BUY THE DVD:
|
|
|
|
SYNOPSIS:
| |
after the enterprise is diverted to the romulan planet of romulus, supposedly because they want to negotiate a truce, the federation soon fins out the romulans are planning an attack on earth.
|
|
|
MOVIE FACT:
| |
jude law was originally considered for the role of shinzon.
|
|
|
RATING:
|
two out of four possible stars
|
|
|
|
Over the past 22 years, Star Trek fans have recognized a pattern in the type of movies released by Paramount Pictures as being one of two things: good or bad. It is said that all the odd numbered movies have been rather uninspiring and all the even numbered films have been good ones. So it should follow that the tenth film in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Nemesis should be a "good one." But this film puts a kink in that rather smooth explanation. Billed as an edgier and darker installment of one of the most popular series of all time, Nemesis values explosions over intellect time and time again.
Though the psychological interplay between Patrick Stewart, playing "Captain Jean-Luc Picard," and Thomas Hardy, playing Picard's clone, "Shinzon," has some flickerings of the intelligence of the television series, the movie as a whole doesn't do the franchise justice. Although the action sequences are realistically created and are on par with everything presented in the Star Trek world thus far, the reason for Star Trek's large fan base, the wisdom of the characters, is unfortunately missing in action. It seems as though Paramount was reaching too far into the general movie going public demographic to really pay proper homage to the series.
While 1996's First Contact stepped into the mainstream by just doing what Star Trek does best, by adding a little clever humor to the technology-heavy dialogue, Nemesis takes a far easier path. It takes the uniqueness of the science fiction world Gene Roddenberry created and pushes it far too close to the borders of a xXx type movie. And while xXx has its moments as a brainless and fun bigger-than-life action movie, Nemesis is going to be a tough pill for Trek fans to swallow. And whether it will be able to cross over into general audience territory is very questionable.
Because while it certainly attempts to make the scope of the action more intense than has previously been seen in Star Trek, it doesn't really accomplish that feat expertly enough. One could argue that the success of the original series and all those that came after it was based on the interaction of the characters, rather than on the technological goodies thought up by the writers. Without the precise comic timing between William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, the first six or so Star Trek movies wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining.
But barring further complaints on the action-oriented nature of this film, there are indeed some good points to it which deserve a few words. The small cameo appearance by Kate Mulgrew, reprising her role as "Captain Janeway" (though she's been promoted to admiral now) was entirely too short and one hopes that the writers for the next film will consider offering her a more substantial role. Though since this series currently concentrates on "The Next Generation" actors, that request might be stretching it.
In any case, the regulars of the series enter the fray with the familiarity of a well-worn Lazy boy, allowing the movie to get the story off to a kicking start, without a lot of preamble as to the relationships between the characters. And as these actors have been portraying these characters for over a decade, each of them falls into his or her role with relative ease. After the long-delayed marriage between Jonathan Frakes's "Commander Riker" and Marina Sirtis's "Counsellor Troi," the crew of the Starship Enterprise picks up a deep space signal from a familiar type of transponder. Resident android "Data," played by Brent Spiner, recognizes the signal and the crew heads to the planet from where the signal originates to investigate.
There they find an android resembling Data exactly and the mystery as to how and why that android ended up on that planet begins. The crew eventually finds out that the Senate of the Romulan empire on the volatile planet of Romulus has been murdered and that a group of Remans, from the slave world of Remus, has taken over the government of sister planet Romulus. The bad blood between these two worlds has been in existence for centuries and before the crew of the Enterprise can return from their android exploration (which takes them suspiciously close to the Romulan star system), they are asked to go to the planet to investigate the coup.
Though that seems like a lot of complicated Star Trek jargon to swallow, the premise moves forward with very few complications and like any science fiction film, the key is just accepting the completely improbable elements (like the fact that all races of beings near and far speak English) and enjoying the film. This hybrid of the spirit of the Star Trek movies and an attempt by the director to turn the series into a mainstream action franchise has created a passable film, but it is certainly not the best one to come off the Paramount conveyer belt. While "Trekkers" might relish the return to the big screen of their favorite actors, they might be disappointed that this even-numbered film succeeds only in breaking the odd-numbered curse.
Review by Kelsey Wyatt.
| |
|
