Star Trek: Nemesis

My first film of 2003 and boy what a clunker! I hope this is not a preview of things to come this year as this was a mega disappointment. Rick Berman and the other head honchos at paramount studios need to be sacked and a whole new batch of new blood brought in to steer the Star Trek franchise in a new and better direction. There needs to be a break for ALL things trek i.e. no movie for at least 3 years and no series on air for at least the same period to build up some hunger for Trek, at the moment we are in Trek overload.

Synopsis: Another android like Data has been found on a planet near the neutral border, this leads to the Enterprise being enmeshed in Romuluns political upheavals. Who is the new Romulan leader and what is his connection to Jean Luc Picard? The crew of the Enterprise must unravel this mystery for the fate of Earth hangs in the balance.

An odd number equals a bad film while an even number equals a good film. This has always been the mantra sounded about Star Trek movies, well like all myths this has been shattered by the tenth and latest Star Trek movie.

This film is supposed to be the last for the Next Generation crew but  I cannot see how they can end on such a sorry note, they need, no, deserve a better movie to end on. For me the next generation was the best Trek TV series ever but they have not translated this to their movies at all and deserve one more shot.

What is wrong with this film? What do you want, a list? Well here you go:

1. What is the point of B4? If you are going to kill off a character why lessen the impact by first introducing an exact replica that we all know will replace him? And no mention of Lore? I know that they want to make the film accessible to non trekkies but they could have at least acknowledged his existence, every Trekkie upon seeing B4 would first assume he was Lore but no not one mention from the crew about this.
2. Shinzon's motivation in this film was to say the least stupid, what was his anger towards humans all about? The people who misused him were Romulans but he did not seem to harbour as much resentment to them as he did towards humans who did nothing to him. Can someone also explain how a slave race raised an army and why the Romulans suddenly handed over power to them?.
3. The whole clone plot seemed totally tacked on and totally unbelievable.
4. Of what use is a weapon that takes 7 minutes from activation to actual firing, most ships could evade it and if used against a planet surely they will have time to use a ship to ram it or formulate a way of blocking it.
5. There is not one memorable moment in the whole film!
6. This movie should have not been more than a TV episode and it would not have even been a good episode at that!
7. Data the unaging android looked old, what happened to the make-up people?
8. Why on earth is Janeway an Admiral while Picard is still a Captain!?! Hellooooo! That is Sacrilege! Janeway managed to get lost for god knows how long with a new ship while Picard has literally saved the universe dozens of time and she gets promoted!

Things they need to fix in the next instalment to have any chance,

1. firstly no more Worf on the Enterprise, by all means show him in other capacities but not as part of the crew, he should be used only if the plot involves the Klingons and he is needed due to his expertise and links.
2. No more Data, he looks too old as mentioned earlier, they missed a trick with B4 he could have been used to introduce a whole new android, a young one with no experience of human existence
3. Get rid of Riker already, make him a Captain and give him his own ship.
4. Bring in new blood, you could actually add members from DS9 and voyager as transferees to the Enterprise, it is the flagship and should be a step up for any Starfleet officer. Maybe they can even bring back O'Brian as maybe assistant chief engineer! This way you would be pleasing many fans of the different series.
5. As I said in my prologue bring in a fresh team of writers and producers to breathe fresh life into the franchise as it has got tired and old and needs to be given a transfusion of new blood.

Throughout the movie my wife was struggling not to yawn and I a trekkie of many years only found it marginally better.

Hopefully the rest of the year will bring better things.

My movie rating is : 3/10

See ya later,

Shazam!