There is something comfortable, even old-shoeish, about the new film, a sense, appropriate to its theme of coming to terms with middle age, that all aboard are pleasurably rediscovering their best selves.
– Richard Schickel,
TIME Magazine,
3 May 2009
fresh:
Star Trek II is a very satisfying space adventure, closer in spirit and format to the popular TV series than to its big-budget predecessor.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
19 May 2008
rotten:
If only director Nicholas Meyer had grasped the implications of his tale more fully and enthusiastically, this might have become a classic piece of cornball SF poetry, but as it stands the tepid acting and one-set claustrophobia take a heavy toll.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
5 Jun 2007
rotten:
The net effect, between embarrassed guffaws, is incredulity: a movie at once post-TV and pre-DW Griffith.
– Derek Adams,
Time Out,
24 Jun 2006
fresh:
Although I liked the special effects in the first movie, they were probably not the point; fans of the TV series wanted to see their favorite characters again, and Trek II understood that desire and acted on it.