Star Trek: Nemesis

A formidable, dignified sci-fi adventure when sticking to the substance of its story--about a baneful young replica of Capt. Picard leading enemy aliens in battle against the starship Enterprise--this 10th Star Trek flick grows decidedly flimsier with its many outsized, out-of-character, and logically porous action set pieces. A silly dune buggy sequence features Picard (Patrick Stewart), Cmdr. Data (Brent Spiner), and Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) extreme four-wheeling on a planet with a pre-warp civilization (a violation of Star Fleet's Prime Directive that goes completely unaddressed), being shot at by locals, and staging daredevil stunts, before being sent on a mission to Romulus to talk peace with a coup d'état leader who happens to be the captain's evil doppelganger. The character-driven storyline is quite engrossing as the yin and yang minds of Picard and his clone Shinzon (Tom Hardy) come to blows, but when Nemesis reaches its shipwrecking showdown between the Enterprise and Shinzon's enormous, spider-like, cloaking-capable battle cruiser, more holes are blown in the plot than in the hulls of the two ships combined. Very optional. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director Stuart Baird; the documentary featurettes “New Frontiers: Stuart Baird on Directing Nemesis” (8 min.), “A Bold Vision of the Final Frontier” (10 min.), “A Star Trek Family's Final Journey” (16 min.) and “Red Alert! Shooting the Action of Nemesis” (10 min.); seven deleted scenes with an intro by writer-producer Rick Berman (20 min.); and a photo gallery. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a lesser Star Trek effort.] (R. Blackwelder)[DVD Review—Oct. 4, 2005—Paramount, 2 discs, 116 min., PG-13, $19.99—Making its second appearance on DVD, 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis sports a solid transfer with DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. DVD extras on the first disc include two audio commentaries (one with director Stuart Baird; the other with producer Rick Berman), and a text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda. The second disc is broken down into different categories: “Production” contains featurettes such as “Nemesis Revisited” (26 min.), “Four-Wheeling in the Final Frontier” (11 min.), “Red Alert! Shooting the Action of Nemesis” (10 min.), “New Frontiers: Stuart Baird on Directing Nemesis” (9 min.), “Build and Rebuild” on set design (8 min.), “Shinzon Screen Test” (7 min.), and “Storyboarding the Action” (4 min.); “The Star Trek Universe” section includes “A Star Trek Family's Final Journey” (17 min.), a featurette on the ship “The Enterprise E” (12 min.), and “A Bold Vision of the Final Frontier” (10 min.); “The Romulan Empire” includes a ship featurette titled “The Scimitar” (14 min.), “Romulan Lore” (12 min.), “Shinzon & the Viceroy” (10 min.), “Romulan Design” (9 min.), and “The Romulan Senate” (9 min.). In addition, there are 14 deleted scenes (28 min. total), galleries (storyboard, production, and prop), and trailers. Bottom line: although boasting a fuller extras package than the original single-disc release, this is still one of the less impressive entries in the Star Trek franchise.]