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Nemesis
Premiered: 2002
Producers: Rick Berman Director:Stuart
Baird Writers: Rick Berman, John Logan,
Brent Spiner Music: Jerry Goldsmith
The Cast:
Jean Luc Picard:
Patrick Stewart
William Riker:
Jonathan Frakes
Data: Brent Spiner
Geordi Laforge:
Levar Burton
Worf: Michael Dorn
Beverly Crusher:
Gates McFadden
Dianna Troi:
Marina Sirtis
Shinzon: Tom Hardy
Although Star Trek: Nemesis is in many ways the best of the
Next Generation films, it remains haunted by the ghosts of Trek past.
The plot is simple; Shinzon, the new Romulan praetor, turns out to be
a clone of Jean-Luc Picard. Shinzon wants, using a massive ship and a
powerful new weapon, to kill not only Picard but the population of
Earth as well, an intention which Picard and company must somehow
foil. How much one enjoys the film will depend in large part on how
much one is bothered by the clanking of the chains of memory, and how
much one is willing to sacrifice plot complexity for magnificent
visuals and special effects.
Certainly the film is loaded with spectacular sets and CGI work. Some
of the backgrounds are stylish and grandly evocative in ways unseen in
some time, and more than once the film manages to recreate the
sense-of-wonder that far too much of recent Trek, in whatever form,
has lacked. The climactic space battle, involving four ships, whips
into action with an impressive fluidity, and the collision between the
Enterprise-E and the Scimitar, while nonsense in terms
of physics, is utterly believable in dramatic terms; the CGI shot of
the former plowing through the flight deck of the latter is simply
magnificent. Similarly, the Rift in which the battle is fought looks
and feels genuinely other worldly, and the operation of Shinzon's great
weapon is stylish and colourful. Although the interior of Shinzon's
ship owes a bit too much to various sets in the Star Wars films, the
exterior is a triumph of the modeller's imagination, managing to be
both darkly elegant and menacing at the same time.
Nor is the film badly acted. Tom Hardy, as Shinzon, brings a low-key
intensity to the role that contrasts well with the ranting of many
previous Trek villains, and Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner give
their usual solid performances as Picard and Data, respectively, with
Spiner appearing to good effect also in the dual role of B-4, a
preliminary version of Data. Marina Sirtis's brief scene of a forced
mind-link with Shinzon and the Reman viceroy, though the motivations
of the latter two are not entirely clear, is well done, and her
vengeance, using a version of the same link, provides a strong sense
of moral turnabout that is among the better moments in the film. Few
others among the cast are given much to do in the way of acting, so it
would be unfair to make much comment, save to say that all the
characters were at least treated with respect, and thus no one seemed
ill at ease or awkward with their small roles.
But even the best visuals and acting need something strong on which to
build if they are going to be more than merely competent elements in
an uneasy mix, and it is here that Nemesis begins to go astray.
Even on its own grounds, the plot is remarkably weak, since it rests
on motivations which are neither clear nor plausible. That Shinzon,
created as a clone for political purposes later abandoned, and himself
abandoned to a life of slavery in the dilithium mines on Remus, would
come to hate Picard might be believed; that he also comes to hate
Earth and the Federation is implausible; that the Remans, oppressed
(yet often used for military purposes) by the Romulans, would come to
share Shinzon's hatred of the Federation, and follow him into what
would surely become a war of extermination, is simply improbable.
This new Praetor says he desires peace with the Federation and equality for the Remans.
But Shinzon's seemingly altruistic motives are a front. A clone grown by the intelligence branch of a previous Romulan government,
he's a younger replica of Picard, originally designed to age rapidly and be substituted for the captain in an espionage plot that was later abandoned.
Now a Reman by fraternity and vile temperament, he's hell bent on ruling the Romulan Empire, irradiating Earth with a powerful doomsday weapon and capturing Picard for a life-saving DNA transfusion.
Nor is it likely that a cast-off human clone would be able to reach a
position of such trust and power as Shinzon has reached (we learn that
he won several victories in the Dominion War, though not how he became
a military commander or learned strategy enough to win those
victories). Somehow he has obtained an android of advanced
technological construction (B-4), control of a weapon of awesome
power, and a colossal ship with which to wield that weapon, without
the Tal Shiar noticing. These facts, too, raise more questions than
they answer.
Similar problems exist with Picard's motivations as well. Immediately
upon meeting Shinzon he recognizes a kinship with him, and within
hours he is deeply concerned for Shinzon's character and fate. By
itself this is a stretch, but the climax of the film requires still
more stretching of credulity; as we've known he must, Picard confronts
Shinzon and kills him. He is so distraught at this that he seems to
lose all will power, and stands in what appears to be a trance as
Shinzon's weapon prepares to wipe out the Enterprise. Only the
timely appearance and sacrifice of Data saves Picard and his command.
Given what we have seen of Picard's character over the years, this is
simply not believable. (Think how much more powerful the scene would
have been, at least given the Picard/Shinzon connection, had Picard
stopped Data and said, simply, "No, Mr. Data, this is something which
I must do for myself," then beamed Data back and destroyed the weapon,
along with himself.)
Already one of the ghosts haunting Nemesis will be obvious:
this film is, in many ways, The Wrath of Khan without the
Kirk/Khan back story. In both we have the confrontation of two strong
wills, the appearance of a devastating new weapon, the near
destruction of the Enterprise, and the sacrifice of a beloved
character for the greater good. What's lacking is the intensity of the
former film; not even the improvement in visual effects over the last
twenty years makes up for the essentially recycled story. Nor is this
the only ghost. Some of the others are no doubt intentional, such as
Riker's call for "Defensive pattern Kirk-epsilon"). Some further
ones are probably accidental, such as Riker's kicking of the Reman
viceroy, as the two dangle from a collapsing catwalk, until the latter
falls screaming to his death many levels below, a scene reminiscent
both of Kirk's death in Generations and, more noticeably, of
the end of the Kirk/Kruge fight in The Search For Spock. Still
others are simply strange; a surprising number of cues from earlier
Jerry Goldsmith scores appear here, some in quite bizarre places (the
music linked to The Final Frontier heard during the wedding
scene at the beginning, for example) and others for no apparent reason
at all (the references to Alexander Courage's fanfare from the
original series). Not all the ghosts are behaving in understandable
ways, it would seem.
Nemesis is an enjoyable film, but it lacks both depth and
consistent pacing. Director Stuart Baird and screenwriter John Logan
seem at times unsure of themselves or their own intentions. Too often
action scenes stumble toward their conclusion without the necessary
sense of rising tension, and there are some such which appear simply
gratuitous (the battle between the Enterprise ATV and those of
the inhabitants of the planet on which B-4 is found, for example,
which is neither especially well-filmed nor significant to the plot in
any way at all; it would have been more sensible, and more germane to
later plot developments, for B-4 to have been found drifting in space
near the Romulan Neutral Zone). A film such as this requires extremely
strong character work if we are to care about its outcome, and that
development is, sadly, all too lacking. One of the central problems,
in fact, is that these characters could be replaced by ones previously
unheard-of and no one would notice that this was meant to be a Trek
film, as opposed to a fairly conventional sci-fi action programmer.
Much was cut before release, apparently including a fair portion of
character work, so it may be that the 'Director's Edition' DVD will in
fact be an improvement overall, despite the inevitable loss of impact
suffered by the superb visuals-- but a theatrical release must stand
or fall by what is in fact on the screen, not what we hope to see
later. By that measure, Nemesis cannot be considered a major
addition to the Trek film canon, enjoyable though it is.