 Rob Lowing of The Sun Herald called the film "likeable but average". The Chicago Sun-Times'Roger Ebert and The Washington Post's Rita Kempley gave the film negative reviews, calling the film "a mess" and "a shambles", respectively. The New York Times's Caryn James considered the film to be disappointing to fans and non-fans alike, while Chris Hicks of the Deseret News disagreed, feeling that the film approached issues in the same vein as the television series and that fans would enjoy it. Ansen and Lowing considered Shatner's direction during action sequences weak, with Lowing adding that the second half of the film felt directionless. Hicks wrote that the film's broad humor gave the film an inconsistent tone. In contrast, Chris Dafoe of the Toronto The Globe and Mail called it "the most intentionally funny" episode of the film series. Christian Science Monitor's David Sterritt stated that at its best, The Final Frontier showed "flashes" of the humor that propelled The Voyage Home, and Lowing deemed Shatner's direction at its best during comedic moments.
