Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Moving on to the TNG movies and this was the first Star Trek I watched when I started watching Star Trek, which was with TNG. I am a bit surprised by its low rating on here, because I found this to be as about as perfect as the first TNG movie could - at least the first 90 minutes.
It starts great with the old crew just as honorary guests on the new Enterprise, and I think Alan Ruck is giving a great performance here as a young but not totally inexperienced new captain. He really handles the mixed emotions of being scared and self-confident at the same time. I grew up watching the sitcom Spin City, so very weird to see Stuart in such a completely different role.
The TNG crew is nicely introduced and the only downside is that the rest of the movie mostly focuses on Picard, with some Data and La Forge. Worf, Riker, Troi and Crusher barely get any screen time. I did enjoy Data’s emotion chip storyline and with a few exceptions where it gets too goofy, I think Brent Spiner handles it really well with Data’s slight change in mannerisms and how he talks. The action scenes is both exciting and well done, the saucer separation is tense and the ultimate crash landing is thrilling. And while Soran is not the most well developed of villains, I think his plan and goal mostly make sense and lays the foundation for a decent plot for the movie
However, when we enter the Nexus things start to get a little hokey. It is a little too easy for Picard and Kirk to just leave, given what Guinan told Picard earlier, and it is one of those moments where the Star Trek writers just retort to a deus-ex solution to make things right again by pressing rewind. And the final showdown with Soran has some logical timing problems with regards to when the rocket is supposed to be fired to even make a difference - and why the need to get that control pad instead of simply holding out until the ribbon had passed?
By no means a perfect Star Trek film, but well worth four stars to me.
Rating: 4