I have been watching Star Trek and after going through the original series, the animated series and season 1 of the next generation, i thought i should watch one of the movies!
I really had to fight my way through the motion picture. The pace was so slow and much of it mostly showed characters staring at something or someone. It was great to see the characters again though even though they had aged more that i had expected.
I do think it runs a little slow in parts. The 1701 beauty shots were gorgeous, but they lasted forever.
The counterpoint is all the good stuff in the movie. Seeing Kirk as an outsider on the Enterprise was interesting. The warp malfunction sequence is trippiness that’s never been equaled in Trek. The entire ending and reveal are, perhaps nowadays parodied to death, but for the time great (even if it is just big budget Changeling).