Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
This has the unfortunate reputation of being one of the worst Star Trek movies, and I have always tried to give it a chance and perhaps found ways to make it better than it actually is. It is the only one of the TNG movies I watched in theaters. Giving it yet another go after having watched all the others recently, I need to admit it isn’t very good.
Which is a damn shame, because the Romulans are on of the most interesting enemy species in the Trek universe, but here the villain isn’t even a Romulan - he is a human clone of Picard. And not a particular good one. Most of the action takes place on ships, so we don’t even get to see much of Romulus.
There are too many convenient plot devices, like the emergency transporter or the prototype Data. I admit the death of Data did had an impact on me, but it isn’t nearly as great as Spock’s death and the subsequent fallback plot device to bring him back in later series is a cheap trick.
Star Trek has never been afraid of tackling big philosophical questions and often done quite a good job of it, but here it tries to delve into the debate of genes versus upbringing and what defines you most as a person. It just never becomes more than artificial superficial short conversations between Picard and Shinzon about themselves.
As always, the redeeming qualities comes from Patrick Stewart who never fails to deliver a stellar performance. The rest of the crew has too little screen time to make much of a difference, expect Brent Spiner who gets to play yet another version of Data as he has done several times before.
Rating: 2.5