I've always liked Nemesis, and it has a wealth of great stuff in it (like the equally hated TFF). Most of the stuff has already been listed, but the final space battle was truly awesome.
Agreed, although I think it needed something extra. It needed a cool action hero line in the vein of Kirk's "I... have HAD... enough of YOU!" IIRC, the original script had Riker say something like, "Don't worry. Hell is dark." The reason why I would say the Generations stuff was still very much in character was because things only degenerated into a fistfight as a last resort. His intention was clearly "to dissuade me from my horrific plan." I just rewatched Nemesis yesterday. One thing that still really impresses me is how well they've integrated Data & B-4 into the same scenes. The split-screen shots are seamless. Spiner's body double is perfect. And Spiner differentiates the characters so well that I keep forgetting that it's the same character playing both roles.
There were 2 moments in Nemesis where I was able to stop thinking about how shit it was, and actually enjoy it for a few minutes. 1) Picard and Data's escape via shuttle. 2) Data deactivating B-4. Which isn't to say I particularly liked either sequence... it rose to the level of "competent".
The wedding. Data's sing. The scene with Picard stating "I'll be in the gym!", pulls in his stomach, walks out. The explosive decompression on the bridge, the helms-woman being blown out and killed. Deanna's expression when she realizes Data is dead. The last shot with Picard and the new first officer, the bands breaking up and life goes on, very real. Wasn't the dune buggy fight with the natives a prime directive violation? Worf guns down more than a few.
What did I love about Nemesis? -The 'Marco, Polo' scene where Deanna finds the Scimitar using her empathic powers, and gets the Enterprise to blast the Scimitar- a great way to avenge Shinzon taking away her wedding 'virtue'. -The little Romulan space fighter-if they ever make a real Star Trek space fighter combat game (like Tom Clancy's HAWX or the original Wing Commander), that fighter should be one of the ones you use later on in the game (captured as a spoil of war!) -The shuttle used to get to the planet where B-4 was.
The wedding was ok. Commander Donatra was the standout for me. Excellent performance. Some of the bridge displays were good (eg the shield indicators weren't ludicrous like in TWOK) - it seemed as if someone actually paid attention to that kind of thing for once. The movie wasn't a complete steaming pile. It did have moments.
A lot of people say that, but I just can't imagine it being anything other than dismal. But then. I like Tom Hardy in the role.
Why can Brent Spiner have two roles as good guy and bad guy in the series, but with Stewart it would suddenly be dismal?
Not to mention... that Spiner's already playing two characters, would just make it an eye-roller if another actor did the same thing in the same movie.
I'd also say the Picard-Shinzon dynamic works better with Shinzon visually younger than Picard. There's almost a father and son nature to that, and two Patrick Stewarts doing that would have felt awful, no matter how good an actor he is.
I’m not sure if this is quite relevant or what the OP had in mind but seen as it was shot an even had all the cg work in place I’m going to say that for me possibly the best scene in Nemesis was the cut ending, with the new first officer. Like FF is bad but has the great character moment with the three camping this where the film felt like tng to me. For one it felt like a much more upbeat ending to the standard one. Number two Picard felt like Picard, to me he was a bit off in all the movies but this one most of all but his face when the xo calls him Jean-luc even when its stated that it was a leaving prank by will really reminded me of the stern faced captain I’d grown to love through the series.