Clones Just Wanna Have Fun

[khaosworks]

Just saw Star Trek: Nemesis.

Didn't suck as much as Insurrection, but not as good as First Contact. Wrath of Khan it ain't, and it's not a very good send-off if it's meant as such.



It was okay. No big shakes, there were some plot points I take issue with, and the dune buggy sequences was completely gratuitous (not to mention having major Prime Directive problems), but in general it was no worse than most of TNG and a darn sight more enjoyable than Enterprise is these days. The cast, basically made up for a lot of the shortcomings, even though Crusher and Worf got extremely short shrift.

The one thing that didn't work, and almost sunk the movie, is the actor that played Shinzon just wasn't at all convincing as a young Picard. It doesn't help that acting opposite Patrick Stewart is tough enough for a seasoned actor - for this young 'un, his acting chops just weren't up to par. As a result, the delivery of his lines and the heavy handed "you're me I'm you koo koo ka choo" dialogue threatened to make me give up.

There were a lot of minor things wrong with the movie - but nothing major that completely subverted the whole thing. I agree with those that said the Data sacrifice was diluted by the fact that B4's replacement of Data was so heavily foreshadowed by the memory download. I also wish we had more of the wedding, and had seen the scripted (and supposedly filmed) new first officer of the Enterprise taking over.

As send-offs go, this wasn't it. It didn't have the emotional impact of "All Good Things..." or an idea equally big to go with it. If there's to be a send-off, everyone needs equal time and space. The strength of TNG was in the ensemble cast, Stewart and Spiner's leading the charge notwithstanding, and the ensemble needs to shine.

Grade: B-

Comments

[swisscheesed.livejournal.com]

Too many lame heroics I think.

"Less florid, Mr. Data."

[quadrivium.livejournal.com]

Ah, but I really really liked it. They are finally doing more with Deanna Troi and her skills and abilities. I liked the symbolism of the wine. And I liked that music was used to demonstrate B4's potential to have a soul. It was poignant.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Deanna "Second Time I've Been Raped And My Captain Doesn't Give a Shit" Troi? Deanna "Let Me Use Worf As An Ouija Board" Troi? Deanna "Gratituitous Rape Scene Which Could Have Been Unnecessary and Have Spared Us Naked Riker" Troi? Those were thoughts flitting through my head when I watched.

It would have been more poignant if B4 had tried to whistle "Pop Goes The Weasel" instead.

[maedbh7.livejournal.com]

Deanna "Let Me Use Worf As An Ouija Board" Troi?
Deanna "Gratituitous Rape Scene Which Could Have Been Unnecessary and Have Spared Us Naked Riker" Troi?

Amen! Huzzaah! *high fives KhaOS* I could have gone my whole life without seeing that. -H...

[quadrivium.livejournal.com]

Heeeeeyyyy...*raises hands and backs off*

Okay. Well, I enjoyed the movie.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

And I'm glad you did. Don't mind the ol' Grinch.

[quadrivium.livejournal.com]

*smiles* Alright. Then I won't.

Slightly off topic: I found the lyrics to Blue Skies as sung by Bing Crosby a few minutes ago, but it is nowhere to be found in any of my jazz books. (Another music order in my future) Like you, I wouldn't have minded them lingering a bit more on the wedding scene. I enjoy it whenever Brent Spinner gets to do a little soft shoe, song and dance. (For that matter, I like it when any of the cast get to show off their stage origins.)

My two credits

[jost.livejournal.com]

You give it way more credit than I do. I think that Nemesis could have been done as any generic science fiction film completely separate to Star Trek. There was nothing Trekish about it. I think that in Paramount's (marketing department) desire to appeal to the broadest audience possible, they purposely make it so that non-Trek fans can understand it but they went too far and made it devoid of almost everything Trek. Personally, I think diluting Trek for non-Trek fans is liking making pornography for women: No matter how much you try to make it appeal to other audiences than the core audience that it was made for, you'll never get non-core viewers to watch it. With as broadly available as Trek has become, nobody is going to pick one of the series of movies as their first glimpse into the Trek universe.

Dune-buggy: Gratuitous and Prime Directive violations aplenty. You called that one just like I did. Let's see: I've got to go down to an Industrial Revolution-era world so I'll take along a humanoid with a ridged forehead and an android. Couldn't be more subtle than that, eh? Sure, we see the natives later and they don't look human but even then we're left with the question of why they didn't do some sort of cultural study before sending down a freaking spacecraft. Bad Bad Bad.

Data's demise: Since when did Data develop a Christ complex? He volunteers to martyr himself multiple times during the movie. Just plain stupid. So we're out of photon torpedoes? How about a quantum torpedo? We know you have them. Or even an explosive device gets teleported over with a crewman to detonate the charmed snake radiation. Or they use the Scimitar's transporters to get back. Or.... I could go on... but seriously, why did Picard just freeze there? Did we miss some poignant exchange that pinned him to the wall?

The only thing I found that linked me to the other Trek series were the subtle mentions of at least one character connecting me to the other series. Can you name the points where they mentioned a character from each of the other Trek series?

Re: My two credits

[jost.livejournal.com]

Perhaps mention isn't the right verb. Reference would be more accurate. Not all the references were auditory.

Re: My two credits

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Well, if people are up to it, I could run a "Thoughts as I watch" version of my review, which I was actually considering but thought it was running too long and ultimately I thought nobody would want to read since it's not a "review" as such and makes little sense unless you've seen the movie. It'd certainly be much more detailed and a lot more snarky - I had promised myself initially, though, that I'd be judging the movie on the standard of the other movies, i.e. not as compared to movies as a whole, but as a Trek movie.

And yes, it was Trekkish - in fact more so than even First Contact. There was a hell of a lot of dialogue here, and more philosophizing - specifically about the nature/nuture notion - than I expected from a movie Trek (TWoK being an exception). Geordi and Data talking about B4 needing to be different and not just be the same as Data, Picard trying to convince Shinzon that he is more than just the life that shaped him. They didn't go as much into it as they would have in a TNG episode but I was surprised they went into it as much as they did.

Yes, there were many small plot elements that I took issue with aside from the Kolaran dune buggy nonsense. Yeah, a Romulan Senator can take a biogenic weapon onto the Senate floor given the paranoid nature of Romulan society. No one, not for one freakin' moment, mentioning Lore in relation to B4 - to the point where Picard casually orders the reassembly of B4... hellooooo, remember the last time you did that? Naked Riker - Yeech. The technobabble about thelaron radiation (death by fairy dust, I was calling it). The fact that the crew acts like an idiot by having to search for the guy doing authorized computer access instead of instantly shouting, "B4! Hey! Only new guy we've allowed on ship! You gots a lot of 'splainin' to do!" Data only having space on him for one mini-transporter disk. The shoot-out in the corridors straight out of Star Wars. The strategic implications of the Scimitar's abilities to fire and be shielded while cloaked. I mean, I could really, really go on.

But none of these really undermined the movie, as I saw it. In the end it was like your usual TNG two-parter, with its usual small letdowns made forgiveable by the cast and with tacked on pyrotechnics to make it sell. It wasn't like Worst. Movie. Ever. It wasn't great, but it wasn't that bad. And I definitely wouldn't say it was the least Trekkish of movies - that honor probably goes, in my estimation, to Generations. In fact, I think the balance they tried to achieve in Nemesis, between Trek enough for the fans not to bitch and non-Trek enough for non-fans to get it, probably didn't work out so well and they wound up disappointing both.

But like I said, I'd be willing to do the more detailed review if I'm convinced it'd be worth the trouble of writing it.

Re: My two credits

[swisscheesed.livejournal.com]

The only snarky comment I made was: "You will believe an android can fly."

Re: My two credits

[swisscheesed.livejournal.com]

And I broke into spasms when I saw Janeway. "AUGGGGHHHHH..."

[johno.livejournal.com]

We enjoyed it, but did not walk out with the "Again!" feel of FotR, HP:TSS & HP:TCOS.

Some folks dinged the humor, but I thought it was of the same style as the series. No "funny" eps, just tension breaking jokes like a seasoned team use when they know just what "tease" buttons to press.

I wish we had gotten a little more back story on Shinzon. How he got out of the mines and incommand of the Remens. Why the viceroy was willing to protect him in the first place, why he followed him up the ladder of command, who was really in control.