Movie Review- Star Trek: Nemesis

[Dynasty]

As a long time Star Trek fan, I always look forward to a new film. I'm also wary. The Star Trek crew just doesn't seem capable of consistently putting together good films. For a series which has managed to put out 10 films, it's amazing that some of them are so bad or mediocre.

Some good

At long last, the lives of these characters actually seem to be moving foward. Since it's revealed within the first 10 minutes of the film without any flare, I don't consider this a spoiler. Riker finally accepts a promotion to Captain and is being given command of his own ship. He's going to leave the Enterprise with Troi, the two of whom are on their way to Betazed to be married (it's about damn time). In addition, some life-impacting events occur to both Picard and Data. By the time the film ends, the Enterprise is forever changed.

Although I don't think it was done as well as possible, the use of the Romulan Empire as the bad guys is long overdue. The Romulans have hardly been heard from in the films.

Some bad

Since "Wrath of Khan", the Star Trek films have desperately tried to create charismatic villians which live up to that legacy. In Nemesis, all sorts of bizarre events are strung together to create a completely unrealistic villian. The vilian, Shinzon, makes an unbelievable rise to power to become the Romulan Empire's leader and decides to use that power to....yup, destroy Earth.

Nemesis also borrows (nearly copies) ideas from other Star Trek films including an ending to the film which is a blantant ripoff of a previous film.

Grade

Perhaps, the best way to grade a Star Trek film is to compare it to the other nine films. Here's my ranking of all ten Star Trek films with Nemesis far behind "the Big 3" but still getting a good overall ranking of 4th.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (10)
Star Trek: First Contact (9)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (8.5)
Star Trek: Nemesis (6.5)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (6)
Star Trek: Generations (5.5)
Star Trek: Insurrection (5.5)
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (5)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (3)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1)