Star Trek - Nemesis (2 Viewers)

[Frank@N]

My Next Gen two cents...

Generations: I like this flick allot and still watch my fuzzy LD (SE due in 2006?). I thought it was a fresh take on drug addiction and I loved the villain (Malcolm McDowell). Nice character pieces for Kirk and Picard.

First Contact: Great character showcase, great action, and cool historical Trek angle.

Insurrection: Didn't care for this one in the theater but finally caved and got the DVD (SE due in 2007?). Guess what, I really like it. I thought it was an interesting take on our youth-obsessed culture and thought the villain was great (F. Murray Abraham).

Nemesis: Saw in theater and just watched DVD. Still not thrilled with this one. Comparisons to ST II are not favorable. This is the youngest villain yet (Tom Hardy) and the dramatic heft is definitely missing. No Montalban here. If anything, Nemesis is 'Star Trek for the masses' (80% more senseless mind-numbing action!), although you can find some nice character pieces in the blurry deleted scenes. Take the extended brawl between Riker and the Reman Viceroy. It goes on forever (without a word spoken) and you completely forget that the Viceroy 'raped' Troi. Riker never says a word. Action fodder for the non-verbal generation.

 

[David Lambert]

Was going to watch Nemesis last night, but the missus reminded me that she still hadn't seen Insurrection, so we watched it and plan to watch Nemesis today.

Guess what? I no longer think that it's as bad as I once did. My big disappointment had been that the story wasn't big enough for the big screen...that it wasn't any better than the average episode from the series.

Knowing the size of the story going back in, I find it to be more enjoyable. There's certainly nothing wrong with the direction or the acting, or the interplay between characters.

It will be interesting today to compare that to Nemesis upon my second viewing of it.

I still find Generations to be a tad better than Insurrection, and First Contact to be the second-best ST film, being only beaten by Khan and narrowly edging past Undiscovered Country.

 

[Bill Crosthwait]

I just watched Nemesis last night and I love it. Nemesis is diffently better than Generations, Insurrection and Final Frontier. I felt that the movie is as good as First Contact.

 

[Nelson Au]

Re: the deleted seat belt scene. As a joke it was okay and a nice visual gag. But look back 20 years ago and Gene Roddenberry addressed this in Star Trek The Motion Picture. The critics used to comment how everyone on the bridge flew around when the ship was attack on the TOS. So it is subtly addressed as the Enterprise enters the wormhole and Kirk hits a button and his chair arms moves to hold him in. All the chairs looked like they did that. They just did away with the effect in the following films.

 

[John Geelan]

How about that bass in the movie. When the Enterprise crashes into the Bad Guys Ship..there's some heavy bass on my SVS sub. My wife couldn't believe the powerful sound from this movie.

All in all, not a bad film at all. Worth the $16.99 I paid.

Star Trek movies are always repeatable.

 

[Lyle_JP]

I believe the exact exchange with Gene Rodenberry went like this:

"Mr. Roddenberry, why don't they put seatbelts on the Enterprise so that the crew doesn't always go flying across the bridge?"

GR: "If we did that, then we couldn't watch everybody flying across the bridge!"



-Lyle J.P.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

I just bought this and watched it, having like so many others not seen the movie in the theater. I liked it, but it wasn't without problems. Among other things, it was all Picard and Data while everyone else had very little to do.

 

[T r o y]

Anyone have any problems with the pictures pixelizing or freezing up? I think my 5 yr. old Panasonic A-120U has just about bit the dust.

Time for another player it seems!!

Later!

 

[David Lambert]

Re: the deleted seat belt scene. As a joke it was okay and a nice visual gag. But look back 20 years ago...

I'm glad this was removed because in 20 years from now if we look back on it I frankly think it would be an embarrassment. Just too darn silly.


Re-watched it (I had seen it in the theater by myself) and the missus saw it for the first time. She thought it was okay, superior to Insurrection by a bit but still no better than halfway up the list of all Star Trek movies. My opinion didn't really change. I think that, like Insurrection, I need some time away from this subject to really gain a true perspective of how this movie is. Right now I'm still not too thrilled with it, especially as the "end of a journey". Scenes that Baird discussed in the supplements and commented that he hoped they would work or he thought that they worked, some of them didn't work well for me. Maybe the third time will be the charm...but later.

 

[Tony Whalen]

Those two scenes combined would have turned this 117 minute movie into a 120 minute movie; but would have raised my rating on this movie from 2 1/2 stars into 3 stars!

Totally agree on that one. I thought those two scenes were great and belonged back in the movie. The rest of the cuts I agreed with.

And yeah, I'm getting a little tired of the Picard/Data focus. I know that movies aren't as geared towards an ensemble cast like a series can be, but still.. how about letting us see a little more of the rest of the cast. Crusher and LaForge were almost non-existant in this flick!

 

[Kevin Nolan]

Like I said when I saw it at the theater...it was and still is a great Star Trek ride...one of the best.
Kevin

 

[John Nelson]

I've just seen this movie for the first time on DVD and have to say that I did enjoy it quite a bit. While it's certainly not perfect by any stretch, I found it far better than Generations or Insurrection. The space battle scenes were spectacular and

I found the loss of Data and his possible resurrection in B-4 to be poignant.
I also agree the movie would have been better with those two deleted scenes included. Is there any real commercial advantage in changing a movie from 120 to 117 minutes at the loss of such important dramatic exposition?

And to add to the debate, Why I Didn't Like "Generations:"

Because they sacrificed Capt. Kirk, the original STNG Enterprise, and those memorable Shakespearean plotters Lursa and B'Tor all in the service of a fairly mediocre movie. The biggest problem for me though was that I thought the whole mysterious "Nexus energy ribbon" was one of the lamest and most blatantly manipulative Star Trek plot devices yet devised ("We need to get Kirk and Picard together in this film. How?" "I don't know. Hey, how about some mysterious Nexus energy ribbon?" "Good enough! Start writing!"). I also laughed that after destroying stars and planetary systems to divert this energy ribbon Soran would have to stand on a rickety iron scaffold in order to get taken up by it when Kirk had been taken up simply by having his ship run into it.

 

[James Davis]

Two very short scenes I thought should have been left in. Worf talking to Picard, suggesting they go to red aleart on the way to Romulus. Worf said the Romulans have no honor.
I felt this should have been left in, because they left in Worf mentioning to Riker the Romulans fought with honor when the security team is heading to meet the Remans onboard. The comment seemed to come out of no where til I watched the deleted scene.

I also liked the scene with Crusher and Picard. She gives him advice and mentions he is angry because he lost uniqueness since he isn't the only one anymore.
I like her advice, and thought it helped explain Picards doubts in himself.

Also, what is with the case? I've never had a DVD case with extra locking tabs.

 

[Brad M]

Also, what is with the case? I've never had a DVD case with extra locking tabs.

I messed up my case pretty good because of the security stickers.

I think there will be another edition of this movie one day. There were other deleted scenes not on this one and no trailers.

 

[Norm]

Nexus energy ribbon" was one of the lamest and most blatantly manipulative Star Trek plot devices yet devised ("We need to get Kirk and Picard together in this film. How?" "I don't know. Hey, how about some mysterious Nexus energy ribbon?" "Good enough! Start writing!"). I also laughed that after destroying stars and planetary systems to divert this energy ribbon Soran would have to stand on a rickety iron scaffold in order to get taken up by it when Kirk had been taken up simply by having his ship run into it.

Those were my thought after I walked out of the theater, what a lame story.

 

[David Lambert]

I also laughed that after destroying stars and planetary systems to divert this energy ribbon Soran would have to stand on a rickety iron scaffold in order to get taken up by it when Kirk had been taken up simply by having his ship run into it.

I thought that the reasoning behind needing a planetary base on which to stand was decently explained: if you take a ship into the nexus ribbon, then you have a small chance of getting sucked into the nexus...but you have a much much much huger chance of simply getting killed. That's why Soran went out of his way to ensure his safety while making sure he was in a position to get sucked in.

A stretch, but not so much of a one if you consider the simple fact that Soran was mad and so the destruction of whole worlds to achieve his end seemed reasonable to him, and that in his genius the destruction was achieved fairly simply in theory (he just needed to make the deal with the Klingons and through them the Romulans to get the materials he needed to make it a fact).

 

[Britton]

I thought that the reasoning behind needing a planetary base on which to stand was decently explained: if you take a ship into the nexus ribbon, then you have a small chance of getting sucked into the nexus...but you have a much much much huger chance of simply getting killed. That's why Soran went out of his way to ensure his safety while making sure he was in a position to get sucked in.

In that case, why didn't Soran just have a ship drop him off at a place the Nexus would be at? He could leave the ship in a spacesuit and wait for it to come to him. The movie made it obvious that it didn't hurt a person to come into contact with the Nexus, so I don't see why my idea wouldn't work.

What also bugs me is why Picard didn't just leave the Nexus and go back to the Enterprise where he could have Soran arrested. Or even better yet, he could have gone far back enough to go with the away team to the observatory where he could have discretely killed Soran. How come there weren't two Picards when he went back to the planet with Kirk? The problem with Generations were its gigantic plot holes.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

This might have been half good if it had been a two part TV show (during season 1 or 2), but there was not enough meat to make it into a movie.

That's the biggest gripe I have about the Next Generation movies (I'll include ST V in there too): the scope is really not epic enough to warrant theatrical films. ST V had an interesting premise that got bogged down by added silly B-Movie scenes, a low budget, and studio tampering.

Nemesis had Enterprise quality writing again from the "dynamic duo" of Berman and Braga.

The whole B4 subplot was just inane (as was Spiner's acting as Data's sibling). Why didn't Lor show up to f-ck around with the crew instead? That would have been 100 times more interesting.

They still would have had a way to bring Data "back from the dead," but have a conflict that brought back some of the old concepts of the TV show: is Data really better off with an "emotion" chip? He was learning to understand what it meant to be human on his own. The moral the writers kept getting at (ignored in the movies) was that he really didn't need it; Data was fine being himself. Lor craved it, but it turned him sour and finally insane because his positronic brain couldn't accept it.

I liken it to the Holy Grail myth. You spend your existance seeking it out and there is a great reward once you find it and use it (here, Eternal Life). However, there is one big catch. So, in the end you were really better off without it anyway.

And once again the villain is just another poor Khan substitute.

All the other actors were completely wasted except for Picard and Data yet again... big surprise there!

Brain dead sci-fi. A no sale for me.

Dan

 

[Bryan Tuck]

The whole B4 subplot was just inane (as was Spiner's acting as Data's sibling). Why didn't Lor show up to f-ck around with the crew instead? That would have been 100 times more interesting.

Lore was supposedly deactivated after "Descent" and is presumably not in one piece anymore. But they could have introduced a Federation cover-up or something; someone could have kept him activated (maybe Section 31; now that would have been cool). At any rate, considering some of the gigantic leaps in logic the Next Gen films have taken, that wouldn't have been too much of a stretch.

At any rate, as I posted earlier, I agree that the B4 storyline was contrived, and what frustrated me was not that it contradicted what had come before (it didn't, as some have pointed out), it just ignored it. Not having anyone say anything about Lore really was kind of an insult to the fans.

However, I don't blame John Logan for all of this. His script did make mention of Lore, and as I said eariler, the B4 subplot was most likely Spiner's idea (not sure, but I know Data's death was). Logan's script also contained a lot more with Beverly, Geordi, and Worf, including an acknowledgment of his service in Klingon politics. So, Logan's off the hook in my opinion.

And like I said, I enjoyed the movie, but I just thought that it very easily could have been a lot better.

 

[DeathStar1]

Starting to put a dent in the extras. I can't imagine how actors in sci-fi shows can take these scenes seriously. I'd look on the set, realize where I was, and almost start to laugh . I'd need the scenes music in the background to root me on what I Was supposed to be doing, and concentrate .

Also, anyone notice how Frakes seems to mention in a few of the segments and emphasize that 'new blood' line in some of his interview segments? Wonder if he feels like the rest of the fans? Berman may be a nice guy, but after ten + years, he's burnt out.