Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

Ok. I'm a die hard fan. No, I don't wear the uniforms, but I have every episode of TNG through Season 5, and will have Season's 6 & 7 by the end of the year (2 more weeks!). I know just about everything there is to know (especially about TNG). So, that being said - I think that Nemesis was INCREDIBLE. I'm tired of hearing all of the complaints about how it did this or failed to live up to that. Come on folks! This was an amazing outing for the TNG cast...much better than any previous incarnation.

Let's examine what it offered: plenty of stuff for the fanboys. Wesley Crusher, Guinan, Janeway (and IMDB credits Dr. Pulaksi? Did anyone see her?)and references to the first mission (Riker remembers his first meeting with Data - on the holodeck, where he was whistling "Pop Goes The Weasel". Extreme action. Excellent special effects (the best to date, in my opinion). New technology - the ATV and new shuttlecraft & the Scimitar, and newly designed Romulan Warbirds. And also some very major events: the death of Data, Will & Deanna's wedding, Riker's promotion to Captain, the discovery of B-4, the first appearance of Janeway as an Admiral, first appearance of the Remans, and the allusion to possible peace between the Federation and Romulan Empire. The storyline was solid, and did not lull. And wasn't it great to see Deanna contribute to the success of a mission? What more could you ask for?

Fmovies: 6 out of 10

If the rumors are to be believed, then approximately fifty minutes of footage for Star Trek: Nemesis are lying somewhere in Paramount's vault. While the movie itself is technically well-edited with a slick Hollywood gloss, this might explain why everyone but Picard and Data are left short-handed with minimal screen time and dialogue. Hopefully, the missing footage will find its way to the DVD release, where we can get the final tribute the crew of The Next Generation deserves.

As a story for a final adventure, Nemesis isn't quite the epic one may hope for. The plot mostly focuses on the parallels between Picard and the new Romulan leader, a human named Shinzon (Tom Hardy), who claims to desire peace between the Romulans and the Federation. He also has a special bond to Picard, which I won't give away, suffice to say Data also gets to experience something similar throughout the film. Essentially, the plot isn't particularly interesting and it works primarily as a set-up for the climactic space battle, definitely the movie's highlight.

Before then, the only setpieces worthy of interest are a gratuitous but enjoyable car chase (!) on a desert planet that resolves in a grin-inducing fashion, and a fast-paced shootout on board Shinzon's warship, the Scimitar, which also resolves in a pretty cool manner. That's all the action we get in the first 80 or so minutes, meaning there's a lot of talky scenes that go nowhere and clumsily insert the good ol' "Nature vs. Nurture" debate to no avail. Outside of the action, what makes the first 3/4's of the movie watchable are the excellent special effects and the crew's camaraderie. Acting wise, we get excellent performances from Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner (by the way, is it just me or does Stewart look even more physically fit than ever? Old age is doing little to bring him down)

Clearly, the final space battle is what we've been waiting for, and after 10 movies and 23 years, we get what is easily the most elaborate action sequence of the entire Trek franchise. The segment runs just short of a half-hour and features the Enterprise going toe-to-toe with the Scimitar, and to keep the concept of one starship battling another from getting boring (because let's face it, that gets old in a matter of minutes), director Stuart Baird throws in a few more ships, some more phaser fights from boarding enemy parties (which prove to be the most exciting parts of the movie), fisticuffs, and even a self-destruct sequence that could prove fatal for everyone. It's a doozy of an action scene, even if it is slightly marred by Troi's psychic link and tiresome reports of collapsing shields. This is the sequence that makes the movie worth watching to sci-fi action fans.

Personally, I would have preferred had Baird just spaced the action out more evenly (a la First Contact), rather than stuffing it all in the conclusion, since the plot itself is hard to hold interest on its own. Still, from the space battle alone, this is more action-packed than any of the original crew's films and comes out just ahead of First Contact in terms of quantity, if not in quality. The finale also features the death of a beloved character, which isn't executed quite as properly as it should have, but is touching on its own. Once again, I'm hoping the director's cut will fix that up. Until then, this is just satisfying enough to those who thirst for outerspace action.

This movie is one big lost opportunity. The budgets for the films just get bigger and bigger, and the plots just get worse and worse. When I saw Insurrection, I thought it was a decent movie but certainly a huge drop from First Contact. I simply assumed that the next film would be better, as has been the pattern with Star Trek films. Now after seeing Nemesis, Insurrection is magnificent by comparison. The problem with this film is there's no passion, and it shows in the whole production. The writer-director team seem to have aimed very, very low. The filmmakers were just trying to make a little self-enclosed film without any substance. The most potential is at the end of a saga, where you can put anything and everything at stake. Instead, the writer just rewrote Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan for the TNG cast, and by his own admission to boot! The people who currently control the franchise have no interest in creating a bold, emotional or epic story. At this point, they are mindlessly cranking out material simply to continue the franchise.

Anyone who has been following the TNG series could have come up with a better way to wrap up the entire TNG saga that beats the pants off of this sorry excuse for a film.

But it looks like that will never happen, as it has been quietly mentioned that this will be the last TNG movie. A horrible shame, as the plot threads remain open, and could easily be closed in an epic and meaningful way.

Star Trek: Nemesis fmovies. Although the movie has its corny moments, Nemesis is a very powerful film, due in no small part to Shinzon, perhaps the best villain in the franchise after Khan. Shinzon is a complex, human character, and Tom Hardy brings him to life better than most Star Trek villains. Another reason for any success this film achieves is that it borrows elements and themes from the original Star Trek film series and applies them well. The action scenes are well conceived and not excessive, compared to the fight sequence in the recent, second Star Wars movie, which suffered from overkill. Several scenes, in particular, were very powerful and when the movie ended, I continued to sit for several minutes, speechless.

Now there has been great debate raging about this particular movie. It's hard to have perspective when there is no measure, so with that said I can say safely without a shadow of doubt in my mind that Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn is the greatest of the Star Trek Movies ever made, period. There has never been a movie prior or post this movie that has engaged, excited or enthralled a Treker. If you want to know why exactly, read my review on it.

Now during this era of Star Trek movies they never muddled with the plot killer dimension, time, except one, Star Trek IV: Return Home. All of the other movies where, how would 'Q' put it, linear. Honestly, anything that has a plot where someone goes back into time and tries to change it or prevents its change, well lets say, it kills the plot by putting a plot hole the size of aÂ…black hole.

I was never a real fan of the time travel as a script concept simply because if it was possible at all, everybody and anybody would eventually try to go back in time and change things to a more favorable outcome for themselves. Basically if you were able to go back in time, wouldn't you pick the winning lottery ticket numbers? So if you can do that why can't I? The next thing you know, you've got a million winning tickets. Star Trek: Nemesis, gets one gold star for having a plot that does not change time on a clock.

In fact it's pretty good. There are flaws and incongruities especially in regards to the Generations episodes and there is no justification for some of the oversights, but the movie shines where it should. A real attempt was made to develop the villains character Shinzon of Remus, Picard's clone. He isn't just a villain, he is a Picard, an alternate version.

So what's new? Picard embodies the perfect Starfleet officer. But take that uniform off and replace it with tattered clothes and remove that individual form his starship and place him in the deep recesses of a sunless world mined by slaves, tortured by Romulans and Â…you get the picture.

What I think people missed in this movie was the big question, are Picard and the clone so different. Shinzon even asks Picard that in the movie. Could Picard have changed or convinced the clone had he had more time? Could the original Picard in a similar situation become evil? Either way, it is the human element and conflict within each of the Picard's and is what will intrigue an audience and is what I especially liked about this movie.

The special effects are good and really enhance a situation not nearly explored enough in Star Trek, the tactics of starship combat. This and only a few other instances has there been such an emphasis on strategy and tactics in starship combat.

Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart) and his clone Shinzon of Remus (Tom Hardy) are both at the top of their game and fluently exercise their Shakespearean acting talents. Especially Hardy, who convinces us that he is Picard's clone, and then convinces us he's nothing like Picard. The Enterprise crew is at their best and Stuart Baird's direction gave Nemesis a movie like feeling rather than TV mini-movie feeling.

In closing, who wants to be an ensign when you can be a captain? In the end Trekers have to realize that Star Trek and its stories are about its captain. It is the captain who gets to say those cool lines like: 'Energize', and 'Fire', 'Divert Warp Power' 'Meet me in my ready room' and Picard's trademark lines 'M

This was a very different Star Trek film mainly due to its dark tone. Despite mainstream belief, I think 'Insurrection' was a beautifully written film and despite the simple story, it worked nicely as the characters were having fun.

This film is very serious and although I don't like action films, this movie was pretty intense thanks to its villain. The characters aren't having fun at all which I think detaches the audiences a little cause it's not a fun adventure. The stakes in this film are more personal to the characters so there's no time for the regular jokes once the story kicks in as there's too much at stake.

That aside, this film is handsomely produced with a great production design and has some exciting conflict between Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his nemesis, Shinzon (Tom Hardy). The face off between the two characters in the final 30 minutes is very exciting.

The performances where all brilliant in the film and I hope to see the full version of the film on DVD as I think the mind rape suffered by Troi (Marina Sirtis) could have been further explored.

Why this film failed at the box-office was the timing. You don't release a Star Trek film 5 days before Lord of the Rings. L.O.T.R. is more popular than Star Trek right now but this film could have re-ignited the franchise if people went and saw it. Delaying its release in Australia was a good idea as this has given it a no. 1 spot on opening weekend which it deserves despite an almost non-existent marketing campaign here.

It wasn't a bad film by any means and I think the critics didn't like it because it was so dark and that there's little sense of fun.

I think 'Nemesis' is a very worthy chapter in the Star Trek franchise. It took a while to reach Australian audiences but most of us believe it was well worth the wait. 8 out of 10