You know, I watched the guys critique of First Contact, and was less than impressed, as someone who is both a casual Trek fan and someone who found his review of TPM excellent.

This has to do mainly with the bottom line that FC is a film with very good drama, acting and characters. It doesn't mesh well with the series, which is his main point, but the ST continuity is so constricted that I find the ones that deviate the most are the best because of this--they give a chance to re-invent and go with what works best for the drama, rather than honoring a million references in the hundreds of episodes that pre-date it. Wrath of Khan for example tosses aside most of the continuity of the series, and would be in RLM's terms "just an action movie." In fact, the entire introductory set-up involving Checkov doesn't make any sense, since the character didn't exist in the series during "Space Seed." It reminds me of the fact that the entire premise of Citizen Kane is based on a flaw, that no one is around to hear Kane's deathbed utterance. Star Wars too has its share of these sorts of things.

The difference is that the power of the characters and the drama work in such a way that either you don't notice through the dramatic sleight-of-hand, or you are so wrapped up that you don't care, or both. TPM failed to achieve any of the aforementioned factors for a lot of people, which is why its failings stick out so much on repeat viewings. FC, on the other hand, worked, even if when you break it down there are some inconsistencies and gaps in the plot. I think this applies to basically every successful (or not successful) film.