Star Trek: Nemesis: Movie Review, DVD Review (2002)
9/21/2007 Posted by Admin
When the nemesis is the script(Originally published 2002)
Directed by Stuart Baird, written by John Logan, 116 minutes, PG-13.
For "Star Trek: Nemesis," the real nemesis last weekend wasn't a Romulan, a Reman or a Borg, but a working-class, Earthbound maid from Manhattan who bagged herself a senator and cleaned up at the box office with the number one film in America.
Being vaporized by J. Lo has apparently become all the rage, as P. Diddy and Lopez's two former husbands can attest, but no one expected her to trump "Nemesis," the 10th film in a four-decade-old franchise whose following is legendary.
Still, that she did so is indicative of the Next Generation's waning appeal. Billed by Paramount as "A Generation's Final Journey," "Nemesis" follows the new Bond film, "Die Another Day," in that it's not the groundbreaking movie it needed to be to remain relevant or, for that matter, to infuse the series with renewed life.
As directed by Stuart Baird, the film is peppered with precisely the sort of Star Trek hallmarks fans expect--cheesy makeup, hokey sentiment and the occasional bad line of dialogue--but in a world of high-tech imitators redefining what it means to explore the final frontier, at least with a 21st-century sensibility, those signature elements are beginning to feel too much like nostalgic trappings.
The film, from a script by John Logan, begins promisingly with the mysterious obliteration of the Romulan senate before it cuts to the lengthy and considerably less interesting wedding of Cmdr. Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and the half-human, half-Betazoid Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), a clumsily handled, self-conscious affair that has all the forced merriment of a high school reunion.
While en route to Troi's home planet, which the pair plans to visit, the crew of the Enterprise is sidetracked with a bizarre series of events.
Apparently, both Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Data (Brent Spiner) have clones, one of whom, the seething, bald-headed Shinzon (Tom Hardy), is the mirror-image of Picard in his youth and who needs Picard's blood to stay alive, the other of whom, B-4, is Data's childlike prototype.
What ensues goes beyond mere phasers and fireworks. Indeed, amidst the inevitable—and entertaining--power struggle that erupts between Picard and Shinzon is a debate, of all things, on nature vs. nurture, with the film suggesting that we are absolutely able to change our own destinies at will, overcoming such obstacles as our environment and our DNA.
To that end, "Star Trek: Nemesis" offers a handful of tidy theories, conclusions and a predictable, telegraphed twist that comes at the end. This isn’t a bad a film—far from it. It’s nicely acted by Stewart and Hardy and, once it occurs to Baird that he might want to include some action, the movie finally comes to life midway through with some cleverly conceived battle scenes, the best of which finds Picard ramming the Enterprise straight into Shinzon’s ship.
Still, for those who remember the great “Wrath of Khan,” the 1982 film that featured a true nemesis in Ricardo Montalban and the sort of poignant ending “Nemesis” strives yet fails to achieve, this Star Trek falls short.
Grade: B-
Directed by Stuart Baird, written by John Logan, 116 minutes, PG-13.
For "Star Trek: Nemesis," the real nemesis last weekend wasn't a Romulan, a Reman or a Borg, but a working-class, Earthbound maid from Manhattan who bagged herself a senator and cleaned up at the box office with the number one film in America.
Being vaporized by J. Lo has apparently become all the rage, as P. Diddy and Lopez's two former husbands can attest, but no one expected her to trump "Nemesis," the 10th film in a four-decade-old franchise whose following is legendary.
Still, that she did so is indicative of the Next Generation's waning appeal. Billed by Paramount as "A Generation's Final Journey," "Nemesis" follows the new Bond film, "Die Another Day," in that it's not the groundbreaking movie it needed to be to remain relevant or, for that matter, to infuse the series with renewed life.
As directed by Stuart Baird, the film is peppered with precisely the sort of Star Trek hallmarks fans expect--cheesy makeup, hokey sentiment and the occasional bad line of dialogue--but in a world of high-tech imitators redefining what it means to explore the final frontier, at least with a 21st-century sensibility, those signature elements are beginning to feel too much like nostalgic trappings.
The film, from a script by John Logan, begins promisingly with the mysterious obliteration of the Romulan senate before it cuts to the lengthy and considerably less interesting wedding of Cmdr. Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and the half-human, half-Betazoid Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), a clumsily handled, self-conscious affair that has all the forced merriment of a high school reunion.
While en route to Troi's home planet, which the pair plans to visit, the crew of the Enterprise is sidetracked with a bizarre series of events.
Apparently, both Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Data (Brent Spiner) have clones, one of whom, the seething, bald-headed Shinzon (Tom Hardy), is the mirror-image of Picard in his youth and who needs Picard's blood to stay alive, the other of whom, B-4, is Data's childlike prototype.
What ensues goes beyond mere phasers and fireworks. Indeed, amidst the inevitable—and entertaining--power struggle that erupts between Picard and Shinzon is a debate, of all things, on nature vs. nurture, with the film suggesting that we are absolutely able to change our own destinies at will, overcoming such obstacles as our environment and our DNA.
To that end, "Star Trek: Nemesis" offers a handful of tidy theories, conclusions and a predictable, telegraphed twist that comes at the end. This isn’t a bad a film—far from it. It’s nicely acted by Stewart and Hardy and, once it occurs to Baird that he might want to include some action, the movie finally comes to life midway through with some cleverly conceived battle scenes, the best of which finds Picard ramming the Enterprise straight into Shinzon’s ship.
Still, for those who remember the great “Wrath of Khan,” the 1982 film that featured a true nemesis in Ricardo Montalban and the sort of poignant ending “Nemesis” strives yet fails to achieve, this Star Trek falls short.
Grade: B-
January 4, 2009 at 11:56 PM
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