I agree with you about the feeling from the television shows, but the plots for the different movies were generally not thematically the same as the show.

#1 The Motion Picture : Save Earth from a massive approaching alien craft
#2 Wrath of Khan: Classic Vengeance
#3 Search for Spock: Rebirth linked to Destruction
#4 Journey Home: Hijinx as a result of alien craft set to destroy Earth with heavy handed environmental message
#5 Final Frontier: Terrorists hijack the Enterprise (and God)
#6 Undiscovered Country: Environmental Disaster on Klingon, Peace talks and Terrorist attacks
#7 Generations: Lone Psycho tries to destroy worlds for personal gain.
#8 First Contact: Defend Historic Earth from Borg attack
#9 Insurrection: Defend Innocent Planet from Greed & Vengeance
#10 Nemesis: Picard versus Evil Picard Clone out for vengeance
#11 Reboot: Vengeance supreme

Basically, the movies don't do the utopian future with discovery and happiness the same way that the television series did.