Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
I've seen the first three Star Trek movies now, and not counting a few of the more recent ones which I have seen some portions of, I would say that this is my favorite one so far. In fact I think from the first three movies they get progressively better. I know this is an unpopular opinion as the odd numbered sequels are usually regarded not as good as the even ones by what seems like a strange coincidence. And I know The Wrath of Khan is often considered the best.
I know a lot of people felt all kind of screwed around with seeing Spock die and then coming back to life again, but I didn't really live through all of that when the movies were coming out, so I knew Spock never really died. So to me it was just about enjoying it like a TV episode when you know things are basically going to be the same again at the end.
I suspect the reason it feels more like an episode of the original show is because it was directed by Nemoy. From what I've heard Robert Wise and Nicholas Meyer were not terribly familiar or big fans of Star Trek before they took on the directing roles. I know that each tried to impose their own sensibilities on the movies. There's nothing necessarily bad about this. I would actually prefer the movie to feel a bit different especially since I didn't think the original series was the greatest anyways. But I think Wise and Meyer didn't make it as good. Wise's was too broad in scope and tried to be too epic. The second one had too much focus on the villain almost, and really changed a lot of just the feel of the Star Fleet Acadamy.
I've also heard that the third movie is usually looked at as more of a bridge between the second and fourth movie, so I'm a bit excited to see the next one.
Rating: 7/10