We did it! We're through the Next Generation films! Yup, unlike the crew of the original six movies, Picard's crew only got four films to wrap up their series, and on some levels, that's probably for the best. Unlike the Original Series, which only got three seasons (including that God-awful third season), The Next Generation remained on the air for a whopping seven seasons, all of which were pretty dang good. Yeah the first couple seasons weren't as good, but compared to Season Three of the original series? It's gold. And no, I will never get tired of ripping that third season a new one. Back on track, with such a big series, I don't think Picard's crew needed six films to wrap up their series. Heck, I'm not sure they even needed four, but here we are. Is Nemesis a worthy send-off?
Well...yes and no. Now I will get this out of my system now, this is a film that some people will compare to the Final Frontier, as yet another bad bad bad Star Trek film, and all I have to say to that is.....really? I mean, granted it's not perfect, but I had a lot of fun watching it. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but honestly, I think it gets way too much dirt than it deserves. There are some things here that don't belong. But there are a lot of things here that hit right on the money. And the thing it does decent at right up front is.....I'll be honest, the action. Now before I get too many angry fans tearing me a new one, I will say that some action doesn't fit. And the scene that immediately comes to mind is the ATV action scene in the first act. I still don't get why they added it. It really adds...nothing to the film. It could have been cut, and nothing would have changed in the film. I mean granted we get a couple of cheesy, but likable lines in the scene (I don't care what others might say, unsafe velocities had me chuckling), but the Reman attack was completely unnecessary. And a few of the shootouts....probably could have been edited down and whatnot (a shuttle flying through the halls of a warbird seems a little over the top). But one thing I absolutely love in this film is the space battle, which is absolutely phenomenal. Easily amongst the best of the franchise, and I've yet to get to a personal favorite space battle. It's paced wonderfully, visually appealing, and at times, even intense to the point where you're wondering if it's scary (God I love hull breach scenes). And the fact that the Romulans....long time enemies of the Federation, aid the Enterprise in this battle, only strengthens this battle. It's a real treat to watch.
The concepts of Nature vs Nurture are also a concept I found somewhat interesting, though not so much emotionally gripping as one would hope. Here you have a concept never before explored in Star Trek, where Picard is facing his own clone. You'd hope this would have a bit more of a payoff than what we got. Instead we just get a few scenes of them together, in which the clone just kinda drops the whole "If you were in my place, you'd do the same thing!" a couple times, before we get our eventual climax, and that's that. Honestly, it kinda felt a little anti-climactic,and if it weren't for the....spoiler alert....death of Data giving it a more serious emotion to the overall scene, the whole thing would have felt rather mediocre.
Which leads me to discuss the biggest factor of the movie, the send-off. Let's compare the send-off of the original crew to the send-off of the Next Generation crew. Minor note, this paragraph includes spoilers. If you don't wanna be spoiled, skip ahead to the next paragraph. The original crew's send off was as such. With peace talks now beginning with the Klingon Empire, the Enterprise is ordered to immediately return to Starfleet where it will be decommissioned, and the crew will mainly retire. So...the crew takes their ship out for one last ride to wherever. It's a fantastic, glorious ending that is still every bit as awesome as it should be. Picard's crew? It's...much more somber. Here, Data is dead, Riker and Troi are getting transferred, and while peace talks with the Romulans are beginning, there's not a lot to smile about, because the crew is just...going through such a tough time. I mean sure, the original crew saw the death of Spock, but he came back. And though Data's memories start to resurface in the memory banks of...B-4...(who I won't dedicate a paragraph to, but let's just say I don't like this character at all), we don't get another movie to see Data return. For all we know, he may be gone...forever. Seeing the crew, standing there in near silence, reflecting on Data is truly sad to watch. And it doesn't help that Riker and Troi are leaving the beloved crew of the Enterprise. The send off of Picard's crew leaves so many holes in the crew we have come to know and love. And honestly...that's a really gutsy move. It's not the glorious "everything will be okay" ending that Kirk always seemed to get. Here...things have happened, that have caused a lot of pain. Whether you approve of this or not...I'll let you decide. For me personally...I think it's pretty dang strong.
But I think the biggest reason that Nemesis can get the flab it gets is mainly because for the time it came out...Star Trek was running on fumes. It needed a break, and I'm glad it got one. Whether you criticize it for too much action, or issues in continuity, or anything else...I mainly get the feeling that while it knows what to do in a lot of areas, it gets too distracted with other scenes. I asked about it on G+, and found that roughly 70% of fans liked this movie. There are so many things that I absolutely love about this film, that hit the bullseye, but there are a lot of things also that just didn't need to be there. And the fact that this can happen...continuously, I think is the film's biggest fault. If it were just one or two elements, I wouldn't mind, but it just resurfaces one too many times. While I love the ending of this film and the action, it needed to focus more on those concepts it was trying to introduce, and less on B-4's character, and the very unnecessary action scenes. It's a big mixed bag, but it's still an enjoyable mixed bag.
Star Trek: Nemesis is a film I'm unsure how to rate honestly. I wanted to give this film a three, because by most means, I njoyed this film from beginning to end. While there were elements that I don't care for, not once in the movie did I say, this isn't how I remembered it, or that it was a bad film. It has bad moments, but moment's don't condemn a film for me. However thinking harder on it, I'm going to issue this movie with some tough love, a two and a half star rating out of four. While enjoyable, the film's easy distraction, and whatnot distracts the viewer, and can at times make you question why it was in the film. Is it a perfect send off for Picard? No. Is it worthy? ...you can be the judge of that one for yourself. But as distracting as it can be, I still very much recommend a viewing of it. THe good that is in this film...is just too good to not recommend it.
Please feel free to suggest any movie you might want me to look at in the future down below. Leave a comment telling me your own personal thoughts or feelings about this film. Agree? Disagree? I want to know! And as always, thanks for reading.
Final Verdict: 2.5/4
We did it! The Next Generation films are complete! But...there's still two more Star Trek films out there that I must tackle. Films that I know, not everyone will agree with me on. It's time to tackle the infamous reboot films. See you next week.
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