Star Trek: Nemesis

[Anonymooo]

http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Ss/0253754/1011_28.jpg

STAR TREK X! STAR TREK 10! Star Trek: The Next Generation 4! Whatever the hell reason they did away with numbers, well, I'm not complaining, because Star Trek: Nemesis is a fitting title for the tenth Trek movie (and last "Next Generation" movie).

Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and crew are sent to the none-too-friendly world of Romulus, enemies of the Federation, who are suddenly suing for peace under the wing of a new leader, the mysterious Shinzon (Tom Hardy).

It's discovered all too quickly that Shinzon is a younger, harder, more dangerous clone of Picard, and has much darker plans than a peace treaty. From there, Star Trek fans get a rare treat: non-stop action. I for one was pleased with this.

But not TOO much.

Y'see, Nemesis starts off like any other Star Trek movie... you get to see the characters interacting, how they work as a team of co-workers and as a family, and suddenly the crew is called into action to save the galaxy as we know it.

It keeps a relatively neutral pace for the first half of the movie, discovering a lookalike for Commander Data (Brent Spiner) and travelling to Romulus, but once Shinzon, and his plot, are revealed, well... things pick up fast. A little too fast.

Good action movies gradually up the pace... Die Hard started quiet, then quickly built up the tension until you were on the edge of your seat, just waiting for that final confrontation between McClane and Hans.

Nemesis literally SLAMS you with action, throwing you into the thick of it all with literally no warning--the second half of the movie is basically a race to stop Shinzon, going from an escape from a ship (with Picard going JOHN WOO with a phaser in each hand... God, was that cool), to ship-to-ship combat, to main cast members grappling the crap out of the bad guys in raw, bare-knuckle fighting that hasn't been seen since, well... William Shatner was in charge.

As a Star Trek movie, Nemesis is one of the better ones, following the adage of "the even-numbered ones are good, the odd-numbered ones AREN'T so good." As a Star Trek movie, it gets an 8.5/10 for me, and gave me a surprising and bittersweet conclusion to my favorite Star Trek ever.

As a regular movie... Nemesis doesn't exactly stack up to sci-fi greats like Aliens or Blade Runner, but it gets the job done. It entertains, it gives you characters to root for, and a deep, involving villain who, for the briefest of moments, you actually WANT to see win. As a regular movie... 7/10.

[Jim H]

I don't have a lot to add. I agree with most of your criticisms. However, I think the buoyant performances, a GREAT villain (at least IMO), some good fights and good banter between Stewart and the villain, plus the best ship battle since the (obviously inspired by #2) Wrath of Kahn makes me give it a slightly higher rating - 8/10.



***MILD SPOILER****


I disliked the ending, it seems exactly like Kahn - they stuck in a way to easily bring back a dead character if needed. Weak.

[ilovemovies]

I LOVED it. My second favorite Star Trek movie (first being Wrath of Khan of coarse). Shinzon is a GREAT villian (although, with the exception of the fact that he is bold, he doesn't resemble Picard one bit IMO). Great action, first rate specail effects and interesting and compelling story and all of our regular cast remembers returning. On that note it is disappointing to note some of them are completely wasted in the movie. The movies have not been kind to LaForge and Dr. Crusher. They have been wasted in all of the Trek movies. Worf is wasted here to. Riker and Troi get a token scene or two. It is mostly Picard and Data's movie (as usual). I also didn't care for the scene on the planet where they found B4. I didn't like the way it was filmed. In any other movie it would have been a cool scene but on a Star Trek movie. Also the opening scene where all those Romulans are killed by that Theroid(SP?) radiation felt kinda cheesy. Very small complaints in the final analysis, however. The wedding scene is very nice, though I wish it was a little longer. The ending is sad. Overall great movie. The most underrated film of 2002. Why it wasn't well recieved by critics and at the box office I will never know. On another note: Similarities to Wrath of Khan have been pointed and they are, of coarse, obvious. But it also has somethings in common with The Undiscovered Country. Just like in the Undiscovered Country where they start possible peace with the Klingons, in this movie they start possible peace with the Romulans.


* * * 1 / 2 ( out of * * * * )
8.5 out of 10
Grade: A

[radikill]

I have to admit, I had low expectations going in and was very pleasantly surprised by Nemesis. Worf was criminally underused, but everyone else contibuted to the story in major ways in terms of advancing the plot. The action scenes were entertaining, even though the ship battle suffered from the typical "bad movie physics" you get in the vast majority of sci-fi flicks. Shinzon was an interesting and well-crafted villain, and his interactions with Picard were juicy stuff (even though it started getting a bit preachy near the end).

Definitely one of the better Trek films.

6.5/10