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Star Trek:
Nemesis
Finally,
the moment has arrived.
William
Riker (Jonathan Frakes) has taken the hand of Counselor Deanna
Troi (Marina Sirtis). Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) will
now assume second in command after Riker takes command of
the USS Titan, "...which I am assuming is as nice as
the Excelsior", and taking his newly wedded wife along
with him.
While
the Enterprise E is on her way to their second celebration/reception
on Betazed, Geordi (Levar Burton) picks up small traces of
energy located on an inhabited system of a pre-warp civilization
that only androids possess -- such as Data.
After
making its first detour, the Enterprise is barely back en
route to Betazed before Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) receives
a message from Starfleet command.
Apparently
a new praetor is in power from Remus, and the Romulan Empire
has a new leader by the name of Shinzon (Tom Hardy), who wants
to push for peace with the federation. To initiate the procedures,
a federation ship will be tasked to see the validity of the
matter, and the Enterprise is the closest ship to the neutral
zone.
Is this
new ruler really pushing for peace with the Federation after
long years of hatred? Or has Earth's Nemesis finally made
his showing?
It's really
hard to not know what to expect going into a Star Trek movie.
With over a gazillion episodes and more on the way, you have
seen it all. This movie is no exception, but you may find
something to enjoy - family ties, a sense that things are
moving on, and a sense of a new page being flipped. The idea
that the Enterprise family is breaking away is refreshing,
yet sad. Guess you have to get promoted sometime.
Picard
is no Kirk, but the cowboy style of the original Trek is desperately
trying to make its way out of the oh-so-proper Captain of
the present, er, future present. As remarkable an actor as
Patrick Stewart is, cowboy is not his style. So a brief horrible
sequence of Mission Impossible revisited dune buggy chase
tries to address a sense of adventure, and fails. Being chased
by primitive pre-warp cultured beings in dune buggies should
easily foiled with a federation modified 4-Wheeler and a Klingon
holding the rear blaster. Escaping by jumping a cliff into
a remote controlled shuttle lander bay would probably be better
received in the next Bond flick.
This whole
part felt too out of place, too out of character, and took
too long to get to what they wanted to do, which was show
off some cool special effects and hurt your eyes with the
yellow tint, and prove that, seemingly, an Enterprise Captain
never follows the Prime Directive.
Also,
you wonder why the crew of the Enterprise is so shocked that
there is another android out there resembling Data. Somehow,
in marveling over this duplicate, named B-4, everyone seems
to have forgotten Lore. Fascinating.
As Shinzon,
Tom Hardy's performance is pretty good.He's young and full
of hate, twisted to the point that he tries to be scary, but
not too insane. It's Star Trek after all; we don't
like taking a chance with a Hannibal Lecter in space. The
mind violation of Troi maybe the sickest thing he does.
This movie
gets everyone in the crew involved in a nice way, unlike some
TV-to-Movie flicks that sloppily try to have everyone there
in awkward ways. You really don't need to know their histories,
because you automatically get the gist that they have been
together for a long long time. So if you have a non-trekkie
friend or (gasp) significant other who hasn't seen any of
it before, Nemesis is a good one to get them into it.
The effects are what you would expect from a silver screen
Trek film, and the music is thrilling.
Depending
on where you stand on your Trekkie-meter, your reaction may
differ. It has its flaws, some scenes that do not compute,
no 50-year olds stripping on sand dunes, and no whales to
save the day. Overall, Nemesis is the best of the Next
Generation films.
What's
It Worth? $7
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