I have always considered myself a fan of Star Trek, over the years I have bought the dvds, computer games and have also been guilty of taking breaks for several years. It was during one of these gap years that Nemesis came to us on the big screen, I did not go and see it at the time. This was not due to reviews or lack of interest in the film (I saw the trailers, it looked great), I simply just didn’t have the time. I was at university and Star Trek wasn’t playing a major part of my life, I was studying, attending 9am lectures and generally partying alot.
It was on the DVD release that I saw it for the first time. Now I am going to say something controversial here, but I enjoyed it. In fact most people I knew who had seen it, had enjoyed it. The fact that it was considered a crap film (in fact a terrible film as most die hard Trek fans state) had never even entered my mind, so just where does this vitriolic hatred for the film come from?
I have seen all of the Star Trek films made and frankly Nemesis is in my opinion by no means the worst. Let’s take a brief moment to look at some of what I consider ‘the lesser’ films. Star Trek V has been struck from canon, Star Trek The Motion Picture is as about interesting as a lump of stale cheese and spends the majority of the film showing glory shots of the Enterprise, Star Trek IV is a certainly watchable film and whilst not being horrific has some god awful cringe worthy moments in it and is essentially a story of about whales. Now ok, I have compared the film to the TOS films however if we are going to compare it to one of the Next Gen films and its predecessor Insurrection, it certainly packs more of a punch.
But back to Nemesis, why don’t people like it? Well are some reasons I have come up with (I do not agree with all of these, I am trying to give a broader perspective):
Well lets start with the dune buggy scene, this is where I will totally agree it was a fairly pointless scene. The entire section could have been achieved in the shuttlecraft, however I feel it was a genuine attempt by the filmmakers to have a bit of lighthearted fun with the movie.
The film itself deals with duality, we have Shinzon the clone of Picard, B4 an earlier Soong android. This theme was heavily criticised, mainly due to the lack of character development given to Shinzon. Ok we could have had more of a backstory and a better origins tale. But you only have so much screentime in two hours to cram things in. I didn’t feel that Shinzon’s character was lacking from depth . His reasons & motives were explored several times throughout the film, the cut scenes also delve further into this. His cat and mouse game with Picard was an obsession that overshadowed his desire to destroy Earth. Also use your imagination and fill it the gaps for yourself if it bothers you that much, if you need the filmmaker to spell everything out for you, stop watching films.
Let’s move onto the picture of Picard as a cadet with a bald head, ok yeah that was retarded. We don’t need that much of a hand holding in a film.
Another point of contention that is mentioned time and again is the films parallels with Star Trek II – The Wrath of Kahn. Many feel the film borrows many elements from this film such as:
- Both were directed by non Trek directors or science fiction fans.
- Both have the antagonists have a personal stake in the central character
- Both have weapons of mass destruction in them
- Both have the death of a central / beloved character
Ok so there are some similar elements between them, big deal. I would rather a film borrowed from some something that works than the car crash that was Star Trek V. Also why is Data’s death and ultimate sacrifice less poignant than Spocks? Both died believing what they were doing was right and for the greater good. The TNG saga was at its end, this film goes out of its way to emphasise that time and again. The death of Data is just another example of the franchise moving on.
And if you really are hung up over Data, he was copied into B4’s neural net and the film ends on B4 singing a song that Data had sung at the wedding strongly adding credence to the argument that Data will be reincarnated into B4.
Whilst I know many people will disagree with my opinions, just give it another chance. You can fault any film if you look hard enough and people have looked at this pretty hard. Just forget your prejudices and watch the film again. Don’t over analyse. The film has some pretty cool scenes in it, great battles and fucking Romulans!!!!
Also please note this is by no means comprehensive, just a few observations.
Brace For Impact
Star Trek Nemesis did get a lot of bad press. I have in the past made some negative comments about the film and most of them relate to comparisons with The Wrath of Khan. I was disappointed that this film was the last TNG film and felt that I was short changed for the characters that I grew up with and wanted to say goodbye in a way they deserved.
The film for me was about moving on, that all things change. For Picard this meant that Will & Deanna was leaving, for the Titan, Beverly was going back to Starfleet Medical and Data would be his first officer. If you look at the deleted scenes from the film you will see that a lot of character moments were lost, especially a great scene between Picard & Data after the wedding. While these scenes may not have brought more action to the film they would have brought more in to focus the change Picard was going through.
The clone idea was a good one but as you have mentioned had it’s flaws. I agree that we did get enough Shinzon back story and sometimes it is better not to know everything about a character or you lose all the mystery. Again the deleted scenes did add something more to the story of Shinzon. As a fan of the Romulans I was “over the moon” to see them finally in a Star Trek film. Yes, I wish they could have had more story time but it was just great to see them.
I think that new blood in a series does help. Look at how Nick Meyer made The Wrath of Khan in to a great film after the motion picture failed. Berman took a gamble with Baird and while the action scenes were good he did lose the character moments. Also we should not forget that Paramount were stupid enough to release the film in the same week at the Lord of the Rings: The Twin Towers, Die Another Day & Harry Potter. Should they not have thought that releasing the film later may have increased audience share, would they not have thought that all the hype was with Wizards & Hobbits? A poor commercial decision.
Nemesis was not a terrible film, like any film it had some flaws but this took nothing away from the fact that we got to see the characters we love one more time. I am a die hard Star Trek fan and I have got over my displeasure at the comparisons to WoK and so can you…
A great feature Adam.
For me personally Nemesis lacked the soul that I think the film should of had. This is probably due to the problems that the cast and crew had with having a director who did not give a shit about the franchise.
To be fair I haven’t watched this film in a long time, I will give it a watch and give you a more in detail opinion.
The first time I saw Nemesis was in 2003, in Costa Rica, and I was disappointed. I remember my friends at the time saying it was more like an episode of TNG than a movie. However, after seeing it two more times, I decided that I liked the movie. It is a shame that it did so poorly at the box office, but then, I think by 2002-2003, people were getting “Star Trek fatigue.”
Let’s also not forget that Brent Spiner was in his mid-50s by then, and it was becoming increasingly harder to make him look like an ageless android, so the writers tried to have their cake and eat it too, by creating B4. That was perhaps a mistake; maybe they should have just done away with Data and let it go at that.
It seems the producers had planned on Nemesis being the final movie for the TNGers, based on their slogan, “A generation’s final voyage begins.” That slogan really turned me off, before I even saw the flick.
Finally, I wish they had avoided the tired the-earth-is-in-danger-of-being-destroyed plot line, because it has been overdone in Star Trek and a few other genres (ST: TMP, ST 4, ST 8), for example.
Overall, I liked Nemesis, but I think it is understandable that moviegoers did not enjoy it, for despite its efforts, it just was not an outstanding film (neither were ST 9, 7, 5, or 1).