10 Oh! We can count this! Abrams 2009 zero! FU Abrams! Ruining STAR WARS wasn't enough? INTO DARKNESS zero! Abrams, why didn't you just smash a crucifix? BEYOND zero! SO WHAT if GT is gay? Sulu was NOT!
I hated Insurrection. The story are the ethics were badly thought and just bad. The Ba'ku were bland and pretentious, and their back-to-nature, rural simplicity message was asinine. They claim to reject technology, but they still have stuff like an irrigation system, a stone dam, and a metal smith. Not to mention Picard comparing removing them to forced relocations like the Trail of Tears, when he was involved in two forced relocations with the second relocation involving actual Native Americans. The entire plan comes across far less like Native American relocation camps of the past and more like a case of eminent domain for the good of the greater society. I've read some comments about how the film should have tied into the Dominion War, and I actually like that idea. In fact, the planet's healing radiation could be used in a desperately needed attempt to help with the war effort as by that point, the Federation was badly losing with the casualties numbering daily in the thousands.
My list is 1. Wrath of Khan 2. First Contact 3. Undiscovered Country 4. Voyage home 5. Search for Spock 6. The Motion Picture 7. Generations 8. Nemesis 9. Final Frontier 10. Insurrection 11. Beyond 12. ST 2009 13. Into Darkness
Star Trek beyond is indeed a horrible movie. Star Trek The Motion Picture is far better than you realize. It is much better than many of the others that you listed. I think perhaps you just wanted action to much. It is as intellectual as its beginnings. I suspect that you were unfortunately born into a too late a period of time where the action must constantly be in motion and subtext does not exist. The portrayal of Kirk in the JJ Abrams movies is simply horrible. It's a braid caricature of Kirk as a meme. Star Trek IV soundtrack I think is also really bad.
It's totally ok to disagree about what's the best and worst, but calling TMP "intellectual" implies there's a deeper meaning. Everything in the movie is out front and on display, with no deeper thought required.
Seeing these rankings is always infinitely fascinating. It's great to hear what others like and dislike about it.
Also, because I just want to say it, the second film on your list could have been called "Second Khantact"
*booo* I can hear them now.
The movies I find people agree on less than episodes. That's a good call on the satirical title of TWOK!
I love that you continue the counts of "Thanks Majel." Love it! :)
Still got some animated and a couple of nu-trek Majels to add eventually!
Jaylah's song choice during the final fight scene in front of the Star Base is not by Public Enemy. It is Sabotage by Beastie Boys.
When she's talking to Scottie though, they're listening to Public Enemy.
This was great! We have roughly the same ranking, including the exact top 5, in the same order!
That's awesome!
I remember when I first saw the trailer for Star Trek '09, seeing it and hearing the music that was played reawakened within me my love of Star Trek. It's called "Freedom Fighters" by Two Steps from Hell, and it was powerful, chilling and somehow healing.
Pike: "Your father was Captain of a starship for 12 minutes. He saved over 800 lives... including yours. I dare you to do better. Enlist in Starfleet."
Sarek: "You are capable of deciding your own destiny. The question is... which path will you choose?"
Nero: "James T. Kirk was a great man... but that was another life."
McCoy: "We've got no captain and no first officer to replace him."
Kirk: "Yeah, we do." (takes his place on the captain's chair.)
The first one JJ Film is decent. Clumsy villain, but it was fun overall.
@@bestoftrekworstoftrek I hazard to say it was a great movie. Not a great star trek movie, but a great movie nonetheless.
That cadet Scotty brought to the bridge was his nephew, his sister's son, according to the ABC extended cut of TWOK.
Then he should want to get him to sickbay!
@@bestoftrekworstoftrek oh, I fully agree, but the sheer shock value of the image couldn't have been done much better.
Ohhh...I know you don't know who this is, but the last guy to play the Master in Doctor Who probably could've KILLED it as Khan.
I split the movies into Eras, so in order of preference of Eras and Movies:
Era 1: VI, II, III, IV, I, V. (VI can stand on its own, II needs the other parts to be complete.)
Era 2: VIII, VII, X, IX.
Era 3: XI, XIII, XII.
Great list! This is my order:
13 The Motion Picture
12 Insurrection
11 Beyond
10 First Contact
9 Nemesis
8 The Final Frontier
7 The Voyage Home
6 Into Darkness
5 Star Trek (2009)
4 The Wrath Of Khan
3 The Search For Spock
2 Generations
1 The Undiscovered Country
Good list! We're pretty close here.
Yeah, a lot of them we think quite similar about.
It shouldn't surprise me that my list is almost completely different. But this is good too. :)
The movies seem to have much more variation in how people like them than episodes. It's totally ok to have differing opinions!
@@bestoftrekworstoftrek Oh, I know. I was continuing my gag from Buffer Time on how we always disagree (even though that's not true).
My ranking, worst to vest in the Star Trek movies: In 3 brackets, the bad (ignore these if you can), the ugly (it is trek, but I usually have better things to watch than this) and the good (I see them more than once every 4 years). There is also my top 3...
The bad
13. The final frontier (boring)
12. Beyond (slapstick humor at Star Treks expense)
The ugly
11. Insurrection (there is enough space fighting action to keep it entertaining)
10. The Undiscovered Country (great characters by great actors, story is less IMO)
9. Generations (passing the torch, must watch ones, re watch at your own peril)
8. The Motion picture (classic, albeit slow original, with an absolute killer soundtrack)
7. The Search for Spock (good to watch, not to re watch)
The good
6. Star Trek, the new beginning (nice backstories aka character development)
5. Into Darkness (best of the 'new treks')
4. The Voyage home (Good humor, proper Trek movie)
Must watch, even if you are not a trekie
3. Nemesis (Finally some Romulan/Reman action imagine this be the Romulans in the series, the best space battles of the series)
2. The Wrath of Khan (the classic Star Trek movie that conquered time)
1. First Contact (perfection in Star Trek style or when the Borg were the main antagonist, properly done)
As stated in the begining, this is my ranking, it ain't edged in stone, enjoy the ones you like... but DO NOT talk bad about the top three...
Nah just kidding, watch em all and be your own Star Trek judge, impersonating Q.
Generally solid rankings with good reasoning. Thanks for sharing!
Another outstanding video from you; my complements! With your permission, I have a few random comments:
IMO ST Into Darkness was the worst of the worst. Not only was it almost entirely derivative, but it had the chance to do something original with Benedict Cumberbatch's character and blew it. If you remember, Khan nearly died in the opening scene of the Space Seed episode, so "John Harrison" could have been a wholly original character (one of the other Augments) and he certainly behaved very differently from RealKhan. Oh, also, the plot had plot holes big enough to fly the Enterprise through.
STV was a terrible movie, but I've developed a real appreciation for Sybock and his relationship with Spock. Sybock clearly loves Spock as much as any brother could, and Spock seems to want to reciprocate, but can't quite do it due to his Vulcan stoicism. Also, Sybock is one of the best Tragic Protagonists that I've seen in film (I'm totally serious.) His intentions are entirely benevolent, yet he had a particular genius for making a mess of things for both himself and for everyone else around him.
Generations and Nemesis IMO were two potentially great Trek movies that very, very badly needed script doctoring. Both of those screenplays needed somebody very detail oriented - and, preferably, also a long time Trek fan - to go through line-by-line and send requirements for corrections back to the writers. Plus, the Enterprise-B and Captain Harriman were wasted (though I would argue that Harriman was facing his own personal Kobayashi Maru, no-win scenario).
The Reboot is the prototypical J.J. Abrams movie. It has good effects, lots of action, and a very, very appealing cast; all of this covers up the fact that, to be blunt, it's a really dumb script. Drilling to the center of a planet? Black Holes being created by "...Red Matter..."? Please, make the bad sci-fi stop!
As much as I love First Contact, it's no Wrath of Khan. ST the Motion Picture is NOT why Trek exists as a franchise to this day, Wrath of Khan is the reason; it was the last chance that the movie studio was going to offer to make a viable Trek movie, and it needed to do it on a budget. Not only did it succeed brilliantly - and Ricardo Montalban dominated every scene that Khan was in (again) - but it was arguably William Shatner's best performance in anything Star Trek.
They should have spent just a BIT less on Generations' Stellar Cartography scene, so the blowing up of the Duras' sisters ship wasn't just recycled footage of Chang's ship exploding in Undiscovered Country.
Ok, good start...I've seen the most recent one all of once and don't really remember it.
Correction: Chris Plummer isn't British. He's Canadian.
I guess I always associated him with David Warner, Ian McKellen, and Patrick Stewart as one of those famous Shakespearean actors. I stand corrected.
@@bestoftrekworstoftrek I'd like to also point out that Shatner was a Shakespearian actor as well. He actually performed with Plummer in many productions in Stratford, Ontario -- known for it's Shakespeare festivals.
I respect your opinion in this, though I would swap the positions of Wrath and First Contact. You should read the books. A lot of the questions you asked are answered in them. Scotty brought his Nephew to the bridge because the turbolifts were out and he had to reroute and then go down through the primary hull from there.
Hated Beyond! But...I actually like Into Darkness. I know, I know... I'll show myself out 😂
I wouldn't say I like Into Darkness, but that's it's definitely not the worst.
@@bestoftrekworstoftrek First Contact is damn fine though 👍 Loved how they worked that storyline into Enterprise
You don't need to show yourself out. Into Darkness is awesome.
How the hell was Spock doing ANYTHING on the Genesis Planet, if he didn't have his katra? Either they're not necessary, or Genesis Spock grew up rapidly with an entirely different one that got tossed out when they did the ritual I don't remember the name of?
This list is this channel's opinion. Glad to see the top 3 are the same as mine but no in that order. 😅
Those top 3 are just about as good as one another. I started out with the premise that TWOK was the best movie, and TMP was the worst, but opinions change when you try to get serious about it. Thanks for watching!
Also, I don't know where to begin here, so let's just say that we aren't exactly in agreement about these rankings 😁
Very few people seem to be. Movie ranking seem to have a much wider variation than a lot of television episodes. Thanks for checkin in though! It's ok to not agree!
I generally agree with your take on...most of the movies, if not the rankings you assign them. First Contact is absolutely the best of the TNG films, though that certainly isn't saying much. It is also certainly great among the Trek films as a whole, but that is also not saying a great deal. Finally, it is in no way better than Wrath of Khan, not by any measure. It pains me to say it because I've always had a soft spot for Star Trek, but...Wrath of Khan is the *only* Star Trek movie that can be called objectively good in a general sense and worth paying full price at the theater to see. That being said, Search for Spock, Undiscovered Country, and First Contact were worth seeing in the theater. A few below that are rentals at best (Final Frontier, Voyage Home, the first Kelvin timeline movie maaaaaybe) and the rest (Motion Picture, Generations, Insurrection, Nemesis, and the remainder of the Kelvin films) are "stream it for free".
As far as why people don't like Generations, that's easy---it's because the writing is inexcusably bad. The plot is so full of holes it borders on nonsensical, even by science fantasy space magic standards.
Soran is making missiles that blow up stars (and, naturally, their entire planetary systems) to steer the Nexus space ribbon to a specific planet he has chosen to wait around for it on....because...uh...why? He literally got sucked into it along with at least a large handful of other people (including Guinan) on the ship he was on in the prologue. Even the throwaway convo between Picard and Data explaining why he couldn't buy/rent/steal a warp-capable ship and fly/beam/kamikaze himself into the Magical Gimmick MacGuffin Thing makes zero sense because it conveniently and blatantly throws out exactly what happened at the beginning of the movie with no explanation as to why. I would also put it to you that if the Nexus is so violent and unpredictable that it would potentially destroy whatever vessel you were in before you could get properly sucked in, why would you fare any better against the same giant cosmic lightning bolts of death standing on a planet and waiting for it to hit you in the face?
It was all quite clear that the movie, which premiered in theaters just under 6 months after the final episode of TNG aired, was thrown together in pretty short order with the simple goal to have Kirk and Picard on screen at the same time when Star Trek's paying audience was at its peak. This was a perfectly understandable (if a bit predictable) move, but they executed it in a way that was almost shockingly---and completely unnecessarily---stupid.
As a whole, Trek's movies are not as great as it's television.
Ah yes, Klingon "justice"...where Kirk and Bones were prosecuted by the same guy that arrested them. Who was also a "victim" of their "attack".
I thought Beyond was a fair installment. I enjoyed it way more than into darkness for example. I get your reasoning, and I know this is largely opinion based but compared to some stinkers you have above it, I can't agree 100%. I think I largely agree with the rest of your rankings.
You're pretty good at ranking Star Trek that the number one and number two slots in your list need to be switched
I really think a search for spock is one of the most boring things ever created for trek haha- think i would say its my least favorite. Gr8 video 🖖
Christopher Lloyd as Kruge is worth at least 10 Eggs-Benedict Cumbersnatch-es!
The Voyage Home in the middle of the pack is a crime. Undiscovered Country at 3 is a travesty. Of course The Wrath of Kahn should be #1, but in these lists, you put the best at #2 so you can seem "edgy" with your number 1 pick, which, obviously is what happened here. Drop First Contact into the #3 or #4 slot, because it was original, and move everything else up and you will have a moderately logical ranking.
So what I hear you saying is...we're actually pretty close, though First Contact is not edgy...it's simply the best!
Ok, you admitted Final Frontier is better than TMP. I was afraid we were gonna have to throw down. Bat'leths at dawn.
*about 20 minutes later* YOU THINK FIRST CONTACT IS BETTER THAN WRATH OF KHAN??? Oh, I'm getting my bat'leth, bro.
Voyage home at number 7, that's just rude. ST4 is my favorite and is a favorite among LOYAL trekkers,...number 7...pfffft :(
It's a fun movie without a ton wrong with it, like many other Trek movies. It's ok if you love it, I just happen to think there are better Trek movies. Thanks for watching!
I can see now why you told me that if I didn't like 2009 I should totally skip Beyond. Also, how could you put Nemesis that high on your list?
Bravo sir, I woul dhave placed the Kelvin Universe lower, even the very slow, over hyped STTMP was better
TWOK is the best, followed by 2 and 6. TNG and reboot films were just okay.
I went into it with the premise that TWOK was the best, but objectively I think First Contact is just a smidge better after a deeper dive.
If you ask Trump, it could very well have been WWII. This comment is not political.
Well, my take.
STAR TREK 1979 4/10 Unlike Abrams, at least it meant well.
ST 2 WRATH OF KHAN ✝ 10/10 ✝ GOOD FRIDAY ✝
ST 3 SEARCH FOR SPOCK ✝ 10/10 ✝ EASTER SUNDAY ✝
ST 4 VOYAGE HOME 8/10 Great interaction in strange environment.
ST 5 FINAL FRONTIER 10/10 Deeper than we think.
ST 6 NDISCOVERED COUNTRY 10/10 Chilling Mystery!
GENERATIONS 7/10 Kirk, Soran, Picard!
FIRST CONTACT 3/10 Oh! Get out of here with that!
INSURRECTION 9/10 Riker and Deanna together again!
NEMESIS 🥶 10/10 🥶 My blood is frozen. 🥶
GALAXY QUEST 10/10 Oh! We can count this!
Abrams 2009 zero! FU Abrams! Ruining STAR WARS wasn't enough?
INTO DARKNESS zero! Abrams, why didn't you just smash a crucifix?
BEYOND zero! SO WHAT if GT is gay? Sulu was NOT!
I hated Insurrection. The story are the ethics were badly thought and just bad. The Ba'ku were bland and pretentious, and their back-to-nature, rural simplicity message was asinine. They claim to reject technology, but they still have stuff like an irrigation system, a stone dam, and a metal smith. Not to mention Picard comparing removing them to forced relocations like the Trail of Tears, when he was involved in two forced relocations with the second relocation involving actual Native Americans. The entire plan comes across far less like Native American relocation camps of the past and more like a case of eminent domain for the good of the greater society.
I've read some comments about how the film should have tied into the Dominion War, and I actually like that idea. In fact, the planet's healing radiation could be used in a desperately needed attempt to help with the war effort as by that point, the Federation was badly losing with the casualties numbering daily in the thousands.
Insurrection tried way too hard for what little came out of it. Riker and Troi in the bath might be the best part of the movie.
My list is
1. Wrath of Khan
2. First Contact
3. Undiscovered Country
4. Voyage home
5. Search for Spock
6. The Motion Picture
7. Generations
8. Nemesis
9. Final Frontier
10. Insurrection
11. Beyond
12. ST 2009
13. Into Darkness
Pretty close. Solid list!
Star Trek beyond is indeed a horrible movie. Star Trek The Motion Picture is far better than you realize. It is much better than many of the others that you listed. I think perhaps you just wanted action to much. It is as intellectual as its beginnings. I suspect that you were unfortunately born into a too late a period of time where the action must constantly be in motion and subtext does not exist. The portrayal of Kirk in the JJ Abrams movies is simply horrible. It's a braid caricature of Kirk as a meme. Star Trek IV soundtrack I think is also really bad.
It's totally ok to disagree about what's the best and worst, but calling TMP "intellectual" implies there's a deeper meaning. Everything in the movie is out front and on display, with no deeper thought required.