Don’t get the hate at all

"I thoroughly enjoyed this entry, the pacing was flawless, the tone and humour were buoyant, the villain was unique, and it had plenty of emotional depth and a big heart."
That whole Paradise City scene reeks of awfulness, and the less said about topless Uhura dancing when she's far too old for it, the better.

"I was warned that it reeked of Shatner’s ego and that ‘Kirk defeats God’ but that was clearly BS because the evil entity was quickly revealed to be a false god."
A false god who looks like the Cowardly Lion and speaks almost like Yosemite Sam ("oooh, that rabbit!")

"Sybok was intriguing as a fanatic who had a sociopathic smile as he overpowered everyone, he enjoyed it when people resisted, this made him charming yet menacing, and it was an unexpected twist for him to actually reveal himself to be a good man who was duped and sacrifice himself at the end."
I've never liked fanatics like that, but then I can't stand any religion.

"I’ll take this over the dull as dishwater 2001 wannabe Motion Picture any day."
I'll take The Motion Picture over 2001 anyday, at least there's a fucking plot instead of landscapes, landscapes, landscapes.

"So why is it hated? I’m not a Trekkie and I suspect that tales of Shatner’s ego plus the lighthearted, self-effacing dad humour turned off geeks who think this stuff is War and Peace."
The Voyage Home was lighthearted, and I LOVE it. This one was not the same, it was a step down. I mean, the Enterprise in pieces and Kirk talking to his commanding officer with a shirt that says "go climb a rock" WTAF!?! Not to mention a Klingon who cold-bloodedly murders the Voyager probe (yes, those were real, didn't you know) because it SCREAMS when he shoots it? And is crap in every other way? Or the Enterprise having something like 78 decks? It should have only HALF that! And Spock's jetpack toy?

You can't have seen much Trek if you love this. Give the spin-off TV shows a try, or the 6th movie. Anything other than this crap!

I'd agree with your overall assessment of this film other than the Motion Picture bashing (which is an amazing film and Star Trek on another level).

This film has real soul - The row your boat stuff and the Bone's father dying scene are as good as anything in the film series. And as you said Sybok is an interesting "villain" if you could even call him that.

Yes it's a shame the budget clearly wasn't there for the final rock scene - however what we did get was better than Shatner's wish for rock monsters which would have been awful. Plus in defence of what we got, TOS fans are more than used to seeing slightly creeky looking sets, so surely we can overlook the deficits here.

The hatred towards this film for me is as inexplicable as the overhyped praise that Star Trek VI seems to get.

I wouldn't sat I *hated* it, but it's definitely one that I don't enjoy nearly as much as some of the others (Voyage Home, Wrath of Khan, First Contact).

I couldn't get into Sybok, as a villain or otherwise. He was too fanatical to be a good guy, and he wasn't...villainous enough to be the bad guy. If I look at Chang or Khan or Kruge, I see a villain I love to hate. But with Sybok, I just feel annoyed.

I think the main issue for me (I can't speak for others) is that it tried to be too many things. It goes deep (confronting one's pain, meeting "God"), but there were too many lighthearted moments for it to be taken seriously (Yosemite, Spock's boots). And don't get me started on Uhura's dancing or Kirk's canonical brother.

There were some good parts to it (Yosemite!), and it did at least have a little action (unlike the Motion Picture), but if I were to rank all the TOS movies, this one would not rank very high.

My favourite movie out of the lot.
I've never understood the hate for it either?

Was this written by Bill Shatner? I mean, you did say "this was clearly BS" :D

i have to agree

I guess people just Love JJ Abrams Lens Flares over Shatner trying to exploring the meaning of existence. Or maybe they rather watch Michael Burnham cry for a whole season.