Nemesis Thoughts
Dec. 16th, 2002 09:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteThe short: Star Trek: Nemesis, propelled by fine acting and a script just unlikely enough to make me forget the cliches that almost weigh down the film, is a fine if not brilliant addition to the Trek film series. And the critics who came out of it repulsed are idiots.
Big spoilers and thoughts of some length ahead...
The film first. The plot: On the way to Betazed to finish marking the overdue wedding (and promotion) of Riker and Troi, the Enterprise gets caught up in intrigue on Romulus involving a clone of Picard, an early prototype of Data, and a threat to Federation. This description should tell you what the cast and the audience was up against. Not an original notion in sight.
But the same can be said for all of the Trek films, most of the shows, and a good deal of great SF films and books. It's all in the execution and interpretation. Which is mostly up to the actors. Luckily, Next Gen always had a good cast anchored by the brilliance of Patrick Stewart and the skill of Brent Spiner. Surely with lesser actors, I would not have been happy with this film, but would have also not given the TV show a chance.
The bulk of the film is Picard trying to understand how his clone could be the genocidal and cold Shinzan, whether such a hateful person lives inside his own soul, and whether he can find the Picard in Shinzan. As a result, Stewart and Tom Hardy both get to do more than anyone got to do in Insurrection. Trek at its best is not about the action or the suspense but what it means to be human. We get a good deal of that, although it also means we have to accept the "evil clone" plot, no matter how well done, and we have to accept Shinzan in his silly iridescent costume.
Meanwhile, Brent Spiner gets to do two things he seems to like. First, he plays yet another dual role, but while the childlike B-4 could have played only for laughs, Spiner plays him as a child who just happens to look like Data (and the oddly ignored Lore). Spiner also plays Data's concern for this brother quite well. But the other thing Spiner gets? Data's death. It is the stalwart and verbose android who saves the day, suddenly and without a word until he is alone. It is an ironic death, intentionally (I would guess) miles away from Spock's doom, and one that simply makes sense. It is also a death I had not heard about. In an age of endless spoilers, I liked being surprised. Even if I liked Data as well and will miss him. RIP, old friend.
It was the sense that for once a price is paid that helped make this work that well. Data died. Picard watched a piece of himself die in a way that Picard probably imagines he might die. Even the ship was unusually battered. This was not a feel-good film, even if good triumphed.
It was also meant as the end. Riker is now a captain at last, and taking Troi with him. Data is gone. The family has finally begin to go its separate ways. While the voyage is not over for Picard, it is, at last, time for us to say goodbye. These four films entertained us, even the weaker ones, and added a little grandeur missing on TV. But there is always a point at which we must let our heroes, our family in Starfleet, move on, knowing that the chances of there being one more good film keep getting smaller.
Brief little thoughts: Was happy to see Wesley at the wedding reception, but why was he in uniform? Why was nothing about Worf's career as ambassador to Q'onos never mentioned? Continuity want to know. OTOH, we are also happy that one of the ships Enterprise was going to meet before the final battle scene got in the way was the Archer. And the elegiac scene where Riker remembered meeting Data on the holodeck was a marvelous way to include all the fen in the memory.
Now, about the critics. This movies received some pretty bad reviews. And from reading some of the reviews, I wonder if it's not the film but the very premise of the Star Trek shows that eludes them. If so, after all these years, maybe we'd be better off asking such critics to stay home? I am left wondering as well if these critics have had their ability to enjoy the Trek films warped by the usual stereotypes about us Trekkies. And I would even say that there is resentment in some quarters that this hokey little TV show changed all the rules in becoming a very successful movie series and letting many other, far less worthy, TV shows become movies.
Or maybe I'm just perplexed, yet again, by how I could like something as much as I did when the critics seem so lost. It happened with Attack of the Clones, and now with Nemesis. Maybe it's my love for the franchises. Maybe these are really not good films. But as someone who knows he can trust some critics to get it right vis-avis my own opinions, I wonder not what's wrong with me but with them. Roger Ebert, you are right so often, but you really blew it with these films. What's up with that?
Big spoilers and thoughts of some length ahead...
The film first. The plot: On the way to Betazed to finish marking the overdue wedding (and promotion) of Riker and Troi, the Enterprise gets caught up in intrigue on Romulus involving a clone of Picard, an early prototype of Data, and a threat to Federation. This description should tell you what the cast and the audience was up against. Not an original notion in sight.
But the same can be said for all of the Trek films, most of the shows, and a good deal of great SF films and books. It's all in the execution and interpretation. Which is mostly up to the actors. Luckily, Next Gen always had a good cast anchored by the brilliance of Patrick Stewart and the skill of Brent Spiner. Surely with lesser actors, I would not have been happy with this film, but would have also not given the TV show a chance.
The bulk of the film is Picard trying to understand how his clone could be the genocidal and cold Shinzan, whether such a hateful person lives inside his own soul, and whether he can find the Picard in Shinzan. As a result, Stewart and Tom Hardy both get to do more than anyone got to do in Insurrection. Trek at its best is not about the action or the suspense but what it means to be human. We get a good deal of that, although it also means we have to accept the "evil clone" plot, no matter how well done, and we have to accept Shinzan in his silly iridescent costume.
Meanwhile, Brent Spiner gets to do two things he seems to like. First, he plays yet another dual role, but while the childlike B-4 could have played only for laughs, Spiner plays him as a child who just happens to look like Data (and the oddly ignored Lore). Spiner also plays Data's concern for this brother quite well. But the other thing Spiner gets? Data's death. It is the stalwart and verbose android who saves the day, suddenly and without a word until he is alone. It is an ironic death, intentionally (I would guess) miles away from Spock's doom, and one that simply makes sense. It is also a death I had not heard about. In an age of endless spoilers, I liked being surprised. Even if I liked Data as well and will miss him. RIP, old friend.
It was the sense that for once a price is paid that helped make this work that well. Data died. Picard watched a piece of himself die in a way that Picard probably imagines he might die. Even the ship was unusually battered. This was not a feel-good film, even if good triumphed.
It was also meant as the end. Riker is now a captain at last, and taking Troi with him. Data is gone. The family has finally begin to go its separate ways. While the voyage is not over for Picard, it is, at last, time for us to say goodbye. These four films entertained us, even the weaker ones, and added a little grandeur missing on TV. But there is always a point at which we must let our heroes, our family in Starfleet, move on, knowing that the chances of there being one more good film keep getting smaller.
Brief little thoughts: Was happy to see Wesley at the wedding reception, but why was he in uniform? Why was nothing about Worf's career as ambassador to Q'onos never mentioned? Continuity want to know. OTOH, we are also happy that one of the ships Enterprise was going to meet before the final battle scene got in the way was the Archer. And the elegiac scene where Riker remembered meeting Data on the holodeck was a marvelous way to include all the fen in the memory.
Now, about the critics. This movies received some pretty bad reviews. And from reading some of the reviews, I wonder if it's not the film but the very premise of the Star Trek shows that eludes them. If so, after all these years, maybe we'd be better off asking such critics to stay home? I am left wondering as well if these critics have had their ability to enjoy the Trek films warped by the usual stereotypes about us Trekkies. And I would even say that there is resentment in some quarters that this hokey little TV show changed all the rules in becoming a very successful movie series and letting many other, far less worthy, TV shows become movies.
Or maybe I'm just perplexed, yet again, by how I could like something as much as I did when the critics seem so lost. It happened with Attack of the Clones, and now with Nemesis. Maybe it's my love for the franchises. Maybe these are really not good films. But as someone who knows he can trust some critics to get it right vis-avis my own opinions, I wonder not what's wrong with me but with them. Roger Ebert, you are right so often, but you really blew it with these films. What's up with that?
