Review of Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) by Eddy C — 20 Jun 2014

Just as soon as the TNG series of movies began, its all over already and is this really how they end the TNG series of movies? I have to say I am quite disappointed and I feel like the writers were pushed into a corner.

After Generations, fans wanted something more epic and full of action so 'First Contact' was made. Then fans said they wanted something smaller scale and then Insurrection was made and then everyone complained again, I mean they probably didn't listen to fans reaction THAT much but everything seems to line up, and still, you have to give them some credit here.

They at least tried. I wish I could say that about the rest of the movie. The movie feels really 'un-Trek', it feels like you could replace the title of the movie with something like 'Battle for planet Earth', take out the Enterprise crew and it would fit just as well.

That, you could argue, could apply to any of the movies but even when saying this, all of the other Trek movies feel like a Star Trek movie should. Even Insurrection with all its shortcomings still felt like a Star Trek film that could only have been accomplished with the Enterprise crew.

Some could attribute this to the director as he hadn't seen a single Star Trek episode in his life- seems like a fair conclusion to come to. However, Nicholas Meyer also hadn't seen a single episode of Star Trek and he directed Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country and also wrote the script for The Voyage Home- which plays off of the characters strengths amazingly.

So I don't think that is a very good defense for him, Stuart Baird just made a bad film; nothing personal. The story in this is quite interesting but there certainly is a lot that could be done with it and to give credit where credit is due they did develop it well enough- for a film that was made like this one was.

A lot more could have been done with it but this movie was just made to be a blockbuster that just had Star Trek's license on it. It just felt rushed, I'm aware that budget limitations might be due to some of what happened here but it feels like everyone just hurried everything up super quick just to get it finished and I've read reports that actor-director relations weren't the best.

I feel really bad saying that too because it looks like the actors really try here, especially Patrick Stewart, I mean he always give it 110% but it really shows here. I'm sitting here writing negative things and I think my love for the franchise is getting the better of me a little bit but I still feel bad for being overwhelmingly negative, it looks like everyone tried the best they could with what was going on but to no avail.

Even if everyone was trying it did seem like an odd one to end on, I originally thought this wasn't the last one but because of how it bombed they decided to end it. But given the finale and the tagline for the movie, I guess this was the plan.

I just thought the tagline for the movie was one of those to grab peoples attention, saying that their 'final journey begins' could just be a marketing decision, I didn't know that it actually was.

I said the acting was good and it was, by our heroes... Tom Hardy got on my nerves pretty damn quickly. He's hammy- don't get me wrong- but at first I thought it was good because it fit with the character and it made sense but soon after this I just got annoyed when it changed to a scene with him in it and that hasn't happened in a long time, I guess he did his job but still.

The makeup and lighting do well with him though, for a few shots and how everything is projected onto his face, he does look like Picard for a moment and thats good work. There are some good character interactions here too, the discussions some characters have actually get used later in the film with other discussions that other characters have and I thought that was really good, it sounds simple but its something that doesn't really happen very often.

I've looked up what some of the deleted scenes for the movie was and I think they would have improved things by a little bit, I won't name them because of spoilers but they're on Star Trek wiki and I think they would have added to the overall experience.

The action scenes were pretty impressive also, they were fun and interesting to watch and did a few new things. We also get a bit of backstory on a long returning race in the Star Trek universe, which is always appreciated.

A few nitpicky things I have to mention is one of the jokes about when Data offers to fly an escape ship seemed really out of place and it didn't make sense. Also, there is a scene early on where Worf says he doesn't want to get naked and then the that subplot(?) never even gets brought up again, I thought it would have cropped up again at the end, as a lighthearted joke finale but nothing.

One final thing to mention before I wrap this up, is the conclusion of the Data arc that has been spanning all of these movies and it just seems to be forgotten in this in favor of another subplot of sorts and I won't get into all of it but, again, I don't feel like it was developed enough.

The ending, while makes sense because if it didn't happen everyone would die, felt really strange, its shocking, I'll give it that, but it felt really strange. I saw it when I was younger and it was the first Star Trek movie I saw, I remembered quite a bit of it actually, so even though I have been overly negative in this review I like it in my own way and it's special to me in my own way.

The movie definitely has something on its mind that it wants to say but besides a few key scenes, it never gets as fully addressed as much as I would have liked. It isn't a bad film by any means as I would happily watch it again, especially with a friend if they asked me to, as its much more entertaining for a movie-to-watch-with-your-friends-kinda-thing and Insurrection would be on the bottom of a recommendation list, so it has that going for it but its an underdeveloped movie, its fine for what it is but could be a lot deeper and as an end to a Star Trek era, it hurts even more and its quite saddening, to say the least, it left me with a feeling of 'was that it?' and thats never a good thing.

The TNG crew didn't have much luck did they? What a shame...