Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Review

Unlike the previous movies other than the original, this one does not take place right after the last movie. Indeed, this movie has more similarities (I find) with the original than the other ones. The whole tone of it has the lonesome, old dog feel that you felt for the protagonists in the original movie; one where it feels sad because you know the end of their careers is coming. In fact, knowing full well this is the last movie with these guys and despite that, I could tell this was the last rodeo with this crew the entire movie because they kept hinting at it in kind of a sad, romanticized way, which was beautiful to watch. The quality of this movie was great, and being someone who deeply appreciates intensive political ramifications in movies for seemingly important events, I was glad to see that finally, after multiple movies of political absence, this one was going to focus on the consequences of recent galactic events as well as how the galaxy can push forward with peace. I found the sudden and imminent threat of extinction for the Klingon's to be kind of a shock out of no where that made the political atmosphere even more interesting; a proud race reduced to either going out in a blaze of glory or sucking up their pride and admitting the need to assimilate and dismantle their power. This movie felt almost like a political thriller, a "Hunt for Red October" of the Star Trek Universe, if you will, with multiple people from various races having secret or open pledges with each other. This movie isn't the first time I've seen a story where groups that hate each other team up with beings from another group in order to sabotage peace talks so they can keep fighting, but it may be the oldest movie I've seen it in, and I really appreciate what this movie did there because of it.

9/10

That's insanely close to mine :)

TOS
1. The Voyage Home
2. The Wrath of Khan
3. The Undiscovered Country
4. The Search For Spock
5. The Motion Picture
6. The Final Frontier

TNG
1. First Contact
2. Insurrection
3. Nemesis
4. Generations

Reboot
1. Star Trek
2. Into Darkness

Oh my goodness I forgot about the dance scene. That was so weird! lol

There's a great spoof of that in a Futurama episode

... except no white in her hair. Seriously though, who came up with that idea anyway? lol

After quite a while, I've finally update this a bunch (updates are in bold) and I have new motivation to completing all three of the series with summer coming up (should allow me to get a bunch of it done).

Cool.

Of all the recent thread-necros, this one is actually a very welcome one IMO. Anyway, my list is going to be different, not very different, but some key changes - and I'll explain below on the points that are different:

TOS

1. The Undiscovered Country
2. The Voyage Home
3. The Motion Picture
4. The Search For Spock
5. The Wrath of Khan
X.The Final Frontier

Undiscovered Country - is nostalgia, it was the very first Trek film I ever saw, and General Chang and the submarine battle-like sequence to me is one of the early things that got me interested in Star Trek. But every time I watch this film I enjoy it from top to bottom. I think it might be how some people think about Empire Strikes Back, but I am absolutely clueless as to how people could actually like that one better than Star Wars 77 or the Return of the Jedi.
The Final Frontier - it's been too long since I've seen this one, when watching Trek films, I remember kind of enjoying it; but it's the one that no one ever wants to watch.
The Wrath of Khan - This one just wasn't for me, I found it kind of bland, even compared to most of Star Trek TOS season 1 episodes. It's not one I dislike all the way through, I think it has some really excellent scenes, like the end; but I don't enjoy 90% of the film, which is something I can't say about any other Trek film... except maybe Nemesis - which IMO doesn't have the high points of Wrath of Khan (from the 10% of the film I do like). Don't get me wrong, I think Wrath of Khan DOES have two of the best death scenes in the series (two of the best overall), but again, it's like blueberry cheesecake served atop stale white bread.

TNG

1. First Contact
2. Insurrection
3. Generations
4. Nemesis

Not any surprises here, fairly standard. Only I like Generations and HAAAAATE Nemesis =D

Reboot

1. Star Trek 09
2. Beyond
3. Into Darkness

Now, this is a weird one, because I LOVE JJ Abrams films - but I do not like his space opera stuff at all outside of Star Trek 09. I like his characters (in Star Trek and Star Wars) and really dislike his story telling.
Star Trek 09 - I like simply because it's Star Trek - it's a completely formulaic origins blockbuster, there's nothing special about it, all you need are good characters, good actions scenes, paste it onto the formula and you're done. But yeah, it's the film we've seen a thousand times before - so it's good, enjoyable, not great, not something to write home about. 
Beyond - and Into Darkness followed the same formula, but Beyond came out after a period of HEEEAVY oversaturation of blockbuster films - and so I didn't like it. I might have liked it in 2010, who knows? The dialogue in this one is quite well written, but something about the film overall bores me; and I think it's the fact that it's just another blockbuster.
Into Darkness - My least favourite Trek film of all time. The whole "I am Khan, this is a big deal!" was stupid and about the tackiest thing I have seen in a recent blockbuster film outside of the "I am Bloefeld, AND your brother" thing in SPECTRE. The whole reverse "KHAAAAAAAN!" was cringy. The over the top action scenes looked like something that belonged in a parody comedy, but this was neither funny nor entertaining - because you can watch X-Men and get much better hand to hand combat scenes. This one just wasn't for me. I would list this film as one of the top 10 films that made me hate blockbuster films.

Don't get me wrong, I really like Abrams (love the MI series), and I really like Star Trek - but I think he's chasing after the blockbuster crowd with these films, and Star Trek is NOT a good license for that. Sure the films benefit from having blockbuster elements - but I think Star Trek is always at its best when it focuses more on the science fiction stories.

Go back to the original series season 1, some of the best science fiction stories ever put onto a television screen are RIGHT there! Updating them to 2020 level technology and budgeting could seriously put Star Trek into the Oscar picture.

Errand of Mercy (Stargate did a good remake of this one) - The setup: the Federation and Klingons are fighting over a strategically important planet of primitive pacifists who hate violence in all forms; Kirk and the Federation believe they are fighting the Klingons for the good of the pacifists, even though the pacifists strongly disagree with the violence.

(The Cage and) the Menegerie - The setup: The enterprise is banned from going anywhere near the planet Talos V for some reason (they are godlike creatures who are studying humans, kind of like that episode of Voyager with Species 8472 when they got the space station), and Spock takes over the ship and captures the now inform former Enterprise Captain Pike, and begins heading toward the forbidden planet of Talos V - a planet that was banned after Pike's mission to it covered in Star Trek episode 1 - The Cage (the Pilot prior to Shatner signing on as Kirk).

The Balance of Terror (kind of already remade with Star Trek 09) - The setup: The Romulans haven't been seen in 100 years, since the war. There is a ship that possibly uses a Klingon cloaking device, causing mayhem with a powerful weapon capable of mass destruction (which turns out to be a Romulan Plasma Torpedos).

The City on the Edge of Forever - The Setup: The enterprise crew goes back in time to the 1920s, Kirk falls in love with a woman who is by every means, as good of a person as could be with somewhat libertarian values and a strong moral code. Kirk saves her from being struck down by a car, which would have killed her. She becomes heavily influential in US politics, and turns the US to remain somewhat similar to their WW1 policy of not interfering in European wars. The course of history changes to the point where the US  doesn't join or aid the Western-allied powers, causing the Axis powers to win, ultimately preventing the Federation from ever emerging. Kirk has to cause the death of a woman who is by all objective senses of the word a good person, and one who he is in love with. Some have argued this is one of the best stories ever put on a scifi TV show.
This could be an Oscar-winning film, especially with a director who has a love of the 1920s. But they could also spin the film series off into some more recent and relevant event in human history.

A Taste of Armageddon - The setup: Kirk and crew get caught on a planetary system where they have eliminated the destruction of warfare byu conducting war through a videogame simulation. The rules of the game are when the opponent wins, the population must put to death a randomly selected portion of their population. This has caused perpetual war because no one sees the effects and horrors of the destruction of civilization. Worse, after an attack, Kirk gets selected as one of those who are to be put to death.
This is one of those stories that is very relevant for today - drones, wars in the middle east, media control, the looming threat of AI-controlled drones means that people will get the results without having any kind of exposure to the war horrors. Perhaps this is more a story for James Cameron =P

The Conscience of a King - The setup: They befriend a man on a planet who has a flair for the arts, a very well respected and loved person - but he has a hidden secret. It's discovered that he is none other than the former leader of the Tarsus 4 colony. The colony had been starving after a large number of crops failed, there wasn't enough food, the leader had a portion of his people put to death so that the rest might have the food to survive. Very shortly after this act, the rescue squad arrives he is seen as a monster tyrant who executed thousands for no reason. Kirk needs to figure out how to deal with this situation.

These are some of the best sci-fi stories ever put to the screen, and some of them can be adapted into films, easily. MUCH better fits for Star Trek than the generic blockbuster formula. The generic blockbuster formula would fit a lot better if it weren't for the 150+ annual super hero films coming out each year that are a much better fit.