Review of Star Trek: Generations (1994) by Movie G — 23 Aug 2011

In 1987, right in the middle of the popularity of the Star Trek films fans demanded more. Studios had considered a new series in 1978 which was scrapped but this time they came through and Star Trek: The Next Generation was born. It combined all the great things about the original series with the better technology of the films and a brand new cast to offer fans a brand new set of adventures. Many fans including myself considering it to be equal to the original series and many say it's superior. It was decided to include the original series cast in the movies however to still please certain fans and two more films were made with them, The Final Frontier & The Undiscovered Country. 3 years after the latter Star Trek The Next Generation ended and it was decided that they would be the new stars of the film series. And so came Star Trek Generations.

It was decided however to include some of the original cast, sort of as a final farewell to the old guys, and a big welcome for the new guys.

The plot is that a newly retired Kirk, Scotty, & Chekov joins the new Enterprise on it's maiden voyage, but after things go bad and they are attacked he is sucked into space and presumeably lost forever. 78 years later the crew from The Next Generation are also attacked. There Captain Jean-Luc Picard is knocked out and wakes up in some sort of dream state. There he finds Kirk. Kirk has been living here for the past 78 years since he died thinking it was reality. It is soon discovered that a man named Soran who wants revenge for the killing of his family is living there. He tells them that this strange place is where a person can decide there own fate. It's like a fake reality where whatever you want will happen. It's why Kirk was seeing it as his home on Earth, because that was his "happy place". Soran is planning to destroy the actual world and spend the rest of his days in this new reality. Kirk & Picard need to join together to stop him while the crew of the enterprise in reality need to find out what happened to Picard.

William Shatner plays Kirk once again, and does an excellent job, as does the rest of the original cast. Picard is played brilliantly by Patrick Stewart. I always loved how his character was the polar opposite of Kirk. Picard was a sophistacted, intelligent man who could always think his way out of a problem, whereas Kirk was more a suave ladies man who could fight his way out of a situation. Some of the new crew includes Commander Striker, the second in command, Worf, a klingon who appeared as Kirk & Spock's attorney in The Undiscovered Country, Geordie LaForge who is a blind engineer, and Data who is a cyborg. I always liked Data the best but he seems to just be a ripoff of Spock. He's a genius and he's always trying to understand human emotions and feelings, but he does it with a little more humour which I like. Soran is played by Malcolm McDowell who is best known as Alex in A Clockwork Orange. He's great as always and is one of the better Star Trek villaisn from the films, probably second to only Khan from the second film.

The movie has a good deal of humour in it aswell. Data has recently been given an emotions chips which gives him feelings. It never gets old watching him drink something and then run around dancing and happily screaming "I hate this!" There are also other little one liners thrown throughout but there nowhere near as good as the old ones provided by Scotty or McCoy.

The films effects are also a major improvent. No more does the CGI have that awkward look of the blood in The Undiscovered Country. It flows together more seemlessly with the rest of the film and jsut makes it look better overall.

The films direction and camerawork are pretty good. They are nowhere near as good as the films directed by Leonard Nimoy but are a million times better than the one Shatner directed.

The music is also pretty good. Instead of getting Jerry Goldsmith again Dennis McCarthy was hired. He does a great job combining the musical feels of both the original series and The Next Generation and I think that makes it quite effective.

The film also has a great theme of reality. Kirk thinks his fantasy is reality (or at least doesn't want to think it is). Soran is a man who feels that reality is such a cruel thing and that by eliminating it everyone would be happier. Soran also tries to tempt Picard into letting him destroy the universe by presenting him with his dream reality where he has a big family and is happily living back on earth. It's handled better than the themes of nearly every Star Trek movie outside the main trilogy of 2,3 & 4.

The movie does have some problems though. A lot of the characters in reality aren't given a whole lot to say. It's like they just sort of focused the entire movie on Picard and forgot that there are like 8 other main characters. It also doesn't introduce the characters a whole lot. If you were someone who didn't watch the series but watched all the movies, which I know quite a few people in this situation, you wouldn't really know any of the new characters. They're thrown at you with no introduction and no backstory and you're just expected to accept it. The final major thing is that it's just not the most enjoyable movie ever. It could've had maore action, more humour, and better use of it's effects, but the whole thing just feels like the writer created a great movie but the director did a halfass job with it.

All in all though Star Trek: Generations is still one of the better Star Trek movies, and seeing Picard & Kirk together is an absolute dream for Star Trek fans. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone though, just fans of the series or of the scifi genre, or anyone who is watching all the Star Trek movies and trying to just watch the better ones.