Is Nemesis unfairly criticized?

[suarezguy]

Funny how Nemesis is criticized for the same elements that the first two JJ films are praised for - giant OP black-colored villain ships, gratuitous action sequences, TWOK callbacks - all that's different are the characters, direction and production values.
I'll never get fans.

I think most of the critics of the JJ films do notice and equally criticize the similarities, admit that the movies were at least going downhill before he came in.

 

[KennyB]

I never hated Nemesis. My complaints were that it really seemed to be the Picard and Data show. I think the rest of the cast were relegated to supporting roles and they tried too hard to make Picard an action hero. It was still fun and I enjoyed Tom Hardy's performance it in.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

it really seemed to be the Picard and Data show.

Yeah, and frankly this was the case with the other Trek movies and a lot of the TNG episodes too. My gf's big criticism of the post-emotion chip Data is that he became "all yucks."

 

[The Rock]

I liked it when it came out, but watching it these days, I've realized just how awful it really is. All of the actors seemed like they didn't wanna be there (which I found out was because they didn't see eye-to-eye with the director since he had no idea what he was doing and didn't "get" Star Trek), and it really comes through on the screen. Everyone seems bored and nobody seems to be having fun. That's just the tip of the iceberg of the movie's many problems.

 

[jonds91]

Nemesis was disappointing compared to the other three TNG movies. However I still rate it higher than the Star Trek reboot.

 

[KennyB]

Nemesis was disappointing compared to the other three TNG movies. However I still rate it higher than the Star Trek reboot.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Yeah, and frankly this was the case with the other Trek movies and a lot of the TNG episodes too. My gf's big criticism of the post-emotion chip Data is that he became "all yucks."

Plus, Data in Generations seemed to me to be engaging in conduct unbecoming an officer (swearing as the ship's plunging down to the planet [and when nobody else is doing that and is keeping themselves in control], singing inappropriate songs and making inappropriate jokes during tense situations, etc. I think that Data overreacted to what happened on the holodeck during Worf's promotion, and just put the emotion chip into his head willy-nilly out of fear, without taking into account that misunderstandings happen.

 

[KennyB]

As a veteran officer, I can say I have heard much worse...........just sayin'.

 

[The Rock]

Also, Nemesis was so bad that it killed the entire Trek franchise (the first two seasons of Enterprise were a big contributing factor as well, and by the time that show became good the damage was already done) until 2009! Critics hated it, and it bombed in theaters.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

Plus, Data in Generations seemed to me to be engaging in conduct unbecoming an officer (swearing as the ship's plunging down to the planet [and when nobody else is doing that and is keeping themselves in control], sining in apropriate songs and making inapriprprriate jokes during tense situations, etc. I think that Data overreacted to what happened on the holodeck during Worf's promotion, and just put the emotion chip into his head willy-nilly out of fear, without takin g into account that misunderstandings happen.

I dunno, I think when the Enterprise is hurtling towards a planet, there were a lot of people saying, "OH SHIT" or worse, we only hear Data say it. lol

 

[Shaka Zulu]

As a veteran officer, I can say I have heard much worse...........just sayin'.

I'll take your word for it, and I'll accept that this was a character building moment for Data; I've been wrong before.

 

[KennyB]

I dunno, I think when the Enterprise is hurtling towards a planet, there were a lot of people saying, "OH SHIT" or worse, we only hear Data say it. lol

I would most likely even drop an F bomb at that point............

 

[captainkirk]

I don't think Nemesis is a great movie, but the problem is it's still the second best TNG movie (IMO anyway). Insurrection was way more dull and Generations was downright insulting.

 

[Gibberish]

While I don't think it's unfairly criticized, as it really isn't a good movie in general, or a particularly good Trek movie for that matter, I still don't mind watching it from time to time. ‍

Then again I like the weirder/unloved episodes too, so who am I to say.

 

[Vger23]

Also, Nemesis was so bad that it killed the entire Trek franchise (the first two seasons of Enterprise were a big contributing factor as well, and by the time that show became good the damage was already done) until 2009! Critics hated it, and it bombed in theaters.

It might have been the "nail in the coffin" but it certainly didn't single-handedly kill the franchise. Death had set in pretty undeniably with Insurrection and the lukewarm reception of Enterprise long before the Nemesis box office failure.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I dunno, I think when the Enterprise is hurtling towards a planet, there were a lot of people saying, "OH SHIT" or worse, we only hear Data say it. lol

Honestly, hearing Data say it was actually pretty funny. That and his "YES!" were pretty fun moments. Especially when you see the one guy in back grinning (likely a younger officer).
ETA: I could've seen Data and Worf doing the headbutt if the Enterprise hadn't started going down.

 

[Captain Triggered]

wasn't a great movie but it was fun enough for me to rewatch now and then. first contact demolishes all the other tng movies, but nemesis is the only other watchable one. man insurrection was boring and felt like an episode, complete with planet and alien of the week

 

[LJS1138]

Possible Rogue One spoiler below.

I hated Nemesis when I saw it in the theaters. I came out and told my husband "I don't want my money back. I want my time back that I spent watching that." So, skip to this past January 2017, and Nemesis was on Netflix. I had pretty much forgotten about the movie and been able to Un-Watch it. I stepped onto my treadmill and put on Nemesis to walk to. By the time it was over, I hated it more than the first time I saw it.

When I saw it in theaters, I didn't have the luxury of having just watched the whole series in an online binge-watch. So, seeing it from that angle made it so clear just how out of character everyone acted, how bad the writing was, and the massive holes in the plot. It has a few decent scenes, but when just about all the Deleted Scenes are better than most of the movie... that says a lot.

And yes to the "It's the Picard and Data show" sentiment. I do love both those characters, but it was like all the other characters didn't have to be there. In fact, all the characters, including Picard and Data, could have been replaced by generic characters as a non-Trek film and it would make no difference. Data's death is cheap with no impact. (For a good death: Spock in Wrath of Khan, K2 in Rogue One, Wash and Book in Serenity, Roy Batty of Bladerunner).

Just my opinion, of course.

 

[The Rock]

Roger Ebert described Nemesis as "a copy of a copy of a copy" and that's the perfect description for it.

 

[Lance]

The TNG movies focus on Picard and Data to the exclusion of the rest of the cast was definitely a strange turn, given that in TOS's case the TV show had been about three 'star' actors with a second rung supporting cast, whereas the TOS movies had definitely gone to some lengths to try and mould that into an ensemble cast instead. Meanwhile, TNG as a TV show was always more of an ensemble, but essentially became a two-man show in the movies. I understand why they did it, but it certainly wasn't playing to the strengths of the cast as a whole. And Nemesis in particular feels worse than most because we're all privy to the deleted scenes and can see how much good material for the other characters was actually cut out of the finished movie. Somewhere underneath it all was an early cut that felt more ensemble-like.

That being said, the first EVER exchange between any two characters on the Next Generation TV show was Picard and Data discussing the meaning of the word 'snoop' in "Encounter at Farpoint". So, it could be argued that 'The Picard and Data Show' was always a recognised and important part of the format, it just felt like it swamped the movies because we were only getting one new adventure every couple of years instead of 26 episodes per year, where the dynamic was much more equally distributed between the cast members.