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Star Trek: Nemesis [DVD] [2003] starring: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner

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Review Pages: 17 18 19 20 21

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Rating: - Synopsis And Brief Story Summary

On their way to celebrate the wedding of First Officer Will Riker and Counsellor Deanna Troi, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the Enterprise crew are suddenly diverted for an unexpected diplomatic mission to the planet Romulus. Long-time enemies of the Federation, the Romulans have expressed their desire to initiate negotiations that will hopefully lead to a long-awaited unity in the galaxy. But upon their arrival on Romulus, the Enterprise crew is faced with a threat that could lead to the destruction of the planet Earth, and Picard comes face to face with a man who may prove to be his most dangerous adversary yet ... and surprisingly personal nemesis.
Shinzon desires to liberate the slave world Remus and re-integrate it into Romulan society and re-conquer the Neutral Zone as a way to eventually conquer the Federation. Shinzon is essentially an inverse Picard, growing up (through accelerated genetic processes) a slave while the real Picard rose to prominence within Starfleet. The Enterprise is lured to Remus by Shinzon, who acquires B-9 (A virtually-identical Data semi-clone) and uses him to entangle the Enterprise. Data considers B-9 a "long-lost brother" and attempts to improve him by transferring his own memory engrams to the android, but this fails. Later, Data sacrifices himself to save the Enterprise and defeat Shinzon; the crew thinks Data is lost, but it turns out B-9 may have retained some of the memory engrams after all. Riker then takes command of the U.S.S. Titan and departs with his new wife, Deanna Troi. Dr. Crusher takes a position at Starfleet Medical.
Cameos: Kate Mulgrew as an Admiral Kathryn Janeway; Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher; Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan.

Rating: - Who Picked The Release Date�

I understand last spring was crowded with, "Spider Man", and "Star Wars Episode II", but there had to have been a better time to open, "Star Trek Nemesis", other than in the midst of the most recent Potter release, and 4/5 days before the newest Tolkien installment, and finally in the midst of all the Academy Award hopefuls? The result is the worst opening ever for any of the 10 Star Trek Films. And while this may not be the best, it is a very long way from being the worst.

This crew has been together for 15 years on television and in theaters, and I am bewildered as to why Paramount would open the film with such major competition. I think this is among the top 3 films of the 10 that have been offered fans, and it is a shame it has been buried.

Trek films tend not to be epics with casts of thousands and the special effect budgets to match. There is a great deal more spent on salaries for this crew than there is for a Star Wars film, and Lucas has his own company doing the techno-wizardry, so Trek is not going to compete. The budget would not be justifies based upon the box office of previous outings.

Visually this is the darkest of the series, lighting is akin to the earlier Alien films, some of the mechanical backgrounds appear more organic, but overall I liked the look. The ship of Picard's nemesis is visually stunning, and the space battle scenes are a notch above recent Trek films.

Some members of the cast have been noted for looking older, I don't understand the point of such an observation other than to say of course they are! How many fans look the same way they did 15 years ago when we first met the crew? And yes there are compromises about how much screen time certain players get, but at 2 hours and 14 minutes, the time for each character is limited.

One visual I found interesting was the appearance of Wesley Crusher for a moment at the start of the film. I had read his part in the story had been cut due to time; perhaps the DVD will give us the extended film. So the result is you will see him for a few seconds at the start, he does not have a single word of dialogue, and then he is gone. There were a variety of visuals that either paid homage to past Trek adventures or other science fiction films, and there are bits I would have liked to have seen, like Riker's new ship.

I have read the crew would be back if this film made enough at the box office, and yes the whole crew could return. But unless it has a long slow burn in theaters, this Trek film may come up very short for Paramount to consider number 11, and with the new series, "Enterprise", starting poorly with only 50% of the previous series fan base, number 11 may be a very long way in to the future.

Review Pages: 17 18 19 20 21