Star Trek Revisited Part VI
Dear sweet pickled Jesus it's been a long time.
For some strange reason I decided to watch Star Trek: Insurrection yesterday and Star Trek: Nemesis today, and realized hey, I need to finish what I started in February of (lol) 2011 and complete my review of the Star Trek film franchise. There's still one more to go, as I revisit the reboot flick a bit later, maybe today or tomorrow.
If you're interested, here are the other entries:
Star Trek: The Motion Picture & The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek: The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home
Star Trek: The Final Frontier
Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek: Generations and First Contact
So, here we go.
Star Trek: Insurrection
Alas, one of the more dimwitted Star Trek storylines, which probably made Gene Roddenberry vomit profusely in his grave while spinning. While this would have made a pretty decent two-parter of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it's a pretty limp film. Of all of the TNG films, this one feels the most like an episode of the show. It's fairly enjoyable, nonetheless, with lots of pretty good standout character moments and humor that doesn't feel forced. The setup, however, shows a complete lack of real thought. Data (for reasons unexplained) has been loaned out to a Federation "duck blind" mission as the UFP is observing the small population (roughly 600, though we never, ever see that many of them) of a race called the Ba'ku, which conveniently all look like Earthlings. The Ba'ku have no technology and seem fairly primitive. Data goes bugfuck and compromises the mission by attacking other Starfleet officers (all of whom wear these nifty inviso-suits, never seen before, to avoid being seen by the species they are observing) and exposing the "duck blind" facility to the Ba'ku. The Federation officer in charge of the mission, Admiral Doughtery, contacts the Enterprise-E to inform Picard that his robot's cheese has slid off its cracker in a spectacular way. Picard, of course, wants to come get Data, which the Admiral reluctantly agrees. Rua'fo, Doughtery's Son'a pal on this mission (played by the woefully underused F. Murray Abraham), is all 31 flavors of capital-C Creepy, with a slab of ham on the side. You know the Son'a are evil because they're all fucked-up looking and undergo extensive genetic treatments and skin stretching a la Katherine Helmond in Brazil, so they can't be up to any good here. There's an extensive podrace, I mean shuttle race, between Data and Picard & Worf during which Picard tries to sway Data back to the light side of the force by singing some Gilbert & Sullivan, which is completely ridiculous. After capturing Data, Picard finds out that Data's neural net was damaged by having been shot. The Ba'ku turn out to be a very old race who once had warp capability and traveled the galaxy, only to collectively give that up and get back to nature. All of the adult Ba'ku settlers are 300+ years old, as the planet has some unspecified ("photonic radiation" style technobabble) effect that slows aging and gives inhabitants, over time, extraordinary mental and physical acuity, which is demonstrated by kids playing 6-way hackey-sack like they were in the Olympics. As a result of just being near the damn planet, Worf gets a massive zit (a "gortch", to which Riker says "Klingons never do anything small, do they?"), experiences sudden hair growth, and in general goes through Klingon puberty, again. LaForge's eye problems are fixed and he (briefly) no longer needs the ocular implants (which replaced the Fram oil filter VISOR from the show), and Picard kicks out some Latin jams in his ready room. Because when you're youthful vitality is restored, the first thing you want to do is dance some motherfuckin' salsa, amirite? Riker & Deanna Troi experience a rekindling of their long-buried romance, as well. Doctor Crusher, um, is just kinda there. Ultimately, Picard finds out that the Federation and the Son'a planned to kidnap the Ba'ku, insert them into a Federation holodeck ship (which is not complete) and transport them to an "identical planet" somewhere else (because there are just so many identical planets in the galaxy, no one would ever know the difference), and use the planet's unique properties to help the Son'a overcome their medical issues. None of this, of course, makes the least bit of logical sense, as the Federation would tell the Son'a "sucks to be you, find another way" and never interfere with the Ba'ku in the first place. Why the writers & producers felt the need to create an alliance between the Federation and the Son'a is a complete mystery, other than it lends a plot element to allow Picard to take issue with Federation and Starfleet policy and go rogue. Which he does, followed by his crew, in order to save the Ba'ku. There is then a long and utterly unnecessary sequence in which the entire population gets moved from one set of caves to another while the Son'a bombard the planet and send transporter drones down to beam up people. It's all so dumb. When Picard and his Ba'ku hottie girlfriend are captured, he of course finagles a way to get one of the Son'a to his side, thwart Ru'afo's plans, and destroy the radiation harvester ship. Oh, and we find out that the Son'a are the long-lost relatives of the Ba'ku, left behind when the Ba'ku selfishly decided to join the counter-culture. There's a touching reunion as the Ba'ku forgive the Son'a survivors, and welcome them back to the Haight.
Ugh. What contrivance. Look, this was an okay idea that, as I said, probably would have played out decently on the TV show, but as a film, it kinda sucks.
Story: C-. It's a contrived mess.
Effects: Okay. There are few space scenes as the majority of the action takes place on the planet. Nothing to get excited about. The Enterprise-E still looks like shit. Did I mention I hated that design? Well, I did.
Acting: Pretty good. The cast does well with what they're given. I would much preferred to have F. Murray Abraham be the sole villain rather than share the meager spotlight with Anthony Zerbe's Admiral Doughtery, a throwaway Starfleet presence. The cast each get their moment, with Worf misused strictly as comedic relief.
Make It Not So: This whole storyline. What a bunch of crap. It's an enjoyable flick, but I became bored with it halfway through. To make things worse, it's a riff on a story already done on TNG ("Homeward").
Irritating Data Moments: Data spends the vast majority of this episode trying to get the Ba'ku to trust and like him after he interrupted their peaceful granola lifestyle, and he sings fucking Gilbert & Sullivan, so pretty much all of it is annoying.
Star Trek: Nemesis
The tenth Star Trek feature has such a bad rap and it is the only Star Trek feature I never saw in the theater (along with Star Trek V). In fact, until today's viewing, I'd never seen it, as I'd been warned away by everyone I know to avoid it like a plate full of ebola virus because OMG it sucks so bad.
Actually, I kinda liked it. Like, kind of a lot.
The story is, of course, completely ludicrous. I'm beginning to think that Rick Berman and Michael Pillar just smeared a bunch of their shit on the wall of an office on the Paramount lot and whatever patterns made by the corn bits and couscous remnants they interpreted, Oracle at Delphi style, into a story. This centers around a clone. Holy frijoles, Batman, I fucking hate clone stories. Clone stories are the black-blood infused shit stories of all shit stories, the kind of story that's so predictably stupid that you know a writer has scraped the bottom of his or her creative barrel to dredge it up, and it's full of cancer.
After wedding Riker & Troi, Picard gets a call from Admiral Janeway (!!FUCK YEAH!!) to pay a visit to Romulus. Some dude named Shinzon has massacred the Romulan Senate and taken control, and he's a Reman. TREKKIE INTERLUDE: Romulans come from the planet Romulus. It has a sister planet, Remus, which was never really dealt with before. Why Romulus and Remus? Why the fuck not. Since the Romulans are just evil Romans with shoulder pads and Vulcan heads, why not go all the way with the Roman Empire analogy. Just run with it, Roddenberry. It'll work. Only he's not a Reman, he's a fucking human. In fact, he's a clone of Captain Picard. Why? Why the fuck not. Who knows how the Romulans got a hold of Picard's DNA, it's unimportant. What's important is that they did, they cloned him, and planned to use the clone and replace the real Picard with the clone and have a spy on the inside of Starfleet. Why? WHY THE FUCK NOT? IT'S A PERFECT PLAN AND NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG WITH IT! Only the notorious instability of the Romulan government meant that, before the clone could grow up, a new government came into power and scrapped the plan, because apparently someone within the Romulan government recognized the plan was a big steaming turd. So instead of killing the Picard clone, which any sane individual would do, they sent him to Remus to be a slave. Why? WHY THE FUCK NOT! IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE, GODDAMMIT! The Remans are apparently bat people, as their planet is one of those weird planets where one side perpetually faces the sun, and so due to the high temperatures on that side, they live on the dark side of the planet. Shinzon was befriended (inexplicably) by a Reman slave and taught to survive, and then became their rebel master overlord, somehow assembled an army, built a massive supership, and then concocted a plot to overthrow the Romulan government with the help of a single female Romulan senator.
Sure. That works. Whatever the shitcorn says is gold.
Despite being way too long (apparently, huge swathes of this film were cut to ribbons in editing, mostly character moments that would have, I don't know, helped a fucking lot) and a bit slow at times, the film is, IMHO, the second best out of the TNG films, right after First Contact. There is a huge amount of gritty tension here as Picard and Shinzon engage in a battle of wits to defeat one another. The special effects are the best out of any of the TNG films. There's not a lot of character stuff (which, as I said, evidently got snipped out). Wesley Crusher appears only in a silent cameo at the wedding party (and if you're not watching this flick in widescreen, you won't see him). Since this film came out after the end of DS9, Worf is back as part of the crew, but absolutely zero mention is made of DS9 or Worf's presence; it's just a given that you know this. Riker and Troi are supposed to go off on their honeymoon, complete with a traditional Betazoid wedding ceremony there (replete with nudity, which Worf objects to), but it gets postponed thanks to Uncle Remus (see what I did there?). While Crusher has a bit more to do, the actors are merely moving through the story with nothing really to recommend them as people other than residual muscle memory of Trekkies who watched every episode of TNG.
Because this film's story was, in part, created by Brent Spiner, Data is a huge piece of the action. We get a red herring B-plot of finding a prototype android, B-4 (get it, "before"!!), who, when assembled, turns out to be Data's retarded brother, because his positronic brain is not as sophisticated, so a lot of time is completely wasted on this android progenitor, and Spiner gets to play his "country bumpkin" character, which he did so well so many years ago on Night Court. But B-4 just turns out to be a fucking plot device, placed there by Shinzon because he knew Picard would not resist the lure. But that's ok, Because Data and LaForge figure it out in time to pull a Pauper & The Prince and have Data pretend to be B-4 and vomit vomit vomit...
Look, there's a reason to watch this flick. The battle between the Enterprise-E and Shinzon's megadestructosupership the Scimitar is the best Star Trek space battle (in film) after Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. It's balls-out awesome, as the Enterprise is completely outclassed. Why the Romulans, who finally have it --up to here-- with Shinzon's shit, show up with only two easily-dispatched Birds of Prey, is beyond me. Fuck, they could have showed up with half the Romulan fleet and made this battle more awesome, but I guess that would have cost too much money. Even though Patrick Stewart seems like he's on autopilot here, he still smokes the screen, and Tom Hardy (the future Bane) is on point as Shinzon, even if he really doesn't look anything like Patrick Stewart. Despite the nominal acting, the film is pretty snappy, and has some great moments.
Overall, however, it's a clear indication of how burned out the Star Trek franchise had become. Ten films and four TV shows since 1979 and the entire premise was just fucking tired. The only Star Trek show on the air at the time was the abysmal Enterprise, and people were just pretty fucking sick and tired of Star Trek. While the film is certainly not the abhorrent mess that, say, Star Trek V was, it's still not a great film, but it isn't the best, or the worst, of the franchise. I don't understand the abysmal reputation that it has, because it's certainly a much better film than Generations or Insurrection.
But it's clear the studios knew they were on borrowed time. Nemesis serves as an effective last film for the TNG cast and characters. Riker and Troi get married and, at film's end, go off to their new life on board the U.S.S. Titan, with Riker accepting his new command. Data is dead and has left behind his less functional, less intelligent prototype sibling, though the writers left it open that one day, B-4 might replace Data, once he's evolved enough mentally. And while the Enterprise-E is shown in drydock, reminiscent of the scene in The Motion Picture where Kirk sees the refit ship for the first time, indicating future adventures were possible, there have been none.
And that's kind of a shame, really. That the longest-running Star Trek series with one of the most memorable set of characters got the cinematic shaft is a fucking crying shame. With only four TNG films (versus six for the TOS cast), Paramount wisely pulled the plug when Nemesis did so poorly at the box office and was savaged by critics. Enterprise put the final nails in the coffin, and Star Trek would lay fallow in the fields for four years until resurrected in a reboot/alternate reality scenario.
What a shame.
Story: C. Clone stories suck ass, but the action and smoldering standoff between Picard and Shinzon make this work. Sort of.
Effects: The best of the TNG franchise.
Acting: It's all rote, by-the-numbers activity here. Director Stuart Baird (who has apparently gone back to his old job as a film editor) reportedly had never seen any single episode of Star Trek in any incarnation, and it kind of shows. The characters are mostly flat and the actors, who reportedly did not like Baird, are just going through the motions.
Make It Not So: I could have done with another reason for Shinzon's existence, really. Tom Hardy is good, but pales in comparison to Patrick Stewart, who eats actors like Hardy for breakfast and shits them out in time for them to appear on soap operas. There are some obvious parallels to The Wrath of Khan here, and clearly the writers and producers were trying very, very hard to emulate that film, but Shinzon is no Khan.
Irritating Data Moments: Ugh. The only bright spot is that Data dies. The film is so Data-centric that it's a huge turnoff for people who hate Data (like yours truly), and the idiot prototype is just, well, it's fucking stupid. It was bad enough we had Lore (the bad twin, another worn out storyline) on the TNG series, but now we're stuck with an inferior prototype, all so that Brent Spiner could pretend he's in a space version of Of Mice and Men. Like Leonard Nimoy insisted on Spock's death for The Wrath of Khan, Spiner insisted on Data dying. It's a logical concept, considering that Spiner's aging is so evident in the TNG films that by the time we get to Nemesis no amount of makeup can compensate. If Data is an android and his skin is synthetic, he should not ever show aging. Good move on Spiner's part, but half the film is wasted on him saying goodbye to the role.
For some strange reason I decided to watch Star Trek: Insurrection yesterday and Star Trek: Nemesis today, and realized hey, I need to finish what I started in February of (lol) 2011 and complete my review of the Star Trek film franchise. There's still one more to go, as I revisit the reboot flick a bit later, maybe today or tomorrow.
If you're interested, here are the other entries:
Star Trek: The Motion Picture & The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek: The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home
Star Trek: The Final Frontier
Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek: Generations and First Contact
So, here we go.
Star Trek: Insurrection
Alas, one of the more dimwitted Star Trek storylines, which probably made Gene Roddenberry vomit profusely in his grave while spinning. While this would have made a pretty decent two-parter of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it's a pretty limp film. Of all of the TNG films, this one feels the most like an episode of the show. It's fairly enjoyable, nonetheless, with lots of pretty good standout character moments and humor that doesn't feel forced. The setup, however, shows a complete lack of real thought. Data (for reasons unexplained) has been loaned out to a Federation "duck blind" mission as the UFP is observing the small population (roughly 600, though we never, ever see that many of them) of a race called the Ba'ku, which conveniently all look like Earthlings. The Ba'ku have no technology and seem fairly primitive. Data goes bugfuck and compromises the mission by attacking other Starfleet officers (all of whom wear these nifty inviso-suits, never seen before, to avoid being seen by the species they are observing) and exposing the "duck blind" facility to the Ba'ku. The Federation officer in charge of the mission, Admiral Doughtery, contacts the Enterprise-E to inform Picard that his robot's cheese has slid off its cracker in a spectacular way. Picard, of course, wants to come get Data, which the Admiral reluctantly agrees. Rua'fo, Doughtery's Son'a pal on this mission (played by the woefully underused F. Murray Abraham), is all 31 flavors of capital-C Creepy, with a slab of ham on the side. You know the Son'a are evil because they're all fucked-up looking and undergo extensive genetic treatments and skin stretching a la Katherine Helmond in Brazil, so they can't be up to any good here. There's an extensive podrace, I mean shuttle race, between Data and Picard & Worf during which Picard tries to sway Data back to the light side of the force by singing some Gilbert & Sullivan, which is completely ridiculous. After capturing Data, Picard finds out that Data's neural net was damaged by having been shot. The Ba'ku turn out to be a very old race who once had warp capability and traveled the galaxy, only to collectively give that up and get back to nature. All of the adult Ba'ku settlers are 300+ years old, as the planet has some unspecified ("photonic radiation" style technobabble) effect that slows aging and gives inhabitants, over time, extraordinary mental and physical acuity, which is demonstrated by kids playing 6-way hackey-sack like they were in the Olympics. As a result of just being near the damn planet, Worf gets a massive zit (a "gortch", to which Riker says "Klingons never do anything small, do they?"), experiences sudden hair growth, and in general goes through Klingon puberty, again. LaForge's eye problems are fixed and he (briefly) no longer needs the ocular implants (which replaced the Fram oil filter VISOR from the show), and Picard kicks out some Latin jams in his ready room. Because when you're youthful vitality is restored, the first thing you want to do is dance some motherfuckin' salsa, amirite? Riker & Deanna Troi experience a rekindling of their long-buried romance, as well. Doctor Crusher, um, is just kinda there. Ultimately, Picard finds out that the Federation and the Son'a planned to kidnap the Ba'ku, insert them into a Federation holodeck ship (which is not complete) and transport them to an "identical planet" somewhere else (because there are just so many identical planets in the galaxy, no one would ever know the difference), and use the planet's unique properties to help the Son'a overcome their medical issues. None of this, of course, makes the least bit of logical sense, as the Federation would tell the Son'a "sucks to be you, find another way" and never interfere with the Ba'ku in the first place. Why the writers & producers felt the need to create an alliance between the Federation and the Son'a is a complete mystery, other than it lends a plot element to allow Picard to take issue with Federation and Starfleet policy and go rogue. Which he does, followed by his crew, in order to save the Ba'ku. There is then a long and utterly unnecessary sequence in which the entire population gets moved from one set of caves to another while the Son'a bombard the planet and send transporter drones down to beam up people. It's all so dumb. When Picard and his Ba'ku hottie girlfriend are captured, he of course finagles a way to get one of the Son'a to his side, thwart Ru'afo's plans, and destroy the radiation harvester ship. Oh, and we find out that the Son'a are the long-lost relatives of the Ba'ku, left behind when the Ba'ku selfishly decided to join the counter-culture. There's a touching reunion as the Ba'ku forgive the Son'a survivors, and welcome them back to the Haight.
Ugh. What contrivance. Look, this was an okay idea that, as I said, probably would have played out decently on the TV show, but as a film, it kinda sucks.
Story: C-. It's a contrived mess.
Effects: Okay. There are few space scenes as the majority of the action takes place on the planet. Nothing to get excited about. The Enterprise-E still looks like shit. Did I mention I hated that design? Well, I did.
Acting: Pretty good. The cast does well with what they're given. I would much preferred to have F. Murray Abraham be the sole villain rather than share the meager spotlight with Anthony Zerbe's Admiral Doughtery, a throwaway Starfleet presence. The cast each get their moment, with Worf misused strictly as comedic relief.
Make It Not So: This whole storyline. What a bunch of crap. It's an enjoyable flick, but I became bored with it halfway through. To make things worse, it's a riff on a story already done on TNG ("Homeward").
Irritating Data Moments: Data spends the vast majority of this episode trying to get the Ba'ku to trust and like him after he interrupted their peaceful granola lifestyle, and he sings fucking Gilbert & Sullivan, so pretty much all of it is annoying.
Star Trek: Nemesis
The tenth Star Trek feature has such a bad rap and it is the only Star Trek feature I never saw in the theater (along with Star Trek V). In fact, until today's viewing, I'd never seen it, as I'd been warned away by everyone I know to avoid it like a plate full of ebola virus because OMG it sucks so bad.
Actually, I kinda liked it. Like, kind of a lot.
The story is, of course, completely ludicrous. I'm beginning to think that Rick Berman and Michael Pillar just smeared a bunch of their shit on the wall of an office on the Paramount lot and whatever patterns made by the corn bits and couscous remnants they interpreted, Oracle at Delphi style, into a story. This centers around a clone. Holy frijoles, Batman, I fucking hate clone stories. Clone stories are the black-blood infused shit stories of all shit stories, the kind of story that's so predictably stupid that you know a writer has scraped the bottom of his or her creative barrel to dredge it up, and it's full of cancer.
After wedding Riker & Troi, Picard gets a call from Admiral Janeway (!!FUCK YEAH!!) to pay a visit to Romulus. Some dude named Shinzon has massacred the Romulan Senate and taken control, and he's a Reman. TREKKIE INTERLUDE: Romulans come from the planet Romulus. It has a sister planet, Remus, which was never really dealt with before. Why Romulus and Remus? Why the fuck not. Since the Romulans are just evil Romans with shoulder pads and Vulcan heads, why not go all the way with the Roman Empire analogy. Just run with it, Roddenberry. It'll work. Only he's not a Reman, he's a fucking human. In fact, he's a clone of Captain Picard. Why? Why the fuck not. Who knows how the Romulans got a hold of Picard's DNA, it's unimportant. What's important is that they did, they cloned him, and planned to use the clone and replace the real Picard with the clone and have a spy on the inside of Starfleet. Why? WHY THE FUCK NOT? IT'S A PERFECT PLAN AND NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG WITH IT! Only the notorious instability of the Romulan government meant that, before the clone could grow up, a new government came into power and scrapped the plan, because apparently someone within the Romulan government recognized the plan was a big steaming turd. So instead of killing the Picard clone, which any sane individual would do, they sent him to Remus to be a slave. Why? WHY THE FUCK NOT! IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE, GODDAMMIT! The Remans are apparently bat people, as their planet is one of those weird planets where one side perpetually faces the sun, and so due to the high temperatures on that side, they live on the dark side of the planet. Shinzon was befriended (inexplicably) by a Reman slave and taught to survive, and then became their rebel master overlord, somehow assembled an army, built a massive supership, and then concocted a plot to overthrow the Romulan government with the help of a single female Romulan senator.
Sure. That works. Whatever the shitcorn says is gold.
Despite being way too long (apparently, huge swathes of this film were cut to ribbons in editing, mostly character moments that would have, I don't know, helped a fucking lot) and a bit slow at times, the film is, IMHO, the second best out of the TNG films, right after First Contact. There is a huge amount of gritty tension here as Picard and Shinzon engage in a battle of wits to defeat one another. The special effects are the best out of any of the TNG films. There's not a lot of character stuff (which, as I said, evidently got snipped out). Wesley Crusher appears only in a silent cameo at the wedding party (and if you're not watching this flick in widescreen, you won't see him). Since this film came out after the end of DS9, Worf is back as part of the crew, but absolutely zero mention is made of DS9 or Worf's presence; it's just a given that you know this. Riker and Troi are supposed to go off on their honeymoon, complete with a traditional Betazoid wedding ceremony there (replete with nudity, which Worf objects to), but it gets postponed thanks to Uncle Remus (see what I did there?). While Crusher has a bit more to do, the actors are merely moving through the story with nothing really to recommend them as people other than residual muscle memory of Trekkies who watched every episode of TNG.
Because this film's story was, in part, created by Brent Spiner, Data is a huge piece of the action. We get a red herring B-plot of finding a prototype android, B-4 (get it, "before"!!), who, when assembled, turns out to be Data's retarded brother, because his positronic brain is not as sophisticated, so a lot of time is completely wasted on this android progenitor, and Spiner gets to play his "country bumpkin" character, which he did so well so many years ago on Night Court. But B-4 just turns out to be a fucking plot device, placed there by Shinzon because he knew Picard would not resist the lure. But that's ok, Because Data and LaForge figure it out in time to pull a Pauper & The Prince and have Data pretend to be B-4 and vomit vomit vomit...
Look, there's a reason to watch this flick. The battle between the Enterprise-E and Shinzon's megadestructosupership the Scimitar is the best Star Trek space battle (in film) after Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. It's balls-out awesome, as the Enterprise is completely outclassed. Why the Romulans, who finally have it --up to here-- with Shinzon's shit, show up with only two easily-dispatched Birds of Prey, is beyond me. Fuck, they could have showed up with half the Romulan fleet and made this battle more awesome, but I guess that would have cost too much money. Even though Patrick Stewart seems like he's on autopilot here, he still smokes the screen, and Tom Hardy (the future Bane) is on point as Shinzon, even if he really doesn't look anything like Patrick Stewart. Despite the nominal acting, the film is pretty snappy, and has some great moments.
Overall, however, it's a clear indication of how burned out the Star Trek franchise had become. Ten films and four TV shows since 1979 and the entire premise was just fucking tired. The only Star Trek show on the air at the time was the abysmal Enterprise, and people were just pretty fucking sick and tired of Star Trek. While the film is certainly not the abhorrent mess that, say, Star Trek V was, it's still not a great film, but it isn't the best, or the worst, of the franchise. I don't understand the abysmal reputation that it has, because it's certainly a much better film than Generations or Insurrection.
But it's clear the studios knew they were on borrowed time. Nemesis serves as an effective last film for the TNG cast and characters. Riker and Troi get married and, at film's end, go off to their new life on board the U.S.S. Titan, with Riker accepting his new command. Data is dead and has left behind his less functional, less intelligent prototype sibling, though the writers left it open that one day, B-4 might replace Data, once he's evolved enough mentally. And while the Enterprise-E is shown in drydock, reminiscent of the scene in The Motion Picture where Kirk sees the refit ship for the first time, indicating future adventures were possible, there have been none.
And that's kind of a shame, really. That the longest-running Star Trek series with one of the most memorable set of characters got the cinematic shaft is a fucking crying shame. With only four TNG films (versus six for the TOS cast), Paramount wisely pulled the plug when Nemesis did so poorly at the box office and was savaged by critics. Enterprise put the final nails in the coffin, and Star Trek would lay fallow in the fields for four years until resurrected in a reboot/alternate reality scenario.
What a shame.
Story: C. Clone stories suck ass, but the action and smoldering standoff between Picard and Shinzon make this work. Sort of.
Effects: The best of the TNG franchise.
Acting: It's all rote, by-the-numbers activity here. Director Stuart Baird (who has apparently gone back to his old job as a film editor) reportedly had never seen any single episode of Star Trek in any incarnation, and it kind of shows. The characters are mostly flat and the actors, who reportedly did not like Baird, are just going through the motions.
Make It Not So: I could have done with another reason for Shinzon's existence, really. Tom Hardy is good, but pales in comparison to Patrick Stewart, who eats actors like Hardy for breakfast and shits them out in time for them to appear on soap operas. There are some obvious parallels to The Wrath of Khan here, and clearly the writers and producers were trying very, very hard to emulate that film, but Shinzon is no Khan.
Irritating Data Moments: Ugh. The only bright spot is that Data dies. The film is so Data-centric that it's a huge turnoff for people who hate Data (like yours truly), and the idiot prototype is just, well, it's fucking stupid. It was bad enough we had Lore (the bad twin, another worn out storyline) on the TNG series, but now we're stuck with an inferior prototype, all so that Brent Spiner could pretend he's in a space version of Of Mice and Men. Like Leonard Nimoy insisted on Spock's death for The Wrath of Khan, Spiner insisted on Data dying. It's a logical concept, considering that Spiner's aging is so evident in the TNG films that by the time we get to Nemesis no amount of makeup can compensate. If Data is an android and his skin is synthetic, he should not ever show aging. Good move on Spiner's part, but half the film is wasted on him saying goodbye to the role.