Review: 'Trek: Nemesis' its own worst enemy

[Jack_www]

well i am going to watch the movie when I get a chance to see it, I want to see for myself if it really sucks or is good movie.

[aahz_capone]

Originally posted by FNBrown


That's sort of an apples-to-oranges comparison. A.I. was a very different sort of movie than Nemesis.

I didn't bother to see AI in the theater... I did watch it on DVD, and didn't really find it all that compelling; not to mention that my wife fell asleep in the middle of it.

Niether did I, but hell, your wife should be ashamed!!!

[Dis]

Just got back a few hours ago.

This movie rocks!! . I love it. Sure there are many hokey sci-fi plot devices. But I've become used to that with Star Trek. That should be nothing new.

My rating? 3 1/2 stars out of 4.

It would have been 4 stars if they had shown the actual wedding on Betazoid with full frontal nudity of Martina Sirtis . Maybe Crusher (Beverly not Wesley ), although she's put on a few years, she may have some sagging. Maybe throw in a few hot ensign bridesmades to really put this movie up and over 4 stars.

Spoilers below


But seriously I loved it. I did feel like this was a cinematic movie and not a 2 hour television episode (like Insurrection). True it had many resemblences to Star Trek 2. It is obvious they drew upon that movie for inspiration. But at least they stole ideas from the best movie in the series. There is lots of action. Sure there is no REAL sci-fi- but who needs that. I just want to see some ships blow each other to pieces. The ramming scene was pretty cool. And before that I liked how the bridge got a sunroof . Although it didn't look like everyone held on (esp. Picard). Same with when Data left the Enterprise later on by jumping out. Geordi didn't hold on for dear life. Also I would have liked to have more decompression sequences in the ramming (which was inevitable given the damage). But I'm nitpicking. This movie certainly cannot top #2, and probably not better than #6 (but pretty close). It's probably my third favourite Trek movie.

Some nitpicky hokey sci-fi stuff. The emergency transport device. A bit too small for my liking. If you can trap that much energy in such a small place, couldn't they somehow get transporters working on the enterprise? Some decompression scenes I noted above could have been done a little more realistically. The fact that recent analysis says the genes have more of an important role than upbringing in defining a person. Thus the clone should not be so different. Evil is at least partially an inherited trait imho. The motive for Shinzon was pretty lame. I can't see why he would want to eliminate Earth. And exactly how did he take control over the mighty Romulin empire so easily? And don't get me started on how Shinzon is dying. There are a few others that were already mentioned in above posts.

I did not have a problem with the lighting as the reviewer of CNN (in the opening post) had. They did live on the dark side of the planet after all. Although the Romulan Senate was kind of dark- it didn't need to be that dark I suppose. And I won't comment on their fashion sense. Let's just say Shinzar would fit right in with Judas Priest .

But all those issues in the last two paragraphs are minor imho. I wouldn't have loved this movie otherwise. The story is a bit weak. But so was the story of Star Trek 2 if you think about it. Plots were never the strong point of Star Trek. Characters and Star Ships were always the main focus of Star Trek. And this movie does both very well.

[Kepler]

Well, people came after I *and* III *and* V, and those were all horrible. I think the whole thing's just running out of steam, especially with JLP back after however many years out of the series. If they try to spin off a Janeway movie I aint going, and I'm pretty loyal to the franchise so that isn't good news for them.

Maybe they can squeeze a few more bucks outta the teat by pulling a Lucas and infantilizing the whole thing. Make #1 a Huge Tribble with a lightsaber, er, phaser! Bring back Harry Mudd as a wacky, troublesome sidekick. And, you see, Wesley has this cute little son, and... oh, quick, get me my screenplay agent!

Oh yeah, and A.I. sucked so bad I swear S.S. is just screwing with us now, seeing how far he can go before he's arrested.

[FNBrown]

Originally posted by Dissident
Just got back a few hours ago.

This movie rocks!! . I love it. Sure there are many hokey sci-fi plot devices. But I've become used to that with Star Trek. That should be nothing new.

My rating? 3 1/2 stars out of 4.

A four-star rating scale is too small. I'd give it 2 out of 5.

It would have been 4 stars if they had shown the actual wedding on Betazoid with full frontal nudity of Martina Sirtis . Maybe Crusher (Beverly not Wesley ), although she's put on a few years, she may have some sagging. Maybe throw in a few hot ensign bridesmades to really put this movie up and over 4 stars.

Eh.... you'd also have to see Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes naked. Thanks, but no thanks. I think NOT showing the Betazed wedding was probably one of the film's saving graces.

Spoilers below


But seriously I loved it. I did feel like this was a cinematic movie and not a 2 hour television episode (like Insurrection). True it had many resemblences to Star Trek 2. It is obvious they drew upon that movie for inspiration. But at least they stole ideas from the best movie in the series. There is lots of action. Sure there is no REAL sci-fi- but who needs that. I just want to see some ships blow each other to pieces. The ramming scene was pretty cool. And before that I liked how the bridge got a sunroof . Although it didn't look like everyone held on (esp. Picard). Same with when Data left the Enterprise later on by jumping out. Geordi didn't hold on for dear life.

They showed Geordi holding a "tricorder" (or some other remote control device that looked like an iPaq) that illustrated a two-stage shielding system that created a virtual airlock for Data to run out of. I still think the Scimitar was too far away for him to realistically reach without any kind of propulsion or directional thrusters.

Also I would have liked to have more decompression sequences in the ramming (which was inevitable given the damage). But I'm nitpicking. This movie certainly cannot top #2, and probably not better than #6 (but pretty close). It's probably my third favourite Trek movie.

Close to 6? Are you MAD? Christopher Plummer's General Chang was a better villain than all the TNG bad-guys put together.

Some nitpicky hokey sci-fi stuff. The emergency transport device. A bit too small for my liking. If you can trap that much energy in such a small place, couldn't they somehow get transporters working on the enterprise? Some decompression scenes I noted above could have been done a little more realistically. The fact that recent analysis says the genes have more of an important role than upbringing in defining a person. Thus the clone should not be so different. Evil is at least partially an inherited trait imho. The motive for Shinzon was pretty lame. I can't see why he would want to eliminate Earth. And exactly how did he take control over the mighty Romulin empire so easily? And don't get me started on how Shinzon is dying. There are a few others that were already mentioned in above posts.

So, basically, every major plot element in the film was hokey, but you're OK with that.

I did not have a problem with the lighting as the reviewer of CNN (in the opening post) had. They did live on the dark side of the planet after all. Although the Romulan Senate was kind of dark- it didn't need to be that dark I suppose. And I won't comment on their fashion sense. Let's just say Shinzar would fit right in with Judas Priest .

But all those issues in the last two paragraphs are minor imho. I wouldn't have loved this movie otherwise. The story is a bit weak. But so was the story of Star Trek 2 if you think about it. Plots were never the strong point of Star Trek. Characters and Star Ships were always the main focus of Star Trek. And this movie does both very well.

I think the battle sequences for ST:2 and 6 were much more cleverly resolved than the one in "Nemesis." As for character development, there wasn't any - unless you cound Spiner regressing his android character to an imbecile.

[Dis]

Well that's just my opinion. Star Trek has always been about hokey plot devices. TOS included. Great writing was never Star Trek's strong point.

Sure there was no character development, but I'm just looking at it from an action movie standpoint. The films were never going to win any oscars.

Look back to Star Trek 2 and 6. They weren't that good to begin with. I only liked them because it was the only decent space movies out there.

A day later I'm still keen on this movie. Although subsequent watchings may lessen that a bit. We'll see... I still say it is probably 4 stars out of 5. This may be scewed a bit because I'm comparing this to other star trek movies. I do this because star trek is an entity on itself. I find it hard to compare this movie to other sci-fi movies like Bladrunner or 12 monkeys. They are completely different. So compared to the other 9 films I give it 4 stars out of 5. If you don't like the star trek universe I can see giving it 2 stars.

[FNBrown]

The thing is, I am a Star Trek fan... I think they were doing great things with the TNG series (for which, I think, they prematurely pulled the plug) and have basically produced crap ever since.

"First Contact" was a pretty solid film. All the others have been weak, and they've done nothing but garbage with the assorted TV series since TNG was cancelled.

I'd like to see them just lay off any new Trek material for at least five years - ten would be better. Then maybe kick-off a new television series with some fresh ideas.

[Kc7mxo]

I don't know why so many reviewers disliked it, and I also don't know why it had such a poor weekend. Tickets in my town were sold out for two days straight, of course we're a college town, so that might have something to do with it.

ANd I thouroughly enjoyed Nemesis. There were a couple parts I thought were kind of odd, argo , but everything seemed allright to me.

The battle scene was definetly sweet. And there's a patch out that puts the Scimitar into Star Fleet Command 3. Yet another reason to buy this game come christmas.

[Gatekeeper]

FNBrown:

You consider DS9 to be crap? Why? Insofar as I'm concerned, it was slow in S1 and S2, but really picked up from S3 onward. S7 had a bit of a letdown (let's just say the whole Emissary/Prophets thing went a bit overboard, IMHO), but that's about it.

I proudly consider myself a "Niner," so to speak. And I also liked TNG and VOY.

Gatekeeper

[Dis]

There is one thing I think is cheesy. It is unrealistic stunts. What is this James Bond? MI2?

That scene is the dunebuggy scene when they jump into the shuttle. Data had control over the shuttle. And they had the means to stop the vehicle. Why put the shuttle out over a cliff? why not just put it on land- so they wouldn't have to attempt a dangerous jump. If their trajectory is off by just a foot they are toast.

[Bosh]

Bah, the only Star Treck movie I ever really enjoyed (and I've seen four IIRC) is IV which is absolutely amazing

[Joseph]

It was a OK movie.

[FNBrown]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
FNBrown:

You consider DS9 to be crap? Why? Insofar as I'm concerned, it was slow in S1 and S2, but really picked up from S3 onward. S7 had a bit of a letdown (let's just say the whole Emissary/Prophets thing went a bit overboard, IMHO), but that's about it.

I proudly consider myself a "Niner," so to speak. And I also liked TNG and VOY.

Gatekeeper

I believe S3 was when they imported Worf into DS9 to try to boost the series a bit.

I just never thought the whole Bajor-Cardassia thing was worth revolving an entire series around. They added the Dominion bit later on to make it interesting, but even that came across weak (I mean, shut down the wormhole, no Dominion).

Worf getting married to Jadzia never worked for me. Then they killed her off and brought in the ever-annoying Ezri. At that point, I pretty much stopped watching.

[FNBrown]

Originally posted by Dissident
There is one thing I think is cheesy. It is unrealistic stunts. What is this James Bond? MI2?

That scene is the dunebuggy scene when they jump into the shuttle. Data had control over the shuttle. And they had the means to stop the vehicle. Why put the shuttle out over a cliff? why not just put it on land- so they wouldn't have to attempt a dangerous jump. If their trajectory is off by just a foot they are toast.

Ugh... don't get me started on that sequence. Why the hell wouldn't they just fly the shuttle from piece to piece? They're already in violation of the prime directive by even being on the planet... why prolong the stay?

Not to mention that they couldn't film the sequence with any consistency. One minute, Picard has the goggles on, the next, they're off, then back on again.

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by FNBrown
I believe S3 was when they imported Worf into DS9 to try to boost the series a bit.

I think that might have been around the time they also introduced the Defiant to the series, so it wasn't strictly a space station-based series anymore. Good moves both, IMHO.

I just never thought the whole Bajor-Cardassia thing was worth revolving an entire series around.

It wasn't a strictly Bajor-Cardassia series. The Klingons figured prominently into a number of storylines — especially later in the series — and the Ferengi and Romulans also showed up from time to time.

They added the Dominion bit later on to make it interesting, but even that came across weak (I mean, shut down the wormhole, no Dominion).

Ah, but they *did* try to close the wormhole. Unfortunately, a Founder had infiltrated the station — specifically, Dr. Bashir had been "replaced" by a Founder — and instead of closing the wormhole, it managed to *strengthen* the wormhole and make it even more stable. The Federation no longer had any way of closing the wormhole after that point ... apparently even trilithium weapons weren't strong enough anymore (those must be the "nuclear weapons" of the Star Trek era or something).

Worf getting married to Jadzia never worked for me. Then they killed her off and brought in the ever-annoying Ezri. At that point, I pretty much stopped watching.

I didn't mind the marriage at all. IMHO, the big mistake was pairing Worf and Troi off in the latter part of TNG. That was rectified after TNG ended, and Troi and Riker ended up together in NEM (predictably, perhaps, but it was the "right" ending, IMHO).

As for killing Jadzia Dax off, blame the actress. She didn't want to re-sign for a seventh season and TPTB abided by her wishes. I bet the actress wasn't expecting her character to be killed by the Pah-Wraith inhabiting Dukat's body, though. Tough luck. Anyway, the actress went on to do OK in "Becker," didn't she?

Gatekeeper