Sunday, August 26, 2007

Star Trek X: Nemesis

Star Trek: Nemesis is the tenth movie in the series, and the last one ... so far. A new movie "Star Trek" about a young Kirk and Spock is being planned. I reviewed all the other films: 1-3, 4-6, 7, 8, 9.

In this movie, Riker and Troi are getting married, but first the Enterprise has to stop and pick up a disassembled prototype of Data, and then face a young clone of Picard, Shinzon, who appears to be allied with the Remus. The Remus are enemies of the Romulans, but currently control them.

Shinzon is up to no good. The Enterprise has to save the day.

Once again, what sets apart The New Generation actors from The Original Series actors is that the former can actually act. I didn't roll my eyes at the screen while they forced lines out of their mouths. The actors played the characters like they were supposed to.

So any faults in the movie lie with the director and screenwriter. The movie was enjoyable, but that's about it. It wasn't really engaging. The plot was something of a rehash of Wrath of Khan, but without any real emotion or meaning in it. The guys went in, faced some dangers, got out, and then there was a lot of shooting. Shinzon and Picard were supposed to have tension between them, but it was never really tense.

A movie is supposed to contain real drama and make you care for the characters. They should face transformations and real decisions. They should deal with pain and loss or battle inner demons. Nothing. It was completely unambitious.

So where did it all the art in the movie go? According to the Wikipedia entry, all of it's lying on the cutting room floor, having been cut out in favor of more scenes with special effects. Bah. Bad choice.

A couple of plot choices seemed a little strange, such as Picard beaming alone to the other ship, or the Enterprise having no security doors in the corridors to prevent intruders from simply walking around, and so on. But these weren't serious annoyances. Also, any discrepancies with the Star Trek "world" don't annoy me, as I don't really know about them, nor care.

The end result is underwhelming, but not annoying, which is still a step up from some of the other films. My ranking: 4, 9, 8, 2, 3, 10, 7, 6, (5 and 1 which are both the same and horrid)

More about Star Trek: Nemesis on IMDB.

Yehuda

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