Romulus, Remus and Repeatition

After the lack of success with the last installment, Trek producer and his bunch of monkey's on typewriters decided to concoct a masterplan Star Trek movie. The result, Star Trek: Nemesis is a clever fusion of popular Trek movie narratives and moments (or so they thought).

While its not as pointless as Insurrection (at least it's got a compelling dramatic foundation to the story) it's the least original of the movies to date. The vengeful villain, wanting payback against the heroic captain and crew, is something we've seen before. Data's desire to become more human by teaching his brother/offspring/mother is old hat to the TV show. The unstable weapon threatening the Federation has been done in The Wrath of Khan, as is the noble sacrafice for the USS Enterprise, including the obligatory ambiguity of survival (in case of another sequel).

The core concept of using a clone of Picard as the bad guy is commendable. However, with de-aging effects still in their infancy...using another, weaker actor to portray the young Jean-Luc negates the premise. It doesn't look like a young Picard. It doesn't feel like a young Picard. It just appears like a stroppy lad with a fondness for temper tantrums. Without a strong adversary there lacks dramatic fireworks. Thank god then for his fuck-off space ship!

Production wise, this is a good looking film with a darker visual pallet than normal. However it still suffers from a lack of scale, perhaps due to the ship bound settings, familiar production design and average direction. The effects, while effective, feel a little CGI though, lacking the authenticity of the previous efforts shgot with practical models.

The planet bound action sequence is dull, but at least has a good punchline. Fortunately things pick up for a flashy but epileptic space battle, stoping and starting in fits rather than flowing with any pace, rhythm or momentum. Despite its critics, you've gotta love the sight of 2 starships ramming each other. Each Trek movie prides itself on a awe inspiring effects action sequence (even if they don't end up impressing) and this is Nemesis's.

Despite bowing out at a younger age than the classic crew, it was a good decision to bow out of theatrical Trek with this voyage.