Reviews

First of all, Némesis is not a bad movie. It is a good action movie with lots of action and spectacular space battle scenes. But it is not a Star Trek movie. At least not the one I would have expected nor desired as the end of a saga.

It has several highlights: a nice complex non-unidimensional villain, an interesting family-like plot and, as said, the always exciting starship battle scenes.

But it has some big flaws that make it flop. First -and most important-of all. Roddenberry's so much wanted likeability of the characters is ambiguous here. Capt. Picard's especially. From the beginning we see how most of entreprises' crew is leaving for one reason or another: Riker and Troi get married (a scene, by the way, that would have fit much better at the end of the movie, in Betazed and bringing back her mother's Lwaxana character -Roddenberry's wife in real life), Worf going to work to another spaceship and dr. Kruscher being promoted. So having no family of his own captain feels a bit sad and lonely having his family-crew left.

In the original script (co-written by Brent Spinner, John Logan and Rick Berman) Shinzon was to be capt. Picard's real son instead of a clone. But Patrick Stewart did not accept it since his character had already had an almost-son in one of the series' chapters. So they change it to a clone. Big mistake. Feeling lonely as he feels for his tripulation leave, it would have been an interesting plot the finding of an unknown son and how they relationship would evolve since Shinzon has Picard's "bad instincts" raised to the top. By making Shinzon a clone, script writers seem to forget that a clone is a physically identical -not mentally- copy of another being; while sharing the same exterior appearance clones have different minds moulded by each own experiences and consequently different personalities. So Shinzon character is nothing related to a young Picard nor has anything in common with the "original" apart of the façade (by the way, is not rather silly that he is presented bald to us? It is supposed that Picard had hair when he was younger).

Another flaw: if the inhabitants from Remus are in fact disjoined romulans, why do they look like monsters or trolls? They should look alike very much as romulans only with the expected adaptations to the lightless world (mines) where they are forced to live: bigger eyes to adapt to darkness or maybe blindness to light.

On the other hand, why would the remans would confere the leadership to a human? (even a clone of a human). That sounds absurd. It would be more logical that they used the clone for their own interests as a way to attract the federation or Picard's interest, taking advantage of clone's megalomaniac tendencies (that is, typical human character flaws) The scene of the big starship battle has also a BIG flaw: having broken the frontal view pannel a crew member is succioned by decompression of the cabin. However, NONE OF THEM seem to suffer the effects of the non-oxygen athmosphere! Although we have seen in many other occasions (i.e. Star trek the next generation movie) how the crew use space suits AND helmets to be able to breath out in the space.

Also, the scene where Picard decides the enterprise to collide with the scimitar is completely foolish. Would the regular Picard ever do such a massacre of his own crew killing thousands of innocent people? Never. Not at all.

Another flaw: much of the regular crew members are totally wasted and do not have much to do along the film, something that ultimately damage the film. Tom Hardy does a good job playing a more interesting than usual villain, but he has really not much to work with. LaForge-Data friendship that appeared frequently in the series is replaced here for Picard-Data's probably to provide Stewart with more protagonism. In the series, each episode was mainly centered in one of the crew characters. This does not fit well in a movie, where due to its length should provide enough screening time for all the characters.

Apart of this, there are some other big flaws to consider: having only one, Data decides to give his transport device to Picard so he can return to the enterprise and get saved, leading him to a secure death. It is rather silly that he has been provided with one single transport device, moreover when he is sent to save the captain and bring him back to the ship! Also, haven't we seen thousands of times in the series that one transport device can transport more than one people as long as they are attached one to the other? Data could have left a time bomb to destroy the Scimitar and come back with him to the Enterprise. Happy ending.

Also the scene where data gets ashamed of his "brother' B4, (happily eliminated in the final movie) is rather unfortunate.

In dvd interviews' director says he wanted a sort of Rebel without a cause story. Someone else wanted it to appear like a Shakesperean play (see Shinzon's death trying to get closer to his "father" while theading himself more into the lance). Maybe that's why the final result is a sort of melange, non exploring any field completely and leaving too many loose theads while spending too much time in unneeded scenes.

So with such a bunch of nonesenses let's see if by correcting all this and put the right stuff together can get a more likeable Star Trek style story:

At the beginning of the story Capt. Picard receives a call from the federation. The romulans have asked for a mediator to negotiate peace and, although with prevention, the federation decides to send Picard and the enterprise since they are the nearest fleet starship to romulian planet.

Once there, when contacting with them before going down to the planet to meet them, Picard recognizes himself in new reman leadership and gets astonished.

How can it be?... in the movie, Picard gets angry by discovering he has a clone because this means he is no unique. This reaction does really not fit Picard's character at all as we know it. He should feel intrigued, astonished but never ravished or angry. Changing Shinzon's character from clone to son would certainly have helped to add some positive interest and compassion to him from Picard that we do not see at all in his character in this movie but were commonly attributed to him in the series, more compassive and even. In fact, as said Picard is shown in this movie acting a bit silly (like when driving the car in the desert race) and egotist, traits totally unfaithful to his regular character.

Goaded by this discovery and trying to find out if new leaders want peace or not, he and his crew meet in Remus, where he learns real Shinzon's story (an unknown born child from a young Picard love interest would be more suitable and palatable than a clone, maybe kidnapped with his mother -who would have been later killed- by the romulans to adoctrinate him in order to substitute real Picard). But to do so romulans need Picard's ADN to accelerate Shinzon's aging so he raches real Picard's age sooner. This way they will introduce him as a saboteur in the federation to end with it. The fact that the romulans decided to abandon the "project" due to a government change is quite silly, it would have been more credible that the opressed remans had striked back the Romulan government and decided to go on with the plan.

So Picard and his son meet. Meeting scene should surely have been much more intense with a much better script. In the movie they almost do not chat and the scene has not relevance at all in the end. It was a great opportunity lost to show us that they do really share a deeper link farther than being father and son. Under the megalomaniac tendencies of Shinzon there shuld have shown a blink of a connection between them to be used later in the film.

Following this first meeting ship crew discover a strange and dangerous radiation coming from the planet. This make them suspect of the real reman intentions but before they can get capt. Back to the ship, remans show their true intentions, capturing Picard and deposing Shinzon (who only then realizes he has been used by both romulans and remans).

The enterprise crew send a recovery team to the planet, while remans plan to kill Picard and destroy the enterprise.

But Shinzon's plans difere: hating now both romulans and remans and being captured by the remulans with Picard, he is convinced by his father that both romulans and remans have the same intentions: to use him for their own purposes and destroy the federation and the earth. At this point the message of the film is revealed: one can always change as long as he purposes to, it all depends on his desire to do so. Being a better human is at our scope and can only come from inside oneself. From now on they will look up to the stars together -Picard says (referring to their first meeting converstion). Once convinced, they get united and ready to escape from the planet.

In the meantime the saving crew arrives and take both Picard and Shinzon back to the enterprise (they bring enough transport devices for all this time ;) running away from the planet. Reman ship scimitar follow them and a space battleship takes place. To destroy it a crew member must introduce himself to the scimitar to make it explode. Data is the one. Once there, he puts a time bomb into the scimitar and transports himself back to the enterprise. The romulan ship is destroyed. Federation is saved and peace triumphs. The enterprise returns to the federation space. The Riker-Troi wedding in Betezed could easily been put here as the final scene, with all the naked guests seen from up -back only, providing a funny ending (funny moments were common in the series but scarcely seen in TNG pictures including Deanna's mother Lwaxana flirting with Picard once more). The End.