In what is supposed to be the final Star Trek film for the Next Generation crew,
Captain Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Steward), commander of the U.S.S. Enterprise,
faces his biggest challenge yet: the marriage between his executive officer
William Riker and Counselor Deanna Troi, and the promotion of Commander Riker
to captain of his own starship. Oh yeah, there's also a little story about the
Romulan Star Empire threatening to tear itself apart when their leader and
senate are assassinated. Shinzon (Tom Hardy), a bald young man in a blue rubber
outfit who looks a lot like Picard, is the leader of the Remans, a lower caste
race who deposed the Romulan leaders. When the Enterprise is sent to Romulus at
Shinzon's request, Picard and company discover that the reason why Shinzon looks
somewhat like Picard is because he is Picard…sort of. Shinzon is a clone,
created from Picard's cells many years ago. It turns out that the Romulans had
planned to replace Picard with the clone, but the idea was aborted with a regime
change. Shinzon was summarily banished to the Reman mines, where he soon became
a leader for them to rally around, and thus created the revolt that changed the
face of the empire. But that's not all Shinzon intends to change. Armed with a
powerful warship, the Scimitar, Shinzon's ultimate goal is to make his new
Empire the big kid on the block by destroying Earth and the Federation.
It sounds good, doesn't it? And it is, to a point. Certainly the filmmakers
deserve kudos for trying to make a different Star Trek film this time out.
Compared to the previous film, the shrill and sappy "Insurrection", "Nemesis" is
as close to a masterpiece as the Next Gen films have come. However, the problems
that keep it from being a true masterpiece are many. For one, there's that
annoying scene where Picard, Data and Worf tool around a planet in a Starfleet
SUV. This just doesn't make sense. Granted, they are unable to beam down because
of a pesky ion storm that messes with the transporter, but they could have just
as easily accomplished their task by using a shuttlecraft. And why is it
whenever an Away Team beams down to a planet, they receive no help whatsoever
from the ship in orbit? I recall in several Classic Trek episodes when a planet
bound Kirk ordered his Enterprise to fire at a target on the surface whenever
things got too hairy.
Another problem with Nemesis is the revelation that Shinzon is dying, and needs
Picard's blood in order to survive. Yet if he is in such dire straights, then
why should this dying man waste time trying to molest Counselor Troi via a hokey
mind-meld? If the clock is truly ticking away on Shinzon's life, then he should
simply grab Picard the first chance he gets, drain his blood, and then move
quickly to consolidate his power within the galaxy before the Federation even
knew what hit them. At least that should be his plan, which would get foiled by
our heroes. But instead, the first half of the film suffers from an extreme case
of over-exposition. One more beef: the Scimitar is armed with a powerful and
deadly new super weapon, and yet we never actually see it in use. Granted, it is
a larger version of the weapon that was used on the Romulan Senate in the film's
opening, but it still would have been more effective for us to see the Scimitar's
death ray in action. Remember in Star Wars: A New Hope, when the Death Star blew
away Alderaan? That scene served to show that the Rebel Alliance was up against
a truly potent and formidable threat. Having the Scimitar test fire its death
ray-or whatever it was called-would have served the same purpose; it would have
shown us the destructive force that the Enterprise was up against.
In any event, Nemesis is not without its charm. Things take off in the second
half, with a rousing space battle between the Enterprise, the Scimitar, and a
pair of newly designed Romulan war birds (what it is with these Romulan
shipwrights? Those guys sure know how to design some mighty handsome vessels).
If you're a die-hard Trek fan, as I am, then you will still enjoy the movie.
There are countless references to people, places and things within the Trek
universe. Although I was never a fan of Voyager, I still thought it was a nice
touch to see Kate Mulgrew's cameo as Katherine Janeway. Whoopi Goldberg and Wil Wheaton
also make cameos as Guinan and Wesley Crusher, respectively, in the wedding scene.
And there is another surprise cameo by a famous director.
If nothing else, it's refreshing to see the Next Gen characters moving on with their lives. If this
truly is the last New Gen film, then they really couldn't
have picked a better one to go out on than Nemesis, in spite of its flaws.
The DVD itself is loaded with extras. There's a director commentary track,
along with several 'making of' documentaries, and deleted scenes. It would have
been nice to re-insert some of the deleted scenes back into the movie as they
add far more character
and story development than there is presently in the final cut. Perhaps sometime
down the road, we can get a special edition DVD with the added scenes. --SF