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While on a diplomatic
mission of peace with the Romulans, the
venerable ‘Next Gen’ crew of
the Enterprise find themselves once again
having to save the Earth in “Star
Trek: Nemesis.” But they don’t
have to save it from just any foe. It comes,
in a very roundabout way, from within.
The villain in question is a human leader
within the Romulan Empire by the name of
Shinzon (Tom Hardy), and his goal appears
to be to obliterate the human race. The
reasons behind his objective slowly become
clear as he faces off with Jean-Luc Picard
(Patrick Stewart). In the process we find
they share a very unusual relationship.
Unlike many fans of the “Star Trek”
series, I’m very forgiving when it
comes to plotlines or nitpicking. When I
watch the series or the films, all I care
about is whether or not I had a good time
watching it. “Star Trek: Nemesis”,
for all it’s supposed faults, is for
the most part a rollicking good time. It
has all the trappings of a good science
fiction movie. As a matter of fact, I think
if you brought it completely out of the
“Trek” franchise, there would
have been a lot fewer complaints from fans.
Was it a great movie? Not especially. Was
it an entertaining movie? Certainly.
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Of all the bad things I heard about the film,
the only one I partially agreed with was that
there were too many drawn out speeches and long
scenes of exposition. Jean-Luc and Shinzon spend
a lot of time posturing. I don’t agree that
it made the movie a bad one, however. It simply
slowed down the pace at times. I think some of
this could have been tightened up, making the
movie flow a little better. But it wasn’t,
the movie was still good, so I got over it.
What I really enjoyed about “Star Trek: Nemesis” was how much it differed from past
films. This was due, in part, to the hiring of
Stuart Baird as director. Having never worked
in the ‘Trek’ universe before, he
brought a fresh perspective to the franchise.
He’s only directed a handful of films, but
he’s been in the business for years as an
editor and second unit director. Having Baird
work with the creators and actors within the series
to discuss new and innovative ideas, they were
in some ways boldly trying what no Trekkie has
tried before. If there is to be an 11th film,
I hope Baird is considered as director.
The new DVD release from Paramount offers a fair
amount of extra materials for Trekkies (or is
that Trekkers…oh, I get so confused). The
first is a welcome commentary from Baird. A lot
of what he talks about is along the technical
side, but there are the occasional discussions
of ideas that I mentioned before.
Along with this there are four different featurettes
all dealing with various aspects of the production.
The first, “New Frontiers: Stuart Baird
on Directing Nemesis”, comes in at under
ten minutes and focuses on how Baird viewed the
production, not having any background with ‘Trek.’
The next, “A Bold Vision of the Final Frontier”
also comes in just under ten minutes and continues
with more of the same, but it gets into a lot
more detail insofar as the sets, and uses storyboard
comparisons to show how certain scenes were envisioned
before they were shot.
The third, “A Star Trek Family’s
Final Journey” is the longest, coming in
at 15 minutes, and is perhaps the more emotional.
All of the members of the production take the
opportunity to talk about the journey they’ve
all taken together, and how it feels to be coming
to the end, considering this will probably be
the last ‘Trek’ movie featuring the
Next Gen cast. The last, “Red Alert: Shooting
the action of Nemesis” runs under ten minutes
and deals with the staging of the action scenes,
including the huge finale of the film. We get
to see some of the behind the scenes fun as well
as some of the special effects tricks. All of
the featurettes follow a similar format of interviews
and extra footage, and seem as if they are all
a part of a larger documumentary.
The deleted scenes were some of my favorites,
however. A lot of times the deleted scenes included
on DVDs are superfluous, and are nothing more
than curiosities. The scenes here are all pretty
interesting, add a little to the certainly, but
it’s still understandable why they were
cut.
The transfer on this disc is very good. Many
scenes in the film are quite dark, and at no time
did I have any problems seeing everything I was
meant to see. The contrast and colors were very
sharp and well defined. The sound lent itself
best in some of the battle sequences, so much
so that I think I was actually bracing for impact.
Unlike some of the previous ‘Trek films’,
“Star Trek: Nemesis” is geared to
entertain a much broader audience. I think it
will be enjoyed by those unfamiliar with the series
for it’s story elements, however some of
the more emotional impact may be lost by not being
familiar with the characters. But really, who
isn’t familiar with the characters? I’m
sure some ‘Trek’ fans out there will
still do their own posturing when it comes to
this movie, but secretly they’ll admit to
themselves that deep down, they really did like
it.
Directed by: Stuart Baird
Starring: Patrick Stewart, Jonathon Frakes, Brent
Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden,
Marina Sirtis, and Tom Hardy
Extras: Commentary by Director Stuart Baird, Exclusive
Documentaries – “New Frontiers: Stuart
Baird on Directing Nemesis” / “A Bold
Vision of the Final Frontier”/ “A
Star Trek Family’s Final Journey”
/ “Red Alert: Shooting the action of Nemesis”,
Deleted Scenes, Photo Gallery
Specifications: Available in Full Screen or Widescreen
Version Enhanced for 16x9 Televisions, Dolby Digital
– English 5.1 Surround, English Dolby Surround,
French Dolby Surround
Studio: Paramount
Release Date: 5/20/2003
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (For Sci-Fi Action Violence
and Peril and a Scene of Sexual Content)
Website
We'll give Star Trek: Nemesis a B+.
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