Over the course of the “Star Trek” franchise’s storied tenure, the main shows have been accompanied by a variety of full theatrical film releases. Some of these films have been somewhat underwhelming in the face of the show’s legacy, but others have managed to stand out as both excellent representations of what made the series so popular and exceptional examples of filmmaking in a vacuum. Surprisingly, though, at least going by ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, the highest-rated “Star Trek” film isn’t one of the classics, but the reboot film released in 2009.
When asked to choose their favorite films from the franchise, long-time “Star Trek” fans may give you a variety of answers, saying one of the original series’ films, like “The Voyage Home” or “The Wrath of Khan,” or one of the films from “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” like “First Contact.” If we base our definition of the best film solely on the percentages found on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, the 2009 “Star Trek” film is technically the highest-rated entry with a 94% freshness rating.
The 2009 Star Trek film is rated higher than even the classic films
The 2009 “Star Trek” film is a pseudo-reboot of the original series, in which a Romulan ship from the original continuity is sent back in time, inadvertently altering the circumstances around the birth of James T. Kirk and changing his upbringing. This leads to Kirk ending up in charge of a Starfleet vessel at a much younger age, alongside Commander Spock and Dr. McCoy, as the crew attempts to hunt down the rogue Romulan from the future, Nero. It was both an interesting means of freeing the film from the established “Star Trek” canon and a genuinely good spacefaring thriller in its own right, though it is also full of references to the classic series, as well as a major appearance by the late Leonard Nimoy as the previous continuity’s Spock.
Interestingly, while the 2009 film is technically the highest-rated “Star Trek” film by Rotten Tomatoes’ metrics, it’s worth noting that critic scores across the franchise are not evenly weighted. The 2009 film’s score is based on 351 reviews, while the second-highest-rated film, 1996’s “First Contact,” has a score of 93% based on only 67 reviews. Rotten Tomatoes, an arbitrator of the greatest movies of all time, has only existed since 1998, well after the majority of “Star Trek” films had come and gone from theaters. This is likely why the 2009 film has so many more reviews contributing to its score, because the only scores available for the classic films are retroactive.
