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"Generations", IMHO, does have some nice ideas, but their naivety in filmmaking hurts it. Never mind the movie was rushed, had a couple plot gaffes (Guinan states once anybody goes into the nexus they won't ever want to come out, never mind what she said about it being impossible to get back to), and that the usual TNG mantra of "We can't have villains people love to hate; we want to have people feel sorry for them" did not help. Soran could have been made a bit more vicious with his all-consuming quest and we don't feel pity or hatred or anything else for a character that had potential. The DVD extras are great; a commentary revealed a scene involving Geordi's torture was cut (which would have helped added necessary vitriol for Soran), and having seen the original demise of Kirk, that one is far better. And despite excellent direction from David Carson, it does feel like a 2-part TV episode. ("All Good Things..." being feature film quality and Q's line about what awaited Picard promised so much...)
"First Contact". Fanwank city, complete with cameos from half of "Trek: Voyager". It's too campy, too silly, time travel cuts out a lot of suspense (the Queen's statement about watching their futures' end does not work), who cares about the latter part of the 21st century which is another reason why the ha-ha comedy does not work... it's like they took the ideas of "The Voyage Home" while being drunk and mucking things about. The incidental music sucks royally too. Oh, the plot feels like a reversal of "Trek II" as it's Picard who seeks revenge on someone that did him wrong. A couple good set pieces, and despite Jonathan Frakes' competent direction, just does not hold up. It feels like a party; one we're having to watch and not enjoy with them.
"Insurrection" - it tries to open up to the casual moviegoers while exploring one of the plot types Trek had yet to really encounter (Starfleet corruption), but is ultimately a glorified 2-parter again. Frakes' direction is spectacular as usual, but to me David Carson and Winrich Kolbe directed the best for TNG. The plot is serious, with most jokes contained within the plot and not doing the "nudge nudge wink wink" crap that pervaded "First Contact". Picard's maudlin resignation from Starfleet is dealt with seriousness this time, but movie critics at the time whines how "First Contact" already did it. Given how farcical FC is, it's best to pretend that movie doesn't exist, because there is some gravitas for once. As with "Generations", "Insurrection" has a few intellectual ideas behind it. Some politicizing too, but it has more to do with intellectualism. Indeed, think into the movie too much and the real villains happen to be the Ba'ku, as they were the ones who kicked out the So'na (their BIOLOGICAL PARENTS). Not enough is given to the So'na to make them stand out as a bona fide enemy or to justify the ba'ku kicking them out. As usual, more Berman abomination (abermantion) afoot about making villains we're supposed to feel sorry for and loathe all at the same time. Only this time, it works because Ro'afo is so intense and takes a direct approach against the Enterprise, when Riker responds "it's time to get back at these bastards!" or whatever, it works. Back to Starfleet corruption, the movie cannot make up its mind if it's one or two people at the top being 'evil' or if it's the whole of 'Starfleet'. As usual, abermanation, and all is well in the land by the movie's end... I still enjoy this movie a great deal... oh, Anthony Zerbe had a similar fate in "Licence to Kill" (1989). I'm going to check imdb.com and see if it is known for playing villains and henchmen whose fate is having their heads blown apart by whatever means... In short, take "The Pegasus", "Who Watches the Watchers", and a second season 3 TNG episode and that's the core of "Insurrection".
"Nemesis". Where do I begin on this one?!?! After 4 years, people were expecting "big". If by "big" they mean "big steaming dump", they were right. The direction sucks. The incidental music SUCKS. The plot, what isn't a direct ripoff of Trek II sucks almost as bad. Shinzon is a clone of Picard that went wrong. That I'll buy. Having him on Remus as a slave for 20 years while he secretly built a big deus ex machina spaceship that nobody could find at the same time is another. B4 (the latest Data double to be pulled out of abermanation's butt) is lame. Data "dies" but as this movie also rips off Trek III, you can guess where Data's soul chip was placed. Hmmm, I thought Troi could only read emotions (like how everyone watching the show yet none of the other characters IN the show could during its 7 year run). Now she can do a lot more. Where'd all those abilities come from? Wesley is back for no reason; wasn't he given a nice send-off in season 4, only to come back for season 5 and get treated badly and left i8n season 7 after another whiny rant to be with the Traveller? (Berman must have hated the Crusher character). Here he is in uniform in a deleted scene. Never mind how plodding and long the movie was and we never even get to see the ship Riker becomes captain of?! UGH!! I recall the audience in the theatre at the time; only once was there any audience reaction: In an action scene, Riker mentions "The Kirk maneuver". The audience cheered. Possibly because "Kirk" was mentioned and not for the inanity of this so-called "plot". With B4, Wesley, Troi -- the abermantion retcons never seem to stop in this awful waste of 2+ hours. And it had, what, 50 minutes of excised material too! But watching "Voyager" Borg stories, it's clear by this point abermanation stopped bothering with any continuity and retconned as frequently as possible.
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