Star Trek Nemesis

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse.

A review by Mike Shea Movie Rating: ( * * * · · ) DVD Rating: ( * * * * · )

Star Trek movies have become their own film genre. You know they aren't going to be very good, almost any movie that constantly requires time travel as a plot device is really stretching for an idea. Star Trek Nemesis does not use this tired trend, but it isn't proof that Star Trek movies are really hot stuff. It is a good two hour episode of Next Generation, but not much more.

Early on, our faithful Starship Enterprise faces its biggest direct threat, the Reman warship Scimitar. This monstrosity is twice as big, twice as powerful, and like the Starship Defiant in Deep Space 9, the Scimitar is built for war, not exploration. The real advantage of a Star Trek movie is in the special effects. The Remus warship is excellent and powerful example. It is massive and dangerous. It looms over the tiny federation flagship like an eagle over a rabbit. Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot else in the movie to grab our interests.

The plotline is a little contrived, including a bait and switch that would seem to be about the luckiest catch in the universe. Leaving pieces of an android on some desert planet in the middle of nowhere for the Enterprise to find just doesn't seem like a real good idea. What are the odds the enterprise would have found it?

The new villain isn't much better. He gets uglier and uglier as the movie goes on. At first you think it might build into something, but like all the others, it ends up with him screaming at Kirk...oops, Picard, while his ship blows up around him. I could have used a bit more depth than that.

The DVD of Nemesis isn't bad. It has a nice 2.35 to 1 16x9 enhanced picture and a good Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Like the bad choice of many studios, Paramount chose to release full and widescreen versions, confusing an already overwhelmed customer with yet another choice. We know which one everyone should watch, why give them the option for the wrong one? The DVD includes a directors commentary and a variety of special features that few will watch.

Nemesis isn't a total waste of time. For a rental on a Saturday night it will help break in your home theater and if you don't treat it any differently than an episode of the TV show, you won't be too badly disappointed. Someday they will steal one of the writers from Babylon 5 and show them what real science fiction is.