Review of Star Trek: Generations (1994) by Stewart S — 21 Sep 2009

Funny how the young mind is so impressionable. I remember adoring this film when it was first released - it was so full of invention and action and scope and power. But rewatching it recently has highlighted the fact, as with most of the films with the generations crew, that it's really not much more than an extended TV episode with a bigger budget. The Trek films with the original team at least were a great pleasure *because of the original team* and the fact that we could see them nowhere else but the big screen. The generation films feel a little bit like a marketing exercise.

It is incredibly telling that the prologue with Shatner as Kirk and Scotty and Chekhov is far more thrilling and pleasing than any scene with Patrick Stewart and his crew. Despite loving the Generations TV series back then, I can find far more entertainment with Kirk and his team. Sometimes the originals are the best (and lets face it his woodenness is much more fun than Picard's poe-faced seriousness). Indeed, this entire film is, somewhat suprisingly, Shatner's. He upstages everyone else in every scene he is in, and fortunately he has a good director in David Carson (a regular director of the Generations series) so that he seems genuinely emotional and moved by proceedings. The not-so-subtle themes of mortality (and when has Star Trek ever been subtle) are rather suitable for Kirk's length of time in the role and saying goodbye to him is genuinely saddening.

The effects are quite spectacular - the Enterprise crash landing is one of the best and most memorable of the ship's destructions in Trek film history, and the direction is adequate if not completely inspired. McDowell's villain is rather ordinary and the use of the Klingons is, I'm sure, merely for the fans. Considering it is a film concerned with the passing of the baton, it merely highlights how fond the past is and how unsure this new generation really is.