Star Trek Generations had a mission; to incorporate the classic USS Enterprise crew, and introduce The Next Generation crew on the big screen, in an original, exciting new adventure. On most counts, this movie fails miserably.
It starts off strongly with a sequence featuring Kirk, Scotty and Chekov saving a ship in distress. Apart from a tidal wave of technobabble with which they bullshit their way out of the predicament, the set-piece is fairly exciting and the (apparent) death of Capt Kirk is handled poignantly. From there on, it's down hill..
The rest of the movie feels like a wishlist of story elements jammed together into one story; much like many of the two-parters which frequented the Next Gen TV show.
And most of these separate elements are unworthy of a big-screen adventure in their own right. The Data story (where he wrestles with his emotion chip) is unnecessary. The mystery of the Observatory attack mediocre beyond belief. Geordies capture and torture is dramaless, to say the least. The inclusion of Klingons Lursa and Betor (recuring characters from TV) are an unpaletable distraction, filling the perceptual need for Klingons as baddies. And the Captain's grief for his freakin' nephew is a monumental misjudgement and should have been reserved for one of the show's minor episodes.
The greatest scripting error is the use of the plot macguffin The Nexus, a deux-ex- machina that allows the writers to join any story dots they want, without having to make sence. While its an original concept for using time-travel...it STILL doesn't make sence and undoes the entire narrative. For example;-
1/ When trapped in the Nexus, the El-Aurians are pulled inside. Why doesn't this happen to the Enterprise-B crew?
2/ If Soran got inside the Nexus on a spaceship originally, why doesn't he do it again (despite the bullshit excuse by Data)?
3/ If an 'echo' of Guinan is still in the Nexus, how does she know Picard; she left the Nexus before he was even born?
4/ Despite his grief of his nephew, Picard has shown no regrets about being in Starfleet. So why would he even be tempted by his 'Nexus' family?
5/ The same goes for Kirk. His true love is starship command. Wouldn't his 'Nexus' idea of joy be on the bridge of the Enterprise? And if that is the case, WTF is he doing cooking eggs, chopping wood and riding horses? WTF!
6/ Why has Kirk only just arrived in the Nexus when Kirk gets there? No amount of bullshit can deflect the fact he got there 79 years ago! WTF!
7/ The Nexus dream world is in the Nexus ribbon, travelling through space at a very specific place and time. So how can Kirk and Picard leave anywhere and anytime they want?
8/ Why does Picard elect to leave the Nexus to go back to the planet to stop the villain, with only moments to go? Couldn't he have given himself a bit more time?
And thats just the script.
9/ Captain Kirk, one of modern culture's greatest charater creations, final words are, "It was fun. Oh my." WTF!?!
The cinematography is pretty good and ILM's effects are professional but adequete.
The rest of the movie doesn't fare well technically. The score, while comprising a good theme, is the usual incoherant, bland mess we've come to expect from most of the modern TV Trek shows. The Voyager costumes look undignified when compared with their Next Gen TV counterparts. The flashy blue font of the credits sequence looks utterly cheap. The sound mix is strangely echoy, adding an amaturish feel to the film. David Carson, a standout on the TV show, fills his movie director shoes with stinky feet. It's routine, workmanlike, uninspired 'point-and-shoot' film-making.
The greatest criminal here is the narcoleptic editor. He's completely asleep for the Verhidian set stuff and I cannot think of a more uninvolving climax to an action movie. Three old men dancing around some scaffolding for a remote control do excitment make not. Like Shatners delayed verbal delivery, you shout at the editor to. Cut. This. Quicker!
It's a shame that this was the final movie to feature Shatner as Kirk as it's a poor send-off; falling from a bridge while pressing a TV remote. They'd made a better attempt at it 90 minutes earlier in the movie! Still, at least there was better to came from the TNG lot...
3 comments:
Yep. It is indeed a pile of shit. It's boring and makes no sense whatsoever. A complete insult to Trek and its fans. And I shall never forgive the filmmakers for killing off arguably THE greatest ever sci fi icon in the shittest possible way. Awful.
I'll have to watch this again. I remeber not thinking too highly of it as they belittled the Next Gen Crew. It was kind of a set up film as well, where most if not all of the viewers would know noth sets of characters well enough already. I also didn;t like the way they made Picard such a dick when he is up there with Kirk and Sisko in terms of great leaders.
For your information, Guinan first met Picard in the 19th Centuty on Earth before she ever went into the nexus. That's time travel for you.
Holy crap. They met in the 19th century!?
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