Movie Reviews

Next Generation Movie #1    Star Trek: Generations 
Plot: In the Classic Movie era, Kirk is lost when the Enterprise-B is saving the El-Aurians from the Nexus.  In the Next Generation era, the Enterprise encounters Dr. Soran, an El-Aurian trying to return to the Nexus who is destroying stars to guide its course.  He has allied with the Duras Sisters.  Data activates his emotion chip, and Picard must deal with the loss of his brother and nephew and his own feelings of mortality.

It wasn't a BAD movie, it just did nothing to be exciting.  The opening scene was entertaining but nothing spectacular, but it did have some great FX.  The opening bits with the NexGen crew were reasonably interesting; Worf gets a promotion at sea, Picard learns about his family's loss, Data puts in the emotions chip.  For the entire first half of the movie, the Enterprise sets were illuminated by a yellow glow from outside, which gave the movie a very different visual look when compared to the television show.  The investigation of the observatory was similarly dull, and the Data discovers humor stuff was VERY annoying, sure it was supposed to be but it was a pain to watch.  While Bev Crusher got the shaft in terms of screentime, Troi gets a surprisingly large amount of screen time.  She has a great scene with Picard about his family loss and through the second half of the movie she's the conn officer on the bridge!  (plus this was set up in a Season Seven episode where Troi takes the bridge Commander exam and passes!)  Just about everything with the Duras Sisters managed to be the most exciting scenes in the film (which isn't saying much because I don't particularly care for those characters).  Soran made for an incredibly lame villian, but his scenes of manipulating the Duras Sisters were the only decent scenes he had (plus a scene with Picard where he talks about time being a predator).  LaForge got some nice use by being an unwitting pawn of the Duras Sisters and Soran to learn the Enterprise's shield harmony.  The ensuing FX battle between a might-as-well be shield-less Enterprise and the Bird of Prey was amazing, easily the most entertaining bit of the movie!  Of course it should have never happened because in the Borg-Locutus two-parter the Enterprise shifts their shield harmonics every minute or so.  The Duras Sisters get their comeuppence in the form of an explosion, and the Enterprise dies in a eye-popping sequence.  First of all, the explosion of the Battle Section with the Saucer in the foreground was beautiful, and the Saucer crash-landing on the planet surface was amazing (though sometimes it was obviously a minature model).  Picard makes a showing as the worst action hero in the world when he can't even take out a scrawny little scientist like Soran.  I like the idea of having Our Heroes fail in the first climax, then going back in time to do it right, unfortunately it led to an incredibly boring bit in the Nexus with Picard, Guinan, and Kirk.  Please!  It totally ruins the flow of the film!  And the final battle, a fisticuffs between Soran, Picard, and Kirk, never got very exciting at all, it just looked really lame.  And Kirk's death scene was the lamest possible way to die.  He falls off a bridge?!  Hah!  So basically the movie climaxed with twenty minutes left then trailed along afterwards.  This movie also suffered from the writers throwing in everything they couldn't do in the series; Data gets emotions, Picard gets his family killed, the Enterprise blows up, the Saucer lands on a planet, Picard meets Kirk, LaForge gets tourtured, etc.  Plus, for the epic meeting of Picard and Kirk it was handled in the most lame possible fashion.  And they team up for a fistfight?!  Please!

Next Generation Movie #3    Star Trek: Insurrection 
Plot:  Starfleet allies with the Son'a, a vicious and dying race who want to conquer a 'fountain of youth' planet peopled by a small peaceful population.  Picard stumbles across this and leads his crew to fight against the Son'a.  Picard falls in love with a Bak'u woman on the planet; Riker and Troi rekindle their romance; LaForge gets his eyes back; Worf goes through Klingon puberty; Data befriends a Bak'u boy.

Well, it was disappointing but I still enjoyed it.  This film unfortunately lacked in spaceship action but it did have plenty of 'commando' action on the planet surface.  The characters and the humor in the film were generally great, but the plot left a little bit to be desired.  It was a VERY small step down from First Contact, but still heads and shouldars above Generations.  The opening bit with Data Amok was pretty cool, and of course the mystery of why he did it was pretty interesting.  I really love the life on Enterprise bit where the regulars help Picard who must duck down and wear those beads on his head.  That was funny, and it also shows the warm family environment.  I might even call it one of the movie's best bits.  Unfortunately the excuse to include Worf in this movie was a little thin; sure he's visiting on a conference but why would he immeadiately become a crew member?  A minor nit.  The bit where Picard and Worf take down Data was awsome, great FX and action and also pretty funny.  At that point we get down to the planet, and the movie gets slow and little dull.  When a Trek movie comes out, it needs action!  This bit with the peace-loving Bak'u was a little long for me, and that LONG romance scene with Picard and the woman was too dull for me.  They filmed a lot more and thankfully cut them out.  I was also surprised to see the abscence of ANY cameos in this movie.  The subsequent bits with Ru'afo and the Admiral were stale, I was hearing about how great and villanous Ru'afo would be but he really wasn't.  The big where the Son'a attack the Enterprise was absolutely amazing, but I can't believe the Ent never got a shot off!  The 'Riker Manuver' was also a brilliant and amazing way to beat the Son'a ships.  Unfortunately this turned out to be the FX climax!  The subsequent parts of Picard and the rest leading the Bak'u into the mountains were pretty nice and action packed.  I love those little transporting probes they fight.  The Data and the boy thing was pretty dumb.  Speaking of subplots I really liked the Riker-Troi romance, and it did not get enough screentime.  The Worf goes through puberty thing was cute, I like the way Worf became the emotional punching bag in this movie!  LaForge getting his eyes back was nice but there was no RESOLUTION!  Just a little line!  The final part where Picard is on the Son'a mothership was slightly dumb.  He talks to Ru'afo's second for five minutes and suddenly he defects?!  That was a little too pat for me, making the situation too easy to solve.  The final bit with Picard v. Ru'afo in the Collector shaft was a dumb 'climax' since Ru'afo is more a psychological villan that a physical one.  It painfully reminded me of the cheesy 'climax' in Generations where Picard has a fist fight with this skinny scientist on a similar metal framework.  Yawn.  I like the references to the Dominion War, but there were not enough.  The Admiral had many more arguements to give to Picard; like the fact that Son'a somehow produce Ketrecel White (Jem'Hadar lifeline food) and thus you do NOT want them joining the Dominon!  I don't want to sound negative, I liked the movie.  It just lacked in action.  It couldn't seem to decide whether it wanted to be a romantic-comedy or an action flick.  It was no where near as funny as Star Trek IV but most of its humor hit right on the spot.  As I said the Picard-whoever romance was pretty stale but I did like the Riker-Troi romance but it was WAY too short.  I heard the movie would be about Picard v. Federation, which is interesting and action packed, but this movie was Picard v. some Son'a ships.  Disappointing, but still not bad.