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MOVIE: Star Trek Nemesis
Starring Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Tom Hardy,
Johnathan Frakes, Lavar Burton, Mirina Sirtis,
Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden
Directed by Stuart Baird
Written by John Logan
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Paramount
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
What are you going to do to make the tenth Star Trek film boldly go where no other Star Trek film has gone before? How about making it go to Romulus? We've never been to there! This is how Nemesis gets into warp drive. But after all these years I have to ask myself, am I seeing it only on impulse?
Don't get me wrong, I love Star Trek and Nemesis is a very good film. The villain, Shinzon, (played with a kind of reserved acidity by Tom Hardy) has never been appeared in other episodes and you don't quite know what to expect from him. Also a major character dies, so the plot's not entirely without surprises. And of course Director Stuart Baird (Tomb Raider, Mission Impossible 2) has made sure we get our usual compliment of high quality sci-fi graphics and action scenes. The work is first rate all around and watching Nemesis is definitely lot of fun.
None dare call it "Attack Of The Clone" though! If I wanted to I could be really hard on the movie for the usual gaggle of Star Trek-isms, after all, some of the unscientific howlers in Nemesis have existed ever since the Roddenberry years on TV. Oh heck, let's indulge in a little reality check! For the thousandth time the Captain orders "All power to the shields!" All power except the artificial gravity of course--they always stay in their seats! Even when the enemy's disruptors have fried the Enterprise crispier than a State Fair corn fritter, the gravity is still on! Just so someone can fall to their death in a fight staged in a jeffreys tube I guess. Moreover, one of my favorite exasperations is how close spaceships the size of whole city blocks must get in order to fight, blasting broadsides at point blank range like men o'war under full sail at Trafalgar. And still missing most of the time. I've seen better targeting systems on a Nintendo Game Boy! Phew, that felt good! Thanks for indulging me, I'm glad I got that out of my system. And in the spirit of fairness, the same complaints can be registered against Star Wars, Babylon 5, Farscape, Battlestar Galactica, take your pick.
Bottom line, if you're a Star Trek fan, you'll love Nemesis. If you enjoy sci-fi with lots of spaceship battles, you'll love Nemesis. If you want sci-fi action and mystery though, go rent a DVD of Spielberg's intense and stunning Minority Report. If you want intellectually challenging sci-fi, go see Solaris.
The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw the movie? Yes.
Would I go to see it again? I've seen all the others two or three times, why stop now?
© 2003 - Rusty Pipes