I know what you're thinking: "What a follow-up." I may be the only person in the world to have chased The Force Awakens with one of the least popular Star Trek films. Why did I? Mainly because I was donating platelets and had only so many options for viewing on the portable screen.
This is not to say that I'd never have seen it otherwise. Sure, it was the Die Another Die of its franchise, breaking the pattern of esteemed even-numbered entries and precipitating a longer hiatus than usual followed by a reboot. But I didn't feel like I wasted my time watching DAD, and my taste in Trek fare differs from most who watch a lot of it; The Wrath of Khan, for instance, appealed to me less than Insurrection did. (How many brains just popped?) I couldn't help feeling a tad curious.
Continuing with the "Next Generation" crew under Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Nemesis sees them on an unexpected mission to head to previously verboten Romulan Empire space for an announced peace treaty. Given the misadventure in Star Trek VI with the Klingon pact, I don't blame several key crew members for having their doubts. But neither Klingons nor Romulans form the main threat this time; in fact, a young villain named Shinzon (Tom Hardy) hates the Romulans above all, for personal reasons. So why should the Enterprise crew intervene, apart from, y'know, heroism? Because Shinzon has a keen interest in Picard for other personal reasons, which I spoil below.
There is a subplot involving Data the android, whom I always considered the adorkable highlight of his generation. Here they discover a broken, amnesiac look-alike called B-4, which surprises them, because Data was not mass-produced. The behavioral similarities and differences between them matter for both plot and philosophical purposes.
That philosophy, alas, concerns another double: Shinzon is a clone of Picard. He's not merely intrigued at comparisons; he wants forcible blood transfusions to combat the rapid aging common to clones. He also insists that their genetic match means that under other circumstances, Picard would make the same unethical moves as he does.
From what I've seen, clone stories almost never work well. The subject seems to offer a lot of possibilities beyond comedies of errors, but the audience has trouble taking it seriously and writers have trouble using it cleverly. I for one am unimpressed by Shinzon's argument on the interplay of nature and nurture: While perhaps technically correct, it means nothing for what one should do. Besides, the fact remains that Picard would need an extremely different upbringing to become like Shinzon, so there is little cause to treat them as two of a kind. "Dark mirrors" require more commonality than DNA to be effective.
In terms of action sequences, Nemesis is about par for the course. In terms of dialog, it gets a little too jargon-y for emotional impact at times. In terms of comic relief, it's nothing to write home about.
I do not recommend the movie for those who haven't already become fond of Next Generation movies or TV episodes. Those who have probably know already whether Nemesis is worth their time. For my part, it was something to pass the time and, by all rights, be forgotten soon. Of course, this post will not facilitate that.
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