Star Trek: Némésis

Well, it's quite sad to see so many people who have misunderstood so many of the movie's plot lines.

A few friends of mine (well respected SciFi gurus) had claimed that this film was one of the top Star Trek movies. I have to say I agreed. So what? The scriptwriters borrowed some scenes. God forbid any other "original" movie has done the same in the last decade.

Some fans need to rid themselves of the notion that a full length motion picture is made for their sole consumption, and respect that many people viewing may not have even heard of the series. However, the script writers also need to understand the strong following of fans, and include "in" sequences/jokes etc. Which I felt they did nicely enough.

The detail spent on the Romulan Star Empire could have been slightly more expansive, the political games being played in the Romulan Senate never were quite "fleshed out" which is a shame, because the Romulans are one of the races throughout the Star Trek saga who have been rarely visible.

The film took current events to add a current affairs style plot, which I admire. The smaller (as in, less spelled out) plotlines were excellent, and made the film something to follow rather than a Die Hard clone (yes, First Contact was a.k.a "Die Hard on the USS Enterprise").

I hope this really isn't the end for Picard and crew, it didn't feel like a goodbye picture. If it was, then the fine actors from the TNG series should take a well deserved bow, it's been a great series to follow, and as a retired trekkie (I retired when the TNG series wrapped up) I think the TNG series (and original series) will prove to stand the test of time over more recent efforts, kudos to the actors and other people involved.

6 out of 10

If the rumors are to be believed, then approximately fifty minutes of footage for Star Trek: Nemesis are lying somewhere in Paramount's vault. While the movie itself is technically well-edited with a slick Hollywood gloss, this might explain why everyone but Picard and Data are left short-handed with minimal screen time and dialogue. Hopefully, the missing footage will find its way to the DVD release, where we can get the final tribute the crew of The Next Generation deserves.

As a story for a final adventure, Nemesis isn't quite the epic one may hope for. The plot mostly focuses on the parallels between Picard and the new Romulan leader, a human named Shinzon (Tom Hardy), who claims to desire peace between the Romulans and the Federation. He also has a special bond to Picard, which I won't give away, suffice to say Data also gets to experience something similar throughout the film. Essentially, the plot isn't particularly interesting and it works primarily as a set-up for the climactic space battle, definitely the movie's highlight.

Before then, the only setpieces worthy of interest are a gratuitous but enjoyable car chase (!) on a desert planet that resolves in a grin-inducing fashion, and a fast-paced shootout on board Shinzon's warship, the Scimitar, which also resolves in a pretty cool manner. That's all the action we get in the first 80 or so minutes, meaning there's a lot of talky scenes that go nowhere and clumsily insert the good ol' "Nature vs. Nurture" debate to no avail. Outside of the action, what makes the first 3/4's of the movie watchable are the excellent special effects and the crew's camaraderie. Acting wise, we get excellent performances from Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner (by the way, is it just me or does Stewart look even more physically fit than ever? Old age is doing little to bring him down)

Clearly, the final space battle is what we've been waiting for, and after 10 movies and 23 years, we get what is easily the most elaborate action sequence of the entire Trek franchise. The segment runs just short of a half-hour and features the Enterprise going toe-to-toe with the Scimitar, and to keep the concept of one starship battling another from getting boring (because let's face it, that gets old in a matter of minutes), director Stuart Baird throws in a few more ships, some more phaser fights from boarding enemy parties (which prove to be the most exciting parts of the movie), fisticuffs, and even a self-destruct sequence that could prove fatal for everyone. It's a doozy of an action scene, even if it is slightly marred by Troi's psychic link and tiresome reports of collapsing shields. This is the sequence that makes the movie worth watching to sci-fi action fans.

Personally, I would have preferred had Baird just spaced the action out more evenly (a la First Contact), rather than stuffing it all in the conclusion, since the plot itself is hard to hold interest on its own. Still, from the space battle alone, this is more action-packed than any of the original crew's films and comes out just ahead of First Contact in terms of quantity, if not in quality. The finale also features the death of a beloved character, which isn't executed quite as properly as it should have, but is touching on its own. Once again, I'm hoping the director's cut will fix that up. Until then, this is just satisfying enough to those who thirst for outerspace action.

I loved it.

I used to be a real Trekky several years ago, but kind of grew out of it. This was the kind of Star Trek film I had been waiting to see. Much more involving than Insurrection and an intriguing story that I thought just got better as the film went on.

Brent Spiner did a masterful job with his two roles.

The special effects were like nothing I had ever seen from Star Trek before. They were brilliantly created and went beyond the typical Star Trek style effects which added extra depth to the film.

I have been told that many pure Star Trek fans did not like this film. And I agree that it seemed rather 'un-Star Trek' in many ways. But I think it was these un-Star Trek elements that really boosted this film.

It comes in at number 2 of my favorite Star Trek films. Second only to Wrath of Khan. Or perhaps a draw.

Star Trek: Nemesis is a good movie with a pretty decent storyline that kind of gets to the point too quickly but is fun and action packed,unlike Insurrection,that is very slow paced,and I thought Nemesis was much better.The cast are still as strong as ever,just like every other Star Trek,but I found it disappointing for the fact that it was the Next Generation crew's final adventure,it didn't really go out with a pleasing ending like the Undiscovered Country did with the original crew,and it sort of ended like there was going to be more,but there never will be.A lot of be wouldn't agree with me when I call it enjoyable,a lot of fans really hated this,I didn't really see why,I thought the set up and especially the villain was very good,it isn't the best Star Trek,but it's certainly not the worst.Fans will definitely be disappointed by Nemesis and will feel like you didn't get to properly say goodbye to the crew,but its still a fun and action packed Star Trek adventure.

The crew is sent to the planet of the Romulus as they want to declare peace,little does the crew know it is a trick to take over the planet Earth.

This apparently final flick of the TNG crew went unnoticed in the theaters, and I don't think Paramount invested heavily in either the movie itself or its promotion. Despite the many scathing reviews I found some quality in the movie. Many of what have been interpreted as ripoffs of previous scripts were deliberate nods to the series' high points, and if it wasn't clear enough the many cameo appearances should have given the hypercritical some pause. Many of the sets and scenes were well done, and Tom Hardy and bad guys did good. The weakest part of the movie is that there should have been more sense of the crews' closeness, principally through better dialog. Even Data doesn't have many good lines. It just doesn't have much of an edge to it. Even if they didn't get a huge budget for it better character interaction could have made this a much more memorable movie. Certainly not the worst Star Trek, its too bad that it couldn't have been a better movie to end the series.