Review of Star Trek: Generations (1994) by Thomas D — 12 Jul 2016

Sometimes a franchise and its characters have run its course to a point where new faces and fresh ideas are needed. Though the Star Trek franchise as a whole was at a high in 1994 with two acclaimed TV series airing and the films coming off a great finale in 'The Undiscovered Country', to me, 'Generations' wasn't the proper next step to take.

Sure, it's hard to let go of beloved characters, but 'The Undiscovered Country' felt like the perfect send off for all of the original cast members, including Captain Kirk. Nonetheless he was brought back to past the torch to the next crew to man the Enterprise. Of course, that group being the cast from The Next Generation. Which is exactly where the film has most of its problems.

Attempting to balance both timelines, Kirks being 75 years or so earlier, and Captain Picard's (Patrick Stewart) being present day, sometimes the film feels jumbled and bunched together. In other words, there's plenty of set up with the main antagonist played by Malcom McDowell, but the pay-off takes a great deal of time and exposition to get to. It's a much different universe, but Star Wars did an impeccable job blending both casts into The Force Awakens, so that's more along the lines of what I was hoping for.

With all that being said, the new cast from the TV series definitely deserve their own individual film (which is obviously what they got a few years later). It's impossible to top the original crew, but there's enough personalities and likable characters, including Stewart's stern but sympathetic Picard.

As far as the actual plot itself goes, it pretty much follows the same Star Trek formula, except for the trippy Nexus sequence where Picard and Kirk are stuck in a time loop. It's the most talked about and controversial scenes from the film, and for good reason. I don't necessarily think the sequence works the way it supposed to, but it is where we end up getting the most emotional pay off. So overall, Generations is a middle of the road Star Trek adventure, but at the very least, it gives the new crew some time to shine.

+Picard & Kirk.

+Nexus.

+Beautiful score.

-Choppy first half.

-Formulaic.

6.3/10.