UHD Review Star Trek: Nemesis UHD Review (1 Viewer)

[Neil Middlemiss]

Here’s an unpopular opinion. Star Trek: Nemesis is a good film. An imperfect film, with faulty wiring and missed opportunities, but a good film, nonetheless. Tom Hardy’s Shinzon is a worthy adversary for Picard and company, and he delivers a memorable performance. Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner, given the most to do, offer fine performances as well. The visual effects, produced by Digital Domain, are a major step up from Insurrection. Like Insurrection, the VFX were all digital except for a 17-foot model of the Enterprise-E’s saucer built for the riveting collision sequence near the film’s climax (that moment remains one of my favorite action sequences from the feature films). Unpopular with Trek fans, the film deserves another look. Faults aside, it’s a better film than history remembers.



Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)



Released: 13 Dec 2002
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 116 min




Director: Stuart...

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[KPmusmag]

I like this film more than most fans, although I agree that the characters we know so well do not always ring true. I thought Tom Hardy was excellent. I am looking forward to revisiting this in 4k as I have not watched it in several years.

 

[Todd Erwin]

What really killed the film at the box office was its competition - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Die Another Day and especially Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers opening just five days later.

 

[ScottRE]

What really killed the film at the box office was its competition - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Die Another Day and especially Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers opening just five days later.

We only issue I have with that theory, and that's been going around since it's release, is that there was no opening weekend for this film. No matter what the competition is for a Star Trek movie, it always debuts number one at the box office. And there was no direct fantasy or genre film competition that weekend. This film's main competition was "Maid in Manhattan." And it beat "Nemesis." That was humiliating.

There was no fan interest in this film at all. I would suggest that a lot of that has to do with the fact that the shooting script was leaked to the Internet prior to release. I was actually able to get a copy, and if I was able to get a copy that it was very commonly available.

I remember sitting in the theater opening night and being horrified that it was a nearly empty auditorium. That is really a shame because I always enjoyed this film.

 

[Sam Favate]

I sat in the theater opening weekend with my lifelong friend and Star Trek companion. We’d seen every film going back to TMP together on the big screen.

He turned to me halfway through the film and whispered, “Do you like this?” We were profoundly disappointed.

Fast-forward 8 or 10 years, and my wife and I are watching this in our home theater. She’d become a huge Star Trek fan, especially of TNG and DS9. She was yelling at the screen, saying things like “Oh come on!”

Nemesis is the nadir of Star Trek movies for me. IMO it fails in pretty much every conceivable way. By comparison, ST V is a Best Picture winner.

 

[Malcolm R]

It's been years since I've watched these TNG films, but I recall preparing to finally watch Nemesis on disc and expecting the worst, but being pleasantly surprised. Not a great ST film, but I recall liking it more than Insurrection. Will have to revisit these sometime.

 

[JoshZ]

There was no fan interest in this film at all. I would suggest that a lot of that has to do with the fact that the shooting script was leaked to the Internet prior to release. I was actually able to get a copy, and if I was able to get a copy that it was very commonly available.

I remember sitting in the theater opening night and being horrified that it was a nearly empty auditorium. That is really a shame because I always enjoyed this film.

I had a similar experience seeing the film opening weekend in a mostly empty auditorium.

I agree that there was just no fan interest in the movie. I don't think that had to do with a leaked script, though. Even if commonly available to those who knew how to look for such things, the general public wouldn't have had any idea of it. I think the problem was simply that it hit at a time when there was little interest in Star Trek, and the disappointment of Insurrection had killed a lot of fans' enthusiasm for the franchise - at least as far as it being a theatrical experience.

Insurrection felt like an over-long TV episode more than a feature film. Considering that Nemesis was released at pretty much the peak of the DVD boom, fans felt little need to see it in the theater. It seemed like something they could wait to watch at home. But then, after its box office failure and reputation for being a bomb, those same fans decided it wasn't even worth watching on DVD.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

View the deleted scenes on the included Blu-ray copy. You will see that there was a possibility, at least, of an entertaining Star Trek movie there, but the director cut out the scenes which would have meant the most to the fans. The entire Deanna Troi "mental rape" scene should have been cut out; and most of the deleted scenes cut back in to the movie. IMO, with those changes the movie would have gone from 2 1/2 Stars to 3 Stars.

Anyway, happy to have this on 4K.

 

[Dave Moritz]

I have always enjoyed Nemesis and was happy to upgrade all my next generation movies from DVD to 4K. And I would agree it is not a perfect film but still good IMHO. The release of the next generation star trek movies finally completed my movie collection at least till another new star trek movie comes out. I am still waiting for star trek: deep space 9 and star trek voyager to be released on bluray.

 

[Wayne Klein]

It's a good film that could have been a bit better perhaps with an expanded director's edition. I don't see it ever getting that love though. Insurrection is the stinker.

 

[Philip Verdieck]

Continue reading...

Counterpoint: Trek Dune Buggies

 

[JimJasper]

I sat in the theater opening weekend with my lifelong friend and Star Trek companion. We’d seen every film going back to TMP together on the big screen.

He turned to me halfway through the film and whispered, “Do you like this?” We were profoundly disappointed.

Fast-forward 8 or 10 years, and my wife and I are watching this in our home theater. She’d become a huge Star Trek fan, especially of TNG and DS9. She was yelling at the screen, saying things like “Oh come on!”

Thought this was a great reflection on the Nemesis film, Sam .... I just watched a marathon of the four Next Generation theatrical films on Blu-ray last year. Literally got them at the $1 store, after an unusual DVD/Blu-ray dump there! Astoundingly.

[Also got all of the Blu-rays for Star Trek II through Final Frontier....which I haven't watched yet. They didn't have Wise's first ST film, which I refuse to watch until I get it on high def. Only saw it once on DVD in about 2002-ish.]

The Blu-rays in high def, and hi-resolution surround audio.... looked and sounded quite wonderful for ST: NG films in the home theater. ....actually enjoyed them all fine, but they have aged in some regard, and i share some of Sam's and Sam's wife's concern with the Nemesis. I agree with Neil's (above) review, that this story had intriguing potential & could have been handled better, especially without director Baird, sad to say.

 

[Wayne Klein]

Thought this was a great reflection on the Nemesis film, Sam .... I just watched a marathon of the four Next Generation theatrical films on Blu-ray last year. Literally got them at the $1 store, after an unusual DVD/Blu-ray dump there! Astoundingly.

[Also got all of the Blu-rays for Star Trek II through Final Frontier....which I haven't watched yet. They didn't have Wise's first ST film, which I refuse to watch until I get it on high def. Only saw it once on DVD in about 2002-ish.]

The Blu-rays in high def, and hi-resolution surround audio.... looked and sounded quite wonderful for ST: NG films in the home theater. ....actually enjoyed them all fine, but they have aged in some regard, and i share some of Sam's and Sam's wife's concern with the Nemesis. I agree with Neil's (above) review, that this story had intriguing potential & could have been handled better, especially without director Baird, sad to say.

I could have done without the dune buggies sequence.

 

[Wayne Klein]

The problem is that Nemesis decided to go the route of other big budget CGI action films putting aside the things that make Star Trek what it is. If you add in "Insurrection" and the fact that it just isn't a very good film, I think that that, along with franchise exhaustion, impacted the film.

 

[Tino]

Before this film went into production, I got my hands on the script and "reviewed" it here.

It was fun rereading it after all this time.

STAR TREK: NEMESIS Screenplay Observations By A Fan. **No Spoilers**

First a little background. I am a LONG time Star Trek fan. Got hooked in the early seventies just when the re-runs began and the Star Trek phenomemon was born. Since then I have been lucky enough to meet some original cast members such as Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelly and George Takei. I was...

www.hometheaterforum.com

 

[Tino]

So here is the relevant part of that 22 year old thread where I give my impression of the script. Tons of SPOILERS.

Apologies for the typos.

Enjoy

****STOP*****WARNING******
***THIS ENTIRE POST IS A SPOILER***
PLEASE SKIP THIS ENTIRE POST IF YOU WANT NO SPOILERS*******
RATHER THAN BLOCK OUT THIS ENTIRE POST, WHICH LOOKS BAD, I AM POSTING ADEQUATE WARNINGS.O.K then, here is a synopsis of the entire screenplay so read at your own risk.
**MAJOR, I MEAN MAJOR SPOILERS, LAST CHANCE TO LOOK AWAY!**
Credits begin. The film begins on Romulus in the Romulan Senate Chamber where the senate is studying a small three year old human boy before them, as if what to to with him.
Cut to the Reman homeworld of Remus where the boy is then lead into the mines by a dark figure. Credits end.
Later, back in the Romulan Senate, there is a debate going on over a course of action involving dilithium and trade agreements. One senator leaves the heated discussions, leaving behind a small device, which turns out to be a weapon that emits a green light that disolves all organic matter and the entire senate is "disolved"
Cut to Alaska for the wedding reception of Will Riker and Deanna Troi. Here we get the obligatory
introductory scenes of the whole cast. We also learn that Will and Deanna are being transferred to the Starship Titan, which Riker will be Captain of, and Beverly Crusher is also being tranferred to the new Medical Starship in Starfleet. Al this has made Captain Picard a bit sad.
They are about to head out to BetaZed for the naked wedding (which Worf is scared of ) when they get a strange reading from a planet near the Neutral Zone. It's Positronic, which only emits from Data and Lore, his brother. They decide to take a small detour and investigate.
Back in the Romulan Senate Chamber we finally meet the "Nemesis" Shinzon, who is described as a "dynamic young human in his twenties. Very handsome with pale, almost white skin and shining golden hair." It turns out that Shinzon has assumed the role of leader and his plan is to challenge the Federation. he tells the fleet that" The days of negotiation and diplomacy are over. The "mighty" federation will fall beore us as I promised you. The time we have dreamed of is at hand, the time of conquest.."
Back on the Enterprise, they are orbiting the planet where the positronic signal eminates from. Picard, Worf and Data decide to take a new shuttle Argo to the surface to investigate. They land on the surface and out of the back of the shuttle, the rear cargo doors open and Picard, Worf and Data roar out on a 24th Century equivalent of a military Jeep!
Picard is driving and clearly enjoying the thrill of driving fast, Worf clinging on to the roll bar for dear life, leading Data to proclaim "I will always be baffled by the human predelection for piloting vehicles at unsafe velocities!" .
The locate the source of the positronic signal, of which there are six of. It turns out that they are each eminating from a different android body part, two arms, two legs, torso, and finally the head, which looks exactly like DATA!
They return to the enterprise, (after a lengthy action sequence escaping from the inhabitants of the planet) and begin assembling B-9 (Benign) as he will be called. B-9 has the mind of a child which fascinates Data, since he thought he and Lore were the only creations of Dr. Soong, their creator. Data looks upon B9 as a long lost kid brother. Data assumes the role of parent and teacher and begins instructing B9 on how to function again.
Captain Picard then receives a Alpha Priority comm from Starfleet Command. He activates his viewscreen and we see Admiral Kathryn Janeway! She has a bit of small talk with Picard as though they are old friends and instructs him to meet with Shinzon, the new Romulan Praetor, since of curse, the Enterprise is the nearest ship.
The travel to the co-ordinates and are waiting for hors for Shinzon to respond, when on the viewscreen, Shinzon's "magnificent Reman Warbird, the SCIMITAR, de-cloaks directly before the Evterprise. It is huge, easily twice the size of the Enterprise and awesome in its power"
They beam aboard the Scimitar, and Shinzon eagerly meets with Captain Picard, who for some reason he is fascinated with. He proposes to Picard a plan of peace, tearing down the Neutral Zone and an exchange of goods and ideas.
Picard gasps when he actually sees Shinzons face.
They seem to have some sort of strange bond, as though they know what the other is thinking. Shinzon pulls out a Reman knife and cuts his arm, drawing a little blood. He hands the knife to Data.
Back on the Enterprise, Dr, Crusher
is examining the knife and says." There's no doubt, Captain. Right down to your regressive strain of Shalafts Syndrome...He's your CLONE!.
At a meeting later Shinzon explains to Captain Picard that he was a clone created by the Romulans to infiltrate Starfleet "And when I was ready, they were going to replace you with me, an exact biolgical duplicate. Put a Romulan agent at he heart of Starfleet to....influence your command structure. It was a bold plan, but as happens frequently, a new government came to power and the plan was abandoned."
"I was sent to the dilithium mines, on Remus. I was a slave. One man took pity on me, my Viceroy who taught me how to survive in the dark with my Reman brothers."
He and Picard talk a bit more as though they were long lost brothers. Picard is still a bit suspicious.
Later on the Enterprise, it seems as though there was some unauthorized computer access, which Data figures out who and why, and gives them a tactical advantage over Shinzon, who they now believe does NOT want peace.
During all this tme Deanna has been having nightmares of Shinzon and the viceroy as though the have been invading her thoughts and violating her.
The Viceroy it turns out is sort of an empath like Deanna and has been entering her mind to gain an advantage.
Also Shinzon is aging rapidly and is very ill.
Later on the bridge of the Scimitar, B-9 materializes. Shinzon says "Welcome home, begin the download". It turns out that Shinzon found and used the B9 to infiltrate the Enterprise, knowing that Data would download Starfleet information into it, such as Fleet locations.
Picard is kidnapped and beamed abord the Scimitar. Shinzon tells Picard that no longer will they be slaves before anyone. Not before the Romulans or the Federation. They, the Remans, are a race bred for war...and conquest.
Shinzon plans to kill Picard and replace him, which is why he is aging rapidly, to look more like him.
Meanwhile the Romulan Senate has had another change of heart and considers Shinzon to be dangerous,
and dispatches warbirds to stop him before he engages the federation and Starfleet into war.
Back on the Scimitar, B-9 actually turns out to be Data pretending to be B9. He rescues Picard and they escape in one of the mini-attack shuttles, a Scorpion, found on the Scimitar. They actually blast throught the ship in an extended action sequence, flying down and around corridors at exhilirating speeds.
Back on the Enterprise, which went into warp the moment Picard and Data were back on board, the crew is studying Data's information on Shinzon's weapon, which Geordi calls a "Cascading Biogenic Pulse, which destroys all living matter, and strong enough to encompass a ship ...and even a planet."
Unbeknownst to the Enterprise, the Scimitar it travelling directly above them cloaked, waiting for the right moment to attack.
They are heading toward a rift in space and as soon as the Enterprise enters it she is attacked, since all communication is down in the rift, Shinzon was waiting for this moment toattack since the Enerprise can not all for help.
What follows is a long extended action sequence between the Enterprise and the Scimitar. Think Wrath of Khan, but on a larger more elaborate scale. The Scimitar is mercilessly atacking the Enterprise while she is still cloaked. The Enterprise is suffering major damage, while inflicting little on the Scimitar, which illuminates and is visible briefly only when hit.
All is apparrently lost when at the last minute, the Romulan warbirds arrive to engage the Scimitar.
What then follows is more action with all the ships firing on the Scimitar, sometimes hitting and illumunatiing it. But these ships are no match for the Scimitar which slices throgh one ship and disables the other, all while still cloaked.
Shinzon, since he is aging rapidly now and dying, has decided that he
will now head towards earth and destroy it with the weapon.
Deanna meanwhile has realized its time for payback. Standing next to Worf at tactical, she enters the Viceroys mind, and guiding Worfs hands over the controls, enters the co-ordinates of the Scimitars location and opens fire from all weapons before Shinzon can react.
The Cloak is disabled and they are now on a more even playing field. Next we have MORE action with both ships pounding each other, the Enterprise suffering most of the damage though.
Riker, and Worf beam aboard the Scimitar to stop Shinzon.
Riker and the Viceroy fight each other in the tight connecting access tunnels of the ship, ala Alien, with Riker finally killing the Viceroy.
Meanwhile the Enterprise has suffered so much damage that the entire front half of the bridge is torn out, a huge hole looking out into space.
All seems lost when Picard orders ramming speed and the Enterprise crashes int the bridge of the Scimitar grinding into the ship. The two ships locked together, slowly rotating in space. The forward part of the Enterprise's saucer is enmeshed in Shinzon's ship; two scorpions with their claws locked.
Slowly, the Scimitar breaks free and Shinzon orders the BioGenic Weapon to be deployed on the Enterprise and then to head to Earth to detroy it.
Riker and Worf beam back to the Enterprise and Picard beams on board the Scimitar and confronts Shinzon on the bridge. A firefight ensues and Picard is about to be killed by Shinzon when he impales him with a piece of wrekage, a long pole.
Instead of dying outright, Shinzon pushes down on the spear against Picard and begins choking him, bothin a bizarre brotherly embrace of death.
Data meanwhile has decided what he must do. From a cargo bay on the Enterprise, he hurls himself into space to reach the Scimitar since the transorters are down.
Data barely reaches the Scimitar, races to the bridge. He instantly tears open his wrist and pulls out the small, silver Emergency Transport Unit, able to transport only ONE, and slaps it on Picard's shoulder.
A final look between them..
Data activates the ETU...Picard dematerializes.
Data looks ito space where Picard was and says simply:
"Goodbye"
Then he spins and pulls out his phaser and fires point blank into the Scimitar's warp core relays..the bridge explodes....
DATA is incinerated.
The Scimitar blasts apart in a massive flash.
Hours later, the crew gathers, and they are all affixing black bands to their collars, mourning bands for their fallen comrade.
Picard pours six glasses of his precious Chateau Picard. each takes a glass.
Picard: "To absent friends and famly".
They toast Data.
Later Picard is shown in hs ready room telling Data's story to B9 who has been reactivated.
As Picard leaves B9, he hears him beginning to hum one of Data's favorite songs.
What follows then are the requisite goodbye scenes which are all very touching.
The film ends with Will and Deanna and Beverly re-assigned and Picard on the bridge of the again refitted Enterprise breaking in a new crew.
Telling his new first officer that they wll be exploring the Denab system a place "WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE"
It definitely has an air of finality to it, but in the world of Star Trek..who knows?
End Transmission......
------------------
Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus.
[Edited last by Tino on July 28, 2001 at 01:13 PM]
[Edited last by Tino on July 28, 2001 at 01:17 PM]

 

[jayembee]

We only issue I have with that theory, and that's been going around since it's release, is that there was no opening weekend for this film. No matter what the competition is for a Star Trek movie, it always debuts number one at the box office. And there was no direct fantasy or genre film competition that weekend. This film's main competition was "Maid in Manhattan." And it beat "Nemesis." That was humiliating.

There was no fan interest in this film at all. I would suggest that a lot of that has to do with the fact that the shooting script was leaked to the Internet prior to release. I was actually able to get a copy, and if I was able to get a copy that it was very commonly available.

I remember sitting in the theater opening night and being horrified that it was a nearly empty auditorium. That is really a shame because I always enjoyed this film.

For the most part, what you say here also applied to The Final Frontier. Well, I don't know what it's competition was, but...the script was leaked (specifically, The National Enquirer, of all places, got a copy, and ran an article revealing everything that went on in the film), and the opening weekend was dead. At least, when I saw it opening night in downtown Boston, the theater was practically empty. I was shocked.

 

[jayembee]

It's a good film that could have been a bit better perhaps with an expanded director's edition. I don't see it ever getting that love though. Insurrection is the stinker.

I disagree. Insurrection is my favorite of the TNG films.

 

[ScottRE]

For the most part, what you say here also applied to The Final Frontier. Well, I don't know what it's competition was, but...the script was leaked (specifically, The National Enquirer, of all places, got a copy, and ran an article revealing everything that went on in the film), and the opening weekend was dead. At least, when I saw it opening night in downtown Boston, the theater was practically empty. I was shocked.

Oh the competition was huge for Star Trek V. It did have a good opening, debuting at #1 making more in its opening weekend than The Voyage Home did (I am not adjusting for inflation for a 3 year span). However, the very next weekend, Ghostbusters II premiered blowing away the competition with nearly a 30mil opening. And then, the weekend after that: Batman, which slaughtered everyone.

It was all over for Star Trek V because it would have had to be a popular hit for it to do better and it just wasn't. Batman was in theaters for months. Even 007 couldn't win against that opposition.

 

[JoshZ]

Oh the competition was huge for Star Trek V. It did have a good opening, debuting at #1 making more in its opening weekend than The Voyage Home did (I am not adjusting for inflation for a 3 year span). However, the very next weekend, Ghostbusters II premiered blowing away the competition with nearly a 30mil opening. And then, the weekend after that: Batman, which slaughtered everyone.

According to Wikipedia, Star Trek V didn't have any direct competition opening against it on June 9, which would account for it doing fairly well that week. Dead Poets Society had opened the prior week, but those two didn't necessarily compete for the same audience. However, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (the year's top film) was still going pretty strong. And as you say, the following weeks brought out some big guns.