Star Trek 10: Nemesis (remastered) [Blu-ray] [2002]

Chances are, if you are buying this movie, you have already formed an opinion on it by now. As the reviews suggest, it is not an outright success story, but it has to be said it does miss the mark on a lot too.
This re-release as a special edition gives a chance to re-evaluate what seems like it will be the last in the Next Generation movies. In viewing again, long after the excitement of a new Trek movie has passed, and the disappointment of something less than was hoped for or hyped has faded, Nemesis turns out to be not such a bad movie after all. The plot revolves around the Romulan Empire, specifically its new leader who has taken power with the Remans, previously the dominated race. This new leader, Schinzon, turns out to be Picards clone, and when Schinzon summons Picard and the Enterprise, the question is - what are his motives. Well, predictably after a period of cautious circling and meaning infused dinners, the motives turn out to be domination and destruction, and our heroes have to save the day - however, along the way the writer (John Logan, also writer of Gladiator) infuses much subtext of families and the dilemna of facing the evil within yourself, and aspiring to become something better - very much the stuff of Trek.
For the movie, the writing is not bad, the effects fantastic, and this version boasts a wonderful dts mix as well as 5.1. However, as comfortable as the leads are in their roles, and Tom Hardy fills out his part well also, there is a nagging feeling of tiredness about it all. It's refreshing to see the characters move on - one of the excellent deleted scenes has Picard discuss with data the passage of time marked by occasions such as weddings and funerals, not just without but within too, and it's this sort of character growth that helped inject so much humanity into the classic trek characters - shame they cut that scene. However, the attempt to find a 'personal' villain for Picard does not hit the mark - we never do feel that passionately involved, as the characater is so completely new to us. How much more resonant it might have been if the character was from Picards past, and featured in the TV series, such as Khan was for Kirk.
If you already have the movie and are debating whether to get it for the extras, I can only say - do it. The second disc is heaving with extras on all subjects possible. The deleted scenes last almost 30 minutes, and almost all genuinely add something. One can understand the need to trim a movie down, but honestly it feels like this could have been a richer movie with some of these scenes intact. The production, the music, the director, all are featured with extensive interviews. There are two commentaries on the disc, plus one text commentary - if you think you can really watch the movie that often! While mostly interesting, the extras do show less honest heart-searching on the end result, as it does sound like PR plurb, but that's a minor quibble.
In short, for a Trek movie this would not be a first choice, but well worth buying to complete the Star trek movie experience. As a special edition, this is well worth it for the extras on display. 7/10

Star Trek: Nemesis killed off the movie series for years, and on a second viewing it's not hard to see why. While it's not quite as bad as its detractors claim, it suffers from a terrible screenplay by John Logan that never manages to integrate characterization into the action, leaving most of it to be found in the DVD's deleted scenes bin, while slogging through an incredibly undernourished but tediously dragged out and dull story that has one good but barely utilized idea in having as its villain a younger clone of the Enterprise's captain. How did they manage it? They must have got a hair off the bald captain's comb is the main theory offered (this may be a joke, but judging from how crude the comedy is elsewhere that's doubtful). Why did they do it? Part of an elaborate conspiracy they, er, gave up on years ago. But he's got a plan to make the Romulan Empire great again, of course. Probably. Quite what his nefarious plot to destroy the Federation is is never really explained so there's not much in the way of threat - especially since the villain only has one spaceship and quickly loses his allies because he keeps wasting time playing mind games or committing the odd psychic rape rather than getting down to delivering the conquest and pillage he promised. Oh, and he needs Captain Picard's DNA to stop himself prematurely self-destructing. Only, on second thoughts, he decides not to bother and to do something else instead. Quite what isn't exactly clear, but it involves filling much of the last third of the movie with a desperately unexciting space battle against a dull green background before yet another of the regular TV cast makes the ultimate sacrifice. Unfortunately this time round there is absolutely no reason for him to do so, and this being Star Trek where no popular character is allowed to stay dead (it even took two death scenes to kill off Captain Kirk in Generations) the ending is yet another copout. Koboyashi Maru indeed...

A clumsy and half-hearted rehash of The Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country, this voyage is clearly one for the money, with the regulars topping up their pension funds big time and the guest stars getting screwed. Even Ron Perlman makes no impression whatsoever in what looks like a cheap Halloween Skeletor mask (easily the worst makeup job in Star Trek history, and that includes the green chick and the plastic lizard guy in the 60s TV show). Still, you can have a few cheap laughs at the expense of the distinctly unthreatening Tom Hardy and the gleeful sadism of casting someone who can't pronounce his `r's as a Reman who has usurped control of the Romulan Empire, leading to lines like "Womulans feel thweatened by Wemen upstawts" or "We will no longer bow befawr anyone as slaves. Not the Womulans and not your mighty Fedewation. We are a wace bwed for waw... and conqwest" - at times it's like listening to Biggus Dickus addressing the crowd in Monty Python's Life of Brian. The usually reliable Stuart Baird, wearing his directing hat, can do nothing to liven things up, and even the great Jerry Goldsmith's score is distinctly professional but workmanlike. Incredibly dull stuff.

The extras package on the 2-disc set at least is impressive, carrying over all the extras from the one-disc release and adding to them comprehensively with additional added scenes and more featurettes than you could possibly want - even the Easter egg featurettes are a decent length for once - and earn the DVD an extra star. If only they graced a better film...

This was the Star Trek film that bombed - and, in tandem with the flaccid final spin-off 'Enterprise', all-but killed the Trek franchise. Many of the fans are vitriolic in their hatred of Nemesis and, as for the general public, judging by box office figures hardly any of them bothered to see it. Personally, I was surprised at the amount of scorn that was heaped upon Nemesis. I actually rather enjoyed it when I went to see it, although I was of course very much aware of its flaws, of which there are a great many.

It has some major pluses, to be sure (and for which reason this review has just scraped a three star rating and not a two). Stuart Baird's directing is excellent and he does a good job with the material he's given. The action sequences are brilliantly executed and there's an intensity and darkness reflected in the lighting and cinematography. The cast give their all and the effects are a distinct improvement over Insurrection. When Nemesis is good it's enticing, creepy, dark and intense.

The problem can be summed up in one word: the screenplay (or, OK, two words!). It might have sounded like a good idea to hire an Oscar-winning screenplay writer who happened to be a Trek fan, but sadly Logan's script is a meandering, unfinished mess. There are some good ideas at the core, but sadly the execution doesn't do them justice: the script is patchy, unfocussed and meandering, with about as many plot holes as there are stars in the sky. The notion of Shinzon as a Picard clone is inspired, but it doesn't quite work thanks to the patchwork script: their interaction lacks punch and is exceedingly repetitive and unfocussed. Tom Hardy does a decent enough job as Shinzon, but as a villain he doesn't quite cut it: he comes across as more of a sultry adolescent than a dangerous villain. His quest to destroy Earth seems totally without motivation and, as a result, falls utterly flat. A Borg cube or a Dominion assault force heading toward Earth would elicit some degree of tension, but Shinzon in his Scimitar? Yeah, whatever. The fact it takes the Scimitar SEVEN MINUTES to load up its supposed superweapon is just laughable and immediately all tension flew out the window. This is a serious storytelling error and could have been easily fixed if Logan had put a bit more thought into it.

Brent Spiner also had a hand in the script and a rather self-serving one at that: the B4 storyline is rather pointless and, like many aspects of this film, is recycled from previous storylines (I can't believe no one even mentions Lore). While Data gets to make a heroic sacrifice, in a virtual remake of The Wrath of Khan's climax, the end result is disappointingly unemotional. Witness the weak memorial scene and compare that with Spock's heartbreaking funeral scene in Star Trek II. The final scene, which uses B4 as a potential reset button is just an insult and, all in all, this is a lousy send-off for the Next Generation characters.

The more I think about Nemesis the more I get annoyed by all its many deficiencies; deficiencies that could easily have been corrected had someone taken Logan, given him a firm shake and told him to brush up his half-baked screenplay. Somewhere inside Nemesis is a great film struggling to get out. There are flashes of greatness: as I noted, the directing, production, effects, performances and music are all first-rate. To begin with the pace is quite well-judged: but sadly, like a struggling old car that's ready for the scrapheap, every time it musters some speed, it abruptly chugs to a halt again: and in this case that's due to Logan's meandering script. If the script had been reworked, tightened and resequenced and the dialogue polished, Nemesis would have actually been a pretty darn good film. But it's futile to dwell on 'if only'.... As it stands, this is not a bad film by any stretch and is more or less entertaining throughout but, considering how good it could (and should!) have been, it's deeply disappointing. 3 stars seems quite generous for such an unceremonious departure for the Next Gen crew after 15 years. But, it could have been worse I guess and thankfully this film, while one of the most disappointing of the Trek films, is still massively better than Star Trek V. Thank heaven for small comforts.