Star Trek: Nemesis Review

Star Trek: Nemesis    "So, you're a Romulan-aligned villain with a giant black spaceship and a superweapon designed to destroy Earth?"   "And at the end of the story your emotionless friend will sacrifice himself to save you from my superweapon, which will explode and destroy me."    "So... was Star Trek XI ripping off us, or Wrath of Khan? Or are we ripping off Wrath of Khan? I'm confused."   "Oh man, that's not even the half of it..."   "Star Trek XII will be the third TWOK rip off in a row, only Kirk dies instead of Spock!"      "Kay man, if you're not going to take this seriously, I'm out."    "Ass. I wonder what being a Batman villain is like." So, I had a shocking moment watching this. I realized that it's not as bad as I remembered. I think there's a good script in here somewhere. I think that with some re-editing to put some of the deleted scenes back in, restore it more to John Logan's version instead of Stuart Baird's version. But even then, Logan and Baird, as much as they made mistakes, look like freaking geniuses comared to AOKL. And Jerry Goldsmith really pulls his weight with the score. And for the most part the cast really do well with what they have. There are some nitpicky continuity problems that are really bullshit. Small things that don't destroy the movie but it's like "really guys? Why wasn't anyone paying attention?" Like the Bald Cadet Picard thing, or Beverly saying she knew him at the Academy/His First Command. They're tiny things that are easy fixes -- like explaining Worf and Wesley being there. Easy fixes -- you could say Worf showed up for the wedding in uniform (like ex-military guys do) and then since the whole adventure took place on a detour to going to the other ceremony on Betazed, Worf simply felt obligated to help out. Etc. And if the deleted scenes had been back in, a lot of stuff would flow better. Like near the end of the movie Worf remarks that the Romulans "fought with honour" which seems really out of character since Worf hates Romulans to an insane degree. But in a deleted scene near the start of the film, Worf warns Picard about dealing with Romulans since they are "without honour", so if that was still in there, all of a sudden you have a character arc instead of a continuity error. All that aside, at least this movie is trying. Unlike STINO, it has themes that I can identify. I can see what they were going for. And unlike INSURRECTION, the events actually feel significant in the lives of the characters, instead of just a big budget TV episode. Ultimately the film suffers because it can't decide whether it's the last TNG movie or saving things for a sequel, but with the deleted scenes in mind we really get the sense of everyone moving on. Although the Dead Data/B-4 TWOK/TSFS rip off is really on the nose. But as I said, it's trying. There are real sci-fi themes here, real character stuff, and the space battles feel energetic and dynamic in a way that's exciting after seven years of VOYAGER.The other action scenes aren't as good, I'll admit. That car chase? Ugh. The gun battles in hallways that feel no more exciting than the opening of A NEW HOPE. And the fact that the climax is Picard and Shinzon struggling over a knife? You can feel the execs insisting on more action. So yeah, NEMESIS isn't perfect, but after the last few years it looks a lot better. 5.5/10 1. STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT 2. STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY 3. STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN 4. STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME 5. STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE 6. STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK 7. STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER 8. STAR TREK: GENERATIONS 9. STAR TREK: NEMESIS 10. STAR TREK: INSURRECTION 11. STAR TREK