Star Trek: Nemesis

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 116 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Star Trek: Nemesis is the tenth movie in the Star Trek franchise, and perhaps is the last for the Next Generation crew… maybe they should have quit at nine.

Star Trek: Nemesis

I tried, and am trying, to really like this movie but it’s just not clicking for me. Things just seem “forced” for some reason. A good example of this is with the new Captain’s Yacht, the Argos. It just happens to have a four-wheeler built into it, and on it’s very first time being flown by Captain Picard they just happen to need to use the four-wheeler. Of course, they get chased (by aliens on four-wheelers)… and it just so happens that the Argos is equipped with a remote control so the ship can be piloted to a cliffside where the crew can jump the vehicle into it’s docking bay… which just so happens to have been equipped with shock absorbers for this exact scenario. How convenient.

The general plot this time around is that something unusual has happened on the Romulan homeworld and the new guy in charge is requesting a meeting with the Federation. The closest ship is the Enterprise (who just finished playing with their four-wheeler on planet near the neutral zone) so Picard and crew are dispatched to Romulus to see what’s going on. Yada yada yada… new guy wants peace but happens to be in charge of one heck of a battleship… yada yada yada… Picard doesn’t trust him… yada yada yada… big space fight. I’ve left out lots of details to conserve the actual plot, but you get the general idea.

The acting is fine, the special effects are great and there’s a couple of nice plot twists as well. However, the writing overall is substandard and the movie is about 15 minutes too long. If you’re a trek fan you’ve already seen it, if you’re not then please don’t let this be your first introduction to the series.

As for the movies tagline “A Generation’s Final Journey Begins”, it’s already been confirmed that they are thinking about doing an 11th movie with this same crew, so you can just ignore the idea that this is the last time for Picard and company. Personally I’d rather see Sisko and Worf do a Deep Space Nine movie, but I doubt I’ll get my wish.

Posted by John | Filed Under 3 Stars, Action, Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Majel Barrett, PG-13, Patrick Stewart, SciFi, Theatrical