A clone of Picard named Praetor Shinzon, played by Tom
Hardy, created by the Romulans but eventually exiled to hard labor on Remus, assassinates
the entire Romulan senate, undertakes dictatorship, and baits Picard and the
Enterprise to Romulus under the false trick of a peace proposal.
Obviously, if I knew that this would have been the
last “The Next Generation” movie, I would have been mad myself. Doug Walker is
right when he said, "Hey, come on! Give us something better than this!
This is really overblown."
However, just as a “Star Trek” movie, it’s not that
bad. Especially when you consider how bad almost all the odd-numbered “Star
Trek” movies got. There are parts of the movie that I really enjoyed.
I liked the idea of you going up against your younger
self, and if you grew up in a different environment, would you be different? Do
you have the genetics or the willpower to stay from the path you went on, or
would you go along the same path no matter what? This is what you call “nature
vs nurture,” which was very interesting.
The best part of the movie is when Picard is talking
to Shinzon and they are trying to learn from one another. Those were the great
parts and really complex, making it very interesting.
They do get lost in the somewhat overblown action
scenes that are really over-the-top, even by the standards of “Star Trek.” At
the same time, you did get to see some cool moments. Remember when the two
ships actually crashed into one another? Really, the dome of the Enterprise
slid into the other ship which blew my mind in terms of “Star Trek.” It did
look great though and was really cool. Some of the moments did go a little too
far, like when Data jumped from the Enterprise into Shinzon’s ship and when a
car drove off the cliff and into the Enterprise, which were stupid.
Despite all of that, the movie gave us some stuff that
Trekkies really wanted to see. At the beginning of the movie, Commander Riker
and Counselor Troi finally got married, Whoopi Goldberg returned briefly as
Guinan and even Will Wheaton came in briefly as Dr. Crusher’s son, Wesley, even
though he didn’t speak, but was also in a deleted scene. It was really nice to
see all of “The Next Generation” characters together again.
I do acknowledge that there are problems with this
movie. It’s another story of the villains wanting to go to Earth and destroy
everything. Doug Walker admitted, “Star Trek is one of the few sci-fi movies
and shows where, actually, I don't mind the political talk. It's not like Star
Wars, where that is sort of sci-fi/fantasy. This is very much, "Hey, what
if this future was real?" You know, there would be these political talks, there
would be sort of these debates, and I would've liked a little bit more of that
in this Star Trek, instead of just going for so much action.”
For what is in the movie, despite how stupid it can
get, which it can get really stupid. However, the stuff that works in the movie
I think really does work. A lot of that comes to Picard and Shinzon. I also
liked that they had a second Data, which was interesting. For those who were
mad that Data’s evil android brother, Lore, wasn’t in the movie, I have
something to tell you Trekkie Geeks. Go back and watch “The Next Generation”
episode titled “Descent, Part II.” At the end of the episode, Data deactivated Lore (spoilers) then
reported that he was to be disassembled permanently. In here, they found
another prototype of Data, made by his creator, Dr. Noonien Soong, who is called
B-4, also played by Brent Spiner. Doug Walker called B-4 a “sort of this mentally off Data.” At the end
(spoilers), I know what they were going for, where B-4 would be Data’s replacement.
Data wouldn’t die, B-4 would come back as Data and sort of live though him,
which was good stuff. Even though this was interesting, it wasn’t really that
developed, but I did like it.
I did like what the movie dealt with Picard, but
I would’ve liked to have seen more of that with Data.
As the final “The Next Generation” film, it’s not a
good last film. If “Nemesis” was going to be the last film, I would have said, “You
can do better than that.” However, this is decent and I’m glad I saw it because
of some of the good action, good effects, and not completely lacking of
character. Unlike some of the other “Star Trek” films. The only “Star Trek”
movie that had nothing good in it at all was “Insurrection,” which I stated my
opinion on Wednesday why I thought that. "Insurrection" didn’t have the worst moments, it was
completely forgettable. Every “Star Trek” movie had something good in it that
made you glad you saw it, which was nice, but “Insurrection" didn’t have that.
I honestly think that “Nemesis” had more to it than
some people gave it credit for, but it just got shadowed by those over-the-top
action scenes and some of the dumber moments that I believe people just sort of
forgot it. I advise that everyone re-watch this movie because there are some
good moments in there.
“Nemesis” is the film that everyone says is the other
bad Trek film and broke the fabric that was the even numbered movies were the
good ones. I don’t think it was that bad. It did have some annoying scenes and
way too much action, but the whole idea of nature literally against nurture was
kind of interesting. I liked the idea that Picard had to battle Shinzon, the
clone of his younger self, and if in a different environment, Picard could have
been someone completely different. The relationship between Picard and Shinzon,
in many respects, is actually somewhat heartbreaking. That’s what held the
movie together. On a storytelling level, it probably isn’t technically a good
movie, but I enjoyed watching it for the most part, but I do admit that as the
final “The Next Generation” movie, it probably wasn’t everything it could have
been.
Honestly, this wasn’t supposed to be the final “The Next
Generation” film. There was one more planned out with a script in the writing process, but since
this movie was a critical and commercial disappointment, the script was
scrapped. However, I still think you should re-watch it and give it a chance. For those who have not seen this yet, definitely check it out.
For everyone who thinks that this is the end, it’s
not. Next week we will be looking at director J.J. Abrams’ rebooted series in “Star Trek Month.”
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