Let's have a Nemesis appreciation thread. You know you want to...

[Smellmet]

With Stuart Baird's direction (even though many would say he's a much better editor than a director), and John Logan's (Gladiator) pen, they thought in far more epic and wide screen terms. The action fills the 2.35:1 aspect ratio much more capably than Gen, FC, and Ins. They take full advantage of the widescreen aspect.

I'm of the opinion that Baird didn't get enough credit or chance as a director, yes there were problems with Nemesis, with some people falling out etc, but I still found the end product much more polished than the previous two. Nemesis's problems lie in the script/screenplay, not the direction.

I thought U.S. Marshals was a solid, well paced but ultimately unremarkable film that suffered probably because it was a sequel to a very successful and well liked movie. In it's own right it was a decent action thriller.

Executive Decision on the other hand is one of my favourite action movies of all time, and an extremely tense, yet preposterous adventure that had the balls to kill off Steven Seagal quite early in the film.

So I don't believe his record as a director stinks anything like people would have you believe, I think if Nemesis hadn't bombed in the way it had he would have directed more movies.

 

[martok2112]

With Stuart Baird's direction (even though many would say he's a much better editor than a director), and John Logan's (Gladiator) pen, they thought in far more epic and wide screen terms. The action fills the 2.35:1 aspect ratio much more capably than Gen, FC, and Ins. They take full advantage of the widescreen aspect.

I'm of the opinion that Baird didn't get enough credit or chance as a director, yes there were problems with Nemesis, with some people falling out etc, but I still found the end product much more polished than the previous two. Nemesis's problems lie in the script/screenplay, not the direction.

I thought U.S. Marshals was a solid, well paced but ultimately unremarkable film that suffered probably because it was a sequel to a very successful and well liked movie. In it's own right it was a decent action thriller.

Executive Decision on the other hand is one of my favourite action movies of all time, and an extremely tense, yet preposterous adventure that had the balls to kill off Steven Seagal quite early in the film.

So I don't believe his record as a director stinks anything like people would have you believe, I think if Nemesis hadn't bombed in the way it had he would have directed more movies.

Completely agreed.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

Nemesis gave us Commander Donatra. That's reason enough to appreciate the film.

--Sran

 

[martok2112]

Nemesis gave us Commander Donatra. That's reason enough to appreciate the film.

--Sran

Phwoaaaarrrrrr!!!!!

 

[Smellmet]

Nemesis gave us Commander Donatra. That's reason enough to appreciate the film.

--Sran

I liked the scenes she was in too.

 

[martok2112]

Joanne Linville, Denise Crosby, and Dina Meyer, three of the hottest female Romulans to grace the screen. (Five if you subscribe to Saavik being half-Romulan as portrayed by Kirstie Alley and Robyn Curtis.)

 

[xvicente]

>Denise Crosby

though her TNG Rom costume/hairstyle seriously de-hotted her.

 

[xvicente]

>Denise Crosby

though her TNG Rom costume/hairstyle seriously de-hotted her.

 

[Orphalesion]

I agree it's the best TNG movie. Which is kind of sad considering how good the show was.
To me it was the only movie that actually tried to include TNG's ensemble cast instead of just being the "Picard and Data show" nearly everyone gets at least one good scene. Some of the ideas (Shinzon, the Remans and Troi locating the cloaked ship using her psionic powers) are things I wish they had come up with way sooner, preferably still while the tv show was on air. Love the lady Romulan who turns against Shinzon as well, this is how Sela should have been.

One thing I do wonder, why is nobody ever mentioning the female Romulan senator with the purple hair? Does that mean Romulans (and possibly Vulcans?) can naturally have purple hair? That's awesome!

And some bad things:

1)The plot makes relatively little sense. It's still better than Insurrection and TFF, but the whole thing with Shinzon....what? How was that clone thing ever gonna work? Why did they throw him into the mines instead of killing him? Why is he angry at Picard?
2)The battle scene in the climax is way too long.
3)The damn dune buggy scene.
4)Why no Sela? They could have gotten Denise into at least one of the films by using her.

 

[martok2112]

I've always felt that the episode "Data's Day" where the Enterprise unwittingly returns a Romulan spy to her people was the lead up to Nemesis. It is very possible that that is how they got Picard's DNA to Romulus.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

^There's also "Reunification," during which Picard was in Romulan custody for several hours (if not days).

--Sran

 

[martok2112]

^There's also "Reunification," during which Picard was in Romulan custody for several hours (if not days).

--Sran

True.

I guess "Data's Day" occurred to me moreso because it was the Romulan spy's mission to get her accumulated data and materials back to her people over the course of her many years of "service to the Federation as a Vulvan ambassador". Picard was probably highly scrutinized by her during her ambassadorial stint, considering he was one of the most highly regarded line officers of Starfleet...and pretty influencial in not just Federation, but Klingon events as well.

If the Romulan spy in "Data's Day" did not have Picard's DNA, then yes, he would be a target of recovered opportunity in "Unification."

 

[fireproof78]

Despite fan opinion, I enjoy Nemesis a whole lot. I even own the soundtrack to it because I found that to be quite enjoyable.

I think my favorite things are the Scimitar escape by Picard and Data using the little fighters. I thought that was a clever fight scene that really had not been done on Trek before.

 

[Cyke101]

I think my favorite things are the Scimitar escape by Picard and Data using the little fighters. I thought that was a clever fight scene that really had not been done on Trek before.

I've longed for a proper hero ship vs. fighter squadron battle in Trek. Even the Abrams movies don't have them. They've only sporadically been shown (Voyager vs. Vaadwuar, E-D vs. drones), but nothing really full fledged balls to the wall, where the ship was under threat of death by a thousand cuts.

 

[enterprisecvn65]

Nemesis gave us Commander Donatra. That's reason enough to appreciate the film.

--Sran

She does a topless scene in Starship Troopers.

Only thing I remember liking about that film.

 

[enterprisecvn65]

>Denise Crosby

though her TNG Rom costume/hairstyle seriously de-hotted her.

I agree totally that TNG dehotted her quite a bit.

If you ever saw her gussied up she was a knockout.

She also didn't have any issues showing off her other assets. There's a scene of her in 48 Hours where she's in a state of undress. Also there was a series on showtime in the late 90's called red shoe diaries which was basically soft core porn with decent production values. I had a roommate in college who taped it all the time (honestly) I saw few episodes but it wasn't my thing.

But one of the episodes had Crosby I was interested. IIRC she was either a cop who pulled guy over for speeding or got pulled over by this guy can't remember exactly.


At any rate the guy's hot, she gets obsessed tracks him down and ends up in s scene in some where house where she "arrests" him and I think she does full on. Of course they used lighting and cinematography to make it "classy" but it was basically her doing soft core.

 

[Lucky]

I love this movie. I'm about to watch it in a minute. I think it is the second best of the Next Generation films, only First Contact tops it.

 

[ScottDS]

Executive Decision on the other hand is one of my favourite action movies of all time, and an extremely tense, yet preposterous adventure that had the balls to kill off Steven Seagal quite early in the film.

Yes, another fan of Executive Decision! I love the film. It's a better hijacking film than Air Force One (no melodrama, no kid in peril, etc.) and while it's rather silly at times, it seems to be done with a wink and a nod. Seriously, a film that begins with the lead character learning how to fly... I admire such a blatant setup!

I'll try to keep this all positive...

-Jerry Goldsmith's score... I don't remember being that impressed with it at the time but this is one score that benefited from an expanded release... and the reprise of the TMP drydock music at the end was just wonderful!

-the Romulan costumes... I was never a fan of the costumes from the TV show (those shoulders!) but they looked great in this film

-it was nice to see Dina Meyer and Ron Perlman—I only wish the film gave them more to do

-this was the first TNG film since Generations that felt like a real movie... FC always seemed so small (despite being the best of the four IMHO) while Insurrection, despite the location work, ironically felt even smaller!

-the explosive decompression scene on the bridge was something I had always wanted to see in Trek (oddly, all three of Baird's films feature such a scene!)

-the visual effects by Digital Domain... while it's obvious they cut a few corners with sets (those fake backgrounds on the Scimitar), the effects look great and I don't think the animatronic Data/B4 effects are appreciated enough

 

[2takesfrakes]

I like Tom Hardy's performance. In fact ... I'd even go so far as to say that what he delivered in NEMESIS is how Annie Skywalker should've been played in the SW prequels. Shinzon's young and powerful, he knows he's going places and yet circumstances hold him back - namely his faulty genetics and his being governed by his emotions, rather than by what's in his best interest. He's capable of so much of what's led him to rule the Romulan Senate and yet his control over his Romulan conspirators is very tenuous, indeed. And he doesn't care about that, because he has very little political sense. Whilst these qualities are all very interesting in shorthand, the script they're embedded in and its flaws aren't Tom Hardy's fault. This is a great example of how an actor's performance can transcend the limitations of a poor script.

 

[martok2112]

Completely agree, 2takesfrakes. Tom Hardy was a far stronger presence than lots of folks give him credit for. The dinner scene with him and Picard was very well played. ... and I loved how understated and humbly he delivered the line: "Well, I had always hoped is hoped I'd hit two meters. " very reminiscent of the naturalistic acting of TMP or TWOK.