4 out of 5

Director: Stuart Baird

The good Star Trek movies have also happened to have good villains.  I think TNG films got off to a rough start with the old to new transition and didn’t have the somewhat initially underdog following of the original series, and so besides going all out for the Borg entry, each latter ST flick faced heavy criticism… and for Nemesis, while there are definitely some uneven elements, it has a good villain, a better balance of action and emotion than most of the movies, and a fair sense of consequence to events, which was what helped ‘First Contact’ as well.  Meaning: I think the flick gets a bad wrap.  Our opening staging sequence has some cluttered Romulan politics that are a little blah-blah for non Trekkies but equate to a long-standing split in the race still going unresolved… cue a secretive nod and a weapon is released that wipes out an entire room of politicians with some pretty brutal and cool effects.  Director Baird then fades to a stoic image of Picard, which in retrospect was right in suggesting an overall mood… though it turns out we’re in the middle of a first-man speech for the marriage of officers Riker and Troi.  Then the regular “we’ve got a problem and you’re the only ones around” call, and the honeymoon is postponed so Picard and crew can investigate the Romulan attack.  …Which was a prelude to Reman ‘Shinzan’s (a young lookin’ Tom Hardy) coup.  He proposes peace with the Federation, but all is not what it seems, duh, kicking off a ship-to-ship battle that extends over the last hour of the flick.  There are elements of incredible interest here that aren’t really used or are unexplored and only included as momentary elements to get us from A to B: that Shinzan is a clone; there’s an imperfect copy of Data wandering around; Troi’s psychic link with the Remans… there are thematic ties, for sure, but some of these aspects could’ve been shed to tighten the impact of the movie.  Still, Hardy does a wonderful job as a believable, sympathetic and yet vengeful villain, and Stewart fills the screen with some powerful silences and stares.  The action is also notable, with some cool unexpected moments, and Baird was obviously trying to ‘film’ this up by adding in some driving sequences and gunplay that feel outside of the normal ST action staple. ‘Nemesis’ doesn’t feel like a TV episode or like a drama transposed to space.  It feels like a sci-fi movie, and one that benefits from familiarity with the cast, which makes it a rewarding part of the series, both old and new.