Review: Nemesis
Dec. 14th, 2002 12:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jducoeurSo we went out to see the new Star Trek movie on a whim tonight. Some opinions follow.
My general take is that this is a solidly mid-grade Star Trek movie, rather of the same caliber as Star Trek III. It isn't one of the really great ones like II or IV, but it isn't terrible, either. It's certainly one of the better Next Gen movies. Not that that's saying much: Generations was dreadfully bad, and The Search for Shangri-La (or whatever the hell it was called) was turgid. This one's roughly as good as First Contact -- I don't think it's ever quite as good as the best parts of First Contact, but it's less uneven.
The pacing is sedate, to say the least, and I'm sure that's what turns some of the reviewers off. IMO, it's written rather like a good Next Gen episode, very internal and decently thoughtful. Indeed, while it does have its loud moments (big budget movies must blow things up), it's really an extended meditation on the subject of identity. As is typical of Next Gen, it hammers the point a little too hard, but does manage to be rather interesting. While I think the pacing is a little off, the dialog is unusually good for a Trek movie: it felt right for Next Gen and for the characters.
The tone is quite dark, much like the darker moments of First Contact. It isn't a fun film, but is pretty intriguing. And there's an overarching sense of melancholy, much like Star Trek VI -- you can feel, almost from the first moment, that this is the last Next Gen movie. Like that film, though, the melancholy doesn't get too badly in the way.
Overall, a solid B effort. Not one of the great Trek movies, but I felt it was worth the time and money to see in the theater...
My general take is that this is a solidly mid-grade Star Trek movie, rather of the same caliber as Star Trek III. It isn't one of the really great ones like II or IV, but it isn't terrible, either. It's certainly one of the better Next Gen movies. Not that that's saying much: Generations was dreadfully bad, and The Search for Shangri-La (or whatever the hell it was called) was turgid. This one's roughly as good as First Contact -- I don't think it's ever quite as good as the best parts of First Contact, but it's less uneven.
The pacing is sedate, to say the least, and I'm sure that's what turns some of the reviewers off. IMO, it's written rather like a good Next Gen episode, very internal and decently thoughtful. Indeed, while it does have its loud moments (big budget movies must blow things up), it's really an extended meditation on the subject of identity. As is typical of Next Gen, it hammers the point a little too hard, but does manage to be rather interesting. While I think the pacing is a little off, the dialog is unusually good for a Trek movie: it felt right for Next Gen and for the characters.
The tone is quite dark, much like the darker moments of First Contact. It isn't a fun film, but is pretty intriguing. And there's an overarching sense of melancholy, much like Star Trek VI -- you can feel, almost from the first moment, that this is the last Next Gen movie. Like that film, though, the melancholy doesn't get too badly in the way.
Overall, a solid B effort. Not one of the great Trek movies, but I felt it was worth the time and money to see in the theater...
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(no subject)
Date: 2002-12-14 06:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2002-12-14 09:04 am (UTC)As for Spock -- no, he doesn't show up. (That's no real spoiler: it would have been in the ads if he did.) You were expecting continuity from Star Trek? Besides, it has been a decade, and it's quite reasonable to assume that he doesn't spend every moment on Romulus. OTOH, practically everyone from Next Gen shows up, at least in cameo.
One thing I find interesting is that they quite explicitly acknowledge that the crew of the Enterprise has been together for 15 years. They don't make any effort to hide peoples' aging any more. This is very much a story about aging and transition -- it at least tries to be about Big Issues, even if it doesn't always succeed..
A Generation's Final Journey ... Begins
Date: 2002-12-14 03:57 pm (UTC)Re: A Generation's Final Journey ... Begins
Date: 2002-12-14 04:26 pm (UTC)As for Voyager -- yes, the ship did eventually make it home in the last episode. Indeed, it isn't really a significant spoiler to say that Janeway appears in this movie. And Ben Sisko's arc ended with the end of DS9 -- IIRC, he isn't around any more, although his ending wasn't quite a simple death. So a movie based on DS9 is tricky, at best.
Really, the best suggestion I've heard was from the guy who runs my comix shop, this afternoon. His opinion is that they should come up with something entirely new for the next series, or at least do something less grounded in an existing (and often somewhat stale) TV series. Personally, I would love to see a movie based on Peter David's New Frontier books, which IMO are the best Star Trek that's come out in many years -- the stories are fun and fresh, and CGI is getting to the point where they could be filmed.
Re: A Generation's Final Journey ... Begins
Date: 2002-12-16 11:24 am (UTC)As Justin said, it would be challenging to continue the DS9 story anyway, and Voyager did make it home. (I don't think Voyager had sufficient fan following to support a movie, though.)