Unlike the TNG movies, which are easy to hate because they are so derivative and banal, one just has a hard time disliking this movie, but is forced to.
Let's talk about what went wrong. Logistically, this was a mess. There was a writer's strike in the middle of production, meaning the script couldn't be tweaked. They wanted to get Sean Connery to play Sybok (Spock's half brother who rejects Vulcan logic and wants to find God), but they were forced to settle for Laurence Luckenbill. (Laurence Luckenbill. Who the heck is Laurence Luckenbill? Oh, yeah, he was Lucy and Desi's son in law!) There was a whole sequence with Rock Monsters that had to be dropped because 1989 vintage FX couldn't render them effectively. (A couple years later you had the first CGI that would have done fine.)
Another problem was that the movie didn't know if it wanted to be a serious drama like Star Trek II and III, or a lighter comedic film like Star Trek IV. So it tried to do both and did neither well. The drama of possible war with the Klingons, Spock confronting his past and finding GOD, for crying out loud, was offset by cheap slapstick like Scotty bumping his head on an I-beam and Uhura doing a fan dance. (Ahhhh---it burns, it burns.)
The next problem was Shatner himself. Let's be honest, Shatner has had a strained relationship with his alter-Ego. In fifty years, he's not going to be remembered as T.J. Hooker or Denny Crane, he's going to be remembered as James T. Kirk. This movie gave him unprecedented control over the character's portrayal, and he misused it. He made his co-stars (many of whom already hated him) the butt of the movie's gags while stroking his own ego. (He's able to reject Sybok's offer to remove his pain while Spock and McCoy succumb.)
Final Point. God. Okay, he wasn't really God, he was an alien who needed a starship to get out of the center of the Galaxy, which inexplicably, the Enterprise could reach in a few days. (Meanwhile, it took poor Janeway 7 seasons to cross the galaxy, and she had lots of wormholes and stuff to shorten the trip.) The whole thing had these religious overtones in Roddenberry's universe. The problem was that Roddenberry himself was an atheist, who believed that in order for mankind to achieve perfection, had to reject such superstitions. But here you have otherwise sensible and logical people babbling on about God and the Garden of Eden.
Overall, it was a letdown from the triumph of the previous three movies, which was so bad that Paramount considered sacking the original cast and replacing them with younger actors.
Let's talk about what went wrong. Logistically, this was a mess. There was a writer's strike in the middle of production, meaning the script couldn't be tweaked. They wanted to get Sean Connery to play Sybok (Spock's half brother who rejects Vulcan logic and wants to find God), but they were forced to settle for Laurence Luckenbill. (Laurence Luckenbill. Who the heck is Laurence Luckenbill? Oh, yeah, he was Lucy and Desi's son in law!) There was a whole sequence with Rock Monsters that had to be dropped because 1989 vintage FX couldn't render them effectively. (A couple years later you had the first CGI that would have done fine.)
Another problem was that the movie didn't know if it wanted to be a serious drama like Star Trek II and III, or a lighter comedic film like Star Trek IV. So it tried to do both and did neither well. The drama of possible war with the Klingons, Spock confronting his past and finding GOD, for crying out loud, was offset by cheap slapstick like Scotty bumping his head on an I-beam and Uhura doing a fan dance. (Ahhhh---it burns, it burns.)
The next problem was Shatner himself. Let's be honest, Shatner has had a strained relationship with his alter-Ego. In fifty years, he's not going to be remembered as T.J. Hooker or Denny Crane, he's going to be remembered as James T. Kirk. This movie gave him unprecedented control over the character's portrayal, and he misused it. He made his co-stars (many of whom already hated him) the butt of the movie's gags while stroking his own ego. (He's able to reject Sybok's offer to remove his pain while Spock and McCoy succumb.)
Final Point. God. Okay, he wasn't really God, he was an alien who needed a starship to get out of the center of the Galaxy, which inexplicably, the Enterprise could reach in a few days. (Meanwhile, it took poor Janeway 7 seasons to cross the galaxy, and she had lots of wormholes and stuff to shorten the trip.) The whole thing had these religious overtones in Roddenberry's universe. The problem was that Roddenberry himself was an atheist, who believed that in order for mankind to achieve perfection, had to reject such superstitions. But here you have otherwise sensible and logical people babbling on about God and the Garden of Eden.
Overall, it was a letdown from the triumph of the previous three movies, which was so bad that Paramount considered sacking the original cast and replacing them with younger actors.