Favorite Trek film, Favorite Wars film.

[Khas]

For me, it's the fourth one for both.

And by fourth for Star Wars, I mean A New Hope, not Phantom Menace.

And yes, Star Trek IV - aka "The One With The Whales" - is my favorite ST film.

Why these two? Because they were two of my favorite films when I was little (and I mean LITTLE. 2 or 3.) and remain so to this day.

[Praeothmin]

Favorite ST?
Easy, ST VI: TUC (closely followed by ST II: TWoK and ST XI)...
I love the way Nic Meyers wrote and directed the movies, Starfleet felt like a true military power, and there was enough action and cheesiness for the movies to be fun...

Favorite SW?
Difficult, I hesitate between RotS and TESB, but I side with TESB for a better story, better acting, more important events, and Darth Vader kicking his son's whiney ass (with was when Luke stopped being a Whiney bitch and started to mature into a Jedi Knight)...
RotS was good for overall chaotic space battles, as they should be, and a very good fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin, but the hammy acting, the whiney Emo-Bitch Skywalker which ruined my Darth Vader forever means I prefer TESB...

[sonofccn]

For Trek? Wraith of Khan followed by First Contact. What can I say, I like action.

For Wars? ANH. Lots of good memories as a child watching it, and Indiana Jones, long before I could sit through and actually watch an episode of Star Trek. Runner up I have to give it to ROTS. What can I say? I like brainless "whiz-bang" special effects and the like through I have to give special mention to TESB and the first time I saw an AT-AT lumber into view. Stupid design maybe but they do look good.

[Cocytus]

Easy. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

In seriousness:

For Trek, probably The Undiscovered Country or The Wrath of Khan, with The Motion Picture in a close second. Both TUC and TWOK have their share of great moments. Both have taught direction, great pacing, great character interaction and great space battles, all the stuff I love in Trek. Khan is a great villain, and the simultaneous duels between him and Kirk and the Enterprise and the Reliant (characters in their own right, which is par for the course for Trek) is one of the best on-screen duels I've seen. The circle each other through the nebula like Harmonica and Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West. Of course TWOK has its little sticking points (how could the Reliant not notice the Ceti Alpha system was missing a planet?) but they can be overlooked because they don't impact the quality of the storytelling. Kirk's brooding on his age, confronting the no-win scenario and losing Spock are all powerful moments of pathos. All the characters get their moments in TWOK, which is why it stands out as one of the best Trek films. There's no one there who doesn't serve some purpose to the story. TUC is the same way (I'd argue it's actually better in this respect) since every character has his invaluable role to play in solving the mystery, even Sulu, who isn't even on the big E anymore, but provides the critical information and nearly flies the Excelsior apart coming to the rescue.

As for my third choice, The Motion Picture has very little of these honestly, but the scale of the film is awesome in its own right, showing us the sweeping vistas of the Enterprise and V'ger's colossal starship. V'ger itself is one of the most fascinating things Trek has ever show me. The idea of something so powerful to have knowledge of the entire universe, yet limited by its inability to use even the simplest of emotions that humans take for granted. The eerie cloud, the eerier vessel itself, the entire atmosphere of the movie makes it feel as it we're confronting something truly alien, which admittedly doesn't happen a lot in Trek.

For Wars, I love ROTJ. I love all of the original trilogy, but ROTJ has always been my favorite. ANH has always had a sense of awe and wonder about it. No matter how many times I see it, it always feels like the first time, and you get swept up in this new and incredible universe. When I watch it alongside the others, I see that everything wasn't quiiiiite there yet. The Empire's leifmotif gets vastly better in TESB, Vader's role isn't all that well defined, and he doesn't exude the fear and power he later would (seriously, Motti mouths off to him, and while Vader isn't under Tarkin's command, his role as the Emperor's feared right hand isn't as developed as it would later become.) Leia is an annoying bitch (no really. Bitch =/= strong woman. She fancies herself a capable leader, and she nearly gets them all killed in the garbage compactor) TESB really nails down the relations of the characters to one another. Instead of his little TIE, Vader has a Manhattan sized battleship at his disposal, and is clearly accorded the fear and respect his position commands. Leia gets some tender moments, we're introduced to Yoda, and we begin to get a sense of what all this Jedi stuff the first film mentioned is all about. TESB is probably the most emotionally powerful of the three, but ROTJ has always narrowly beaten it for me for the power of the climax. Things work well in threes by and large, and having the three storylines all tying into one another built up tremendously to the final conclusion: the best lightsaber fight in the series, IMO, one of the best space battles ever put on film (all without Lucas' signature grotesquely overwrought CGI.) When I watch ROTJ, there's such an energy and power about the final fights that is just totally absent from the later movies. The Battle over Coruscant in ROTS is nowhere near that level. And finally all the threads get tied up. We finally see the Emperor, Vader redeems himself, the Death Star II explodes spectacularly (I can't help but cheer along with Lando) Han and Leia seal the deal, etc. The thing about ROTJ is that is builds upon what TESB establishes. ANH is a self-contained story. The good guys won. TESB and ROTJ are two halves of another story, admittedly continuing where ANH left off, but building far more on it that ANH implied. I'll always love ANH for the sense of mystery and wonder, but ROTJ is the culmination of it all.

[Khas]

And now, my top pics for each!

Star Trek (Top 5):
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek XI
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Star Wars (Top 3):
A New Hope
Return of the Jedi
The Empire Strikes Back

[General Donner]

First Contact was the first Star Trek movie (as opposed to series) I watched, so that one kind of sticks with me. I'd guess that's my favorite. Of the old pseudo-TOS movies, I liked The Undiscovered Country best.

For Star Wars I'm more uncertain. There's a lot of silly bullshit in all of them that makes me care less for them today than I once did. (And the prequels and -- especially -- the cartoon series have sort of soured me on the entire franchise in general.) At the same time, all of them* also have awesome moments. If I have to pick one as the best I'd tentatively say TESB, but I don't think it's very much ahead of the rest.

*That is, the original trilogy. Prequels won't be getting any kind of praise from me.

[User1663]

Hmm...good one. I'd definitely have to say-

Easy. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

In seriousness:

For Trek, probably The Undiscovered Country or The Wrath of Khan, with The Motion Picture in a close second. Both TUC and TWOK have their share of great moments. Both have taught direction, great pacing, great character interaction and great space battles, all the stuff I love in Trek. Khan is a great villain, and the simultaneous duels between him and Kirk and the Enterprise and the Reliant (characters in their own right, which is par for the course for Trek) is one of the best on-screen duels I've seen. The circle each other through the nebula like Harmonica and Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West. Of course TWOK has its little sticking points (how could the Reliant not notice the Ceti Alpha system was missing a planet?) but they can be overlooked because they don't impact the quality of the storytelling. Kirk's brooding on his age, confronting the no-win scenario and losing Spock are all powerful moments of pathos. All the characters get their moments in TWOK, which is why it stands out as one of the best Trek films. There's no one there who doesn't serve some purpose to the story. TUC is the same way (I'd argue it's actually better in this respect) since every character has his invaluable role to play in solving the mystery, even Sulu, who isn't even on the big E anymore, but provides the critical information and nearly flies the Excelsior apart coming to the rescue.

As for my third choice, The Motion Picture has very little of these honestly, but the scale of the film is awesome in its own right, showing us the sweeping vistas of the Enterprise and V'ger's colossal starship. V'ger itself is one of the most fascinating things Trek has ever show me. The idea of something so powerful to have knowledge of the entire universe, yet limited by its inability to use even the simplest of emotions that humans take for granted. The eerie cloud, the eerier vessel itself, the entire atmosphere of the movie makes it feel as it we're confronting something truly alien, which admittedly doesn't happen a lot in Trek.

For Wars, I love ROTJ. I love all of the original trilogy, but ROTJ has always been my favorite. ANH has always had a sense of awe and wonder about it. No matter how many times I see it, it always feels like the first time, and you get swept up in this new and incredible universe. When I watch it alongside the others, I see that everything wasn't quiiiiite there yet. The Empire's leifmotif gets vastly better in TESB, Vader's role isn't all that well defined, and he doesn't exude the fear and power he later would (seriously, Motti mouths off to him, and while Vader isn't under Tarkin's command, his role as the Emperor's feared right hand isn't as developed as it would later become.) Leia is an annoying bitch (no really. Bitch =/= strong woman. She fancies herself a capable leader, and she nearly gets them all killed in the garbage compactor) TESB really nails down the relations of the characters to one another. Instead of his little TIE, Vader has a Manhattan sized battleship at his disposal, and is clearly accorded the fear and respect his position commands. Leia gets some tender moments, we're introduced to Yoda, and we begin to get a sense of what all this Jedi stuff the first film mentioned is all about. TESB is probably the most emotionally powerful of the three, but ROTJ has always narrowly beaten it for me for the power of the climax. Things work well in threes by and large, and having the three storylines all tying into one another built up tremendously to the final conclusion: the best lightsaber fight in the series, IMO, one of the best space battles ever put on film (all without Lucas' signature grotesquely overwrought CGI.) When I watch ROTJ, there's such an energy and power about the final fights that is just totally absent from the later movies. The Battle over Coruscant in ROTS is nowhere near that level. And finally all the threads get tied up. We finally see the Emperor, Vader redeems himself, the Death Star II explodes spectacularly (I can't help but cheer along with Lando) Han and Leia seal the deal, etc. The thing about ROTJ is that is builds upon what TESB establishes. ANH is a self-contained story. The good guys won. TESB and ROTJ are two halves of another story, admittedly continuing where ANH left off, but building far more on it that ANH implied. I'll always love ANH for the sense of mystery and wonder, but ROTJ is the culmination of it all.

.....shit. Pretty much everything you said I guess....