Review of Star Trek: Nemesis (Widescreen)

Introduction

"Star Trek Nemesis" tanked at the box office, thanks to the studio fielding the picture against some of the strongest blockbusters issued last Christmas. The picture had its fair share of bad reviews, but this isn`t going to be one of them.

I really liked it.

No, honestly. I`ve been a disillusioned Trekkie for a number of years. I hated "DS9", loathed "Voyager" and am currently abominating "Enterprise", but "Nemesis" reminded me how much fun the old franchise could be and set me on a rediscovery of the Trek movies.

In a move away from the usual villains, "Nemesis" introduces us to the shadowy twin world of the Romulan Empire and the bat-like Remans. A spectacular coup enables the Reman Praetor to take over the Empire, but he has a hidden agenda which mystifyingly involves the good Captain Picard.

"Nemesis" isn`t a classic in terms of "Wrath of Khan" or "Voyage Home". It`s not as good as "First Contact" or "Insurrection", but it`s an impressive fourth outing for the Next Gen gang.

I`d forgotten how much I missed old Jean-Luc, Data and the gang. Never liked Wesley, but thankfully the little rat only appears at the edge of the frame during the wedding celebrations.

John Logan, responsible of course for the script to the recent megablockbuster "Gladiator", seems to have given the franchise a damn good shakeout - although the reliance on technobabble is still there, but he has a handle on what makes the team tick which is more than a lot of the committees who have written earlier movies have known. Shame it tanked at the box office.

A lot of people have complained "Nemesis" is a remake of "Wrath of Khan", but without all of that faux-Ahabbing of Ricardo Montalban - "From Hell`s heart I spit at thee". I can`t quite decide whether I miss that sort of thing, because it gave "Wrath" the level of over-the-topperiness it needed.

There are some sequences you wonder why they were included. There`s a whole chunk of stuff about Picard`s dunebuggy which is obvious padding. God only knows why they put it in, but I suspect the gang might have gone dunebuggying one weekend and somebody said "Hey guys, I just had a really cool idea!" (bet it was Frakes).

B4 (author makes noise of genuine and deep exasperation). If you looked up the idiom "having your cake and eating it", there would be a reference to this movie. I really find this habit of Data`s finding spares, copies and prototypes of his yellow-eyed self littered around the galaxy annoying.

The ramming sequence is totally Trek - flashy, pointless and contrary to every bit of real science you ever heard. Most science-fantasy is all too easy to pick to pieces scientifically, but it`s a pointless exercise as when all`s said and done it`s only a movie. And "Nemesis" is a movie I still enjoyed more than a lot of Trek in my experience.

Video

This is a beautiful transfer with rich colours, an excellent contrast range and pin-sharp clarity. Presented in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, it is a movie on a grand scale, although it doesn`t quite match the excitement of "First Contact".

Audio

The movie comes with a slightly muted Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that is nevertheless lively and with the wick turned up a bit will rattle the windows satisfactorily. It won`t quite set off next door`s car alarm, but hey, that`s what you bought "Die Hard" for, isn`t it?

Features

Finally Paramount are taking regular (non-SE) releases seriously and this single disc presentation crams a satisfying set of extras in alongside the movie. There`s a yak track by director Stuart Baird, four exclusive documentaries covering the director`s work, a "bold vision" of the Final Frontier, a piece entitled "A Star Trek Family`s Final Journey", and a piece on shooting the action sequences. There are plenty of deleted and extended sequences, mostly nice character pieces that would have helped the movie had they been left in. There is also a photo gallery and multilingual subtitles.

Conclusion

For the record, I loved the Original Series and would love to see that on R2. ST:TMP stank, because nobody on the production understood what made Trek tick. Khan was a pantomime, but it was enjoyable (except for the bit at the end) and Harve Bennett obviously knew what he was doing with the franchise. Search For Spock was an attempt to milk the franchise, but Christopher Lloyd made an interesting baddie. I can`t eat pasta conchiglie to this day because of Spock`s coffin being covered in them. Voyage Home was a send-up and still ranks as one of the best. Trek is always best when it doesn`t take itself seriously (which DS9, Voyager and Enterprise do). Shatner`s opus Final Frontier was sheer tosh and he should be ashamed of himself. Undiscovered Country was Khan revisited with overblown dialogue, but it had a sense of humour. Generations I didn`t like as much for killing off J. Tiberius, but it gave the TNG gang some fun. First Contact was dynamite, as was Insurrection. Nemesis is on the same level as Generations but falls short of First Contact or Insurrection.

On the telly, I enjoyed TNG from the beginning, but it really took off from Season Three. DS9 was too po-faced and concentrated too much on those bloody Bajorans. Voyager was "irritating life form of the week", and Enterprise is following suit. I`ve been watching Enterprise off an on since it started. I think it`s better than Voyager but that`s not saying a lot. There`s far too much reliance on technobabble to save the day and TPTB are too fond of conflict in the storylines. Just occasionally I`d like to see them going to a planet and nothing happening. Look at Buffy The Vampire Slayer or the first three seasons of Xena:Warrior Princess. Most shows on US tv aren`t scared of doing unusual episodes where the audience gets misdirected or surprised. Every week on every version of Trek it`s been arrive at a planet - p*ss off the locals - fight their way out. It`s kind of monotonous. Couldn`t they meet a friendly alien race and have some fun with the culture or a misunderstanding rather than somebody trying to nick the warp core or whatever?