12/13/2002 Entry: ""
Posted by Maynard @ 07:41 PM MST
Star Trek 10: The Wrath of Shinzon
Star Trek has never impressed me with its ability to create a new storyline. The one exception is the Borg, and even that has been done to death. I went to the latest movie, Star Trek: Nemesis, with my company today. About halfway through it I realized that I had seen this storyline before.
The basic elements in this movie are also in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan: an angry enemy from the captain's past, a deadly weapon with the capacity to destroy a planet, sacrificing the ship, tactical subterfuge, self-sacrifice, and hero resurrection. The movie has an extremely slow start, and it's not until the first hour has passed until you see the primary conflict exposed.
The Nemesis of the title is Shinzon, a clone of Captain Picard produced by the Romulans. This clone was supposed to be a mole, replacing Picard at an opportune time. However, the Romulan government changed and Shinzon was sent to a Dilithium mine to die (another plot thread from a previous Star Trek movie). He managed to escape and become a powerful warrior, bent on his own personal vendetta against the Romulans and the Federation. He lures Big E and its crew in, then traps them and tries to kidnap Picard. He escapes, and the chase results in the final battle in a nebula. Stop reading if this sounds familiar.
There were a few good surprises in the movie, but not enough to save it from the rehash of Trek 2. The primary philosophical argument, that a person can aspire to and also become better than they are, is similar in execution to the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few/one theme of 2, 3, and 4. Data (Brent Spiner) plays a central role in the movie, and the interactions between him and a character from his past are instrumental in bringing out and tying these themes together.
One good thing about the movie is that technology is used as a plot advancer, not a plot rescuer. Despite personal emergency transporters, age acceleration, technobabble vocabulary, and combat-enabled cloaking (again, stolen from ST6), the plot does not focus on these elements but on the interaction of the characters as they deal with these technologies.
The bottom line is that although this is a good movie by itself, it is still a rehash of previously explored Star Trek storylines. They are recast in a different light, with different characters, but it still is not new.
Romance: 1/10 (not a date movie)
Action: 8/10 (like Independence Day, but with a lot more plot)
Drama: 7/10 (not Casablanca, but not Monty Python & the Holy Grail)
