MovieChat Forums > Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) Discussion > Movies story structure was terrible\Chea...

Movies story structure was terrible\Cheap Looking movie

posted 10 years ago by ComicNerd
5 replies | jump to latest

I hadn't seen the movie since it came out, but figured what the hell, I'll watch some of the TNG movies on Netflix. I had forgotten how little actually goes on in this movie. Everything starts out ok with the wedding, but the movie doesn't really have any sort of middle act.

Form about the 1 hour mark on the entire movie is basically the Enterprise and the Schimatar fighting. As much as I hate Insurrection's effects and Generations mishmash of costume and reused effects shots, Nemesis by far seems like the lowest budget TNG movie. The Reman masks look like something from the Walmart Halloween collection, the Romulan senate sets look like college classroom and despite the good effects work on the ships, we don't really set a lot of them. 90% of the movie takes place on the boring Reman ships set or the Enterprise Bridge.

[–] Mississippi20 10 years ago

The film was made on a modest budget considering the magnitude of the film: $60 million.

I don't agree that it looked cheap. The shots of the Enterprise and Scimitar are pretty spectacular, especially when the two ships ram into each other. I assume these shots ate up a majority of the budget.

I don't agree that the sets looked cheap - there just weren't a lot of sets, particularly the 2nd half of the film when, as you say, it's pretty much just a clash between the Enterprise and the Scimitar.

I think it's a decent film, especially for fans of 'The Next Generation'. Hell, Data is given a better death than Captain Kirk. The idea of Picard going up against a clone of himself is an interesting premise. I think Tom Hardy does a great job as the villain. But yes, ultimately the film doesn't break a whole lot of new ground the 2nd half.

[–] don-lope-de-aguirre 10 years ago

The visuals are very good.
But the film seems small cause it nearly only takes place on the 2 ships.

[–] ComicNerd 10 years ago

But the film seems small cause it nearly only takes place on the 2 ships.

That's part of what makes the film feel cheap to me, the visual effects are great but 3/4 takes place in small parts of the 2 ships. Even the Engine room on the Enterprise is smaller, the same with the shots on the Romulan capital.

[–] ChrEberle 10 years ago

You are god damn right! If this was a tv-show, this would almost be a so called bottle episode http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BottleEpisode , because the previous episode ate up too much money, so they had to write a simple story that mostly (or only) takes place on the existing sets.

Oh, yeah, the "Romulan Senate" - well, o.k. nice set... IF IT WAS A TV SHOW. But you seriously want to tell me, THIS is the hall of the ROMULAN SENATE (TM) ??? REALLY??? How big is the so called ROMULAN EMPIRE (TM) - the size of a redneck village in the middle of nowhere?

I mean, nobody expects it to be the size of the fricking GALACTIC SENATE from the cräppy STAR WARS prequels... but for a STAR EMPIRE... well, STAR EMPIRE on a budget I would say?

I guess, they rather spend their space-dollars on building huge Starships and stuff - and not on huge halls to have some boring, political talks going on...

Ah, and don't get me started on the ugly ENTERPRISE E and the terrible Space-Action that is soooo unimaginative. The TNG-Movie before NEMESIS already had some Spaceball-esque Spaceship that could turn into a Space-Cleaning-Lady to suck of some whatever radiation (another amazingly written "movie" by the way...)

But the MAIN PROBLEM (TM) of NEMESIS is... (drummrolls) - HAVING IT DIRECTED BY AN EDITOR!!!!

AN EDITOR!!!

Hey, sure, why not? Let's waste 60 Million Space Rupees for a "movie" - and take the most unfitting person to direct it!

How about this bold idea: TAKE A DIRECTOR TO DIRECT YOUR MOVIE! Do NOT take a person whose main profession is EDITING movies!

I know, totally radical - but it COULD help.

Well, the blue milk has been spilled - LONG AGO.

Now,STAR TREK is back in the 1960s, Kirk is younger than ever - and Spock is banging Uhura. But: Still a better story than ALL THE TNG MOVIES TOGETHER!

[–] greg-taitt1981 9 years ago

Blame the screw up of Insurrection. I don't hate the film but the low ratings they got may have influenced the set budget for this movie. Anyway, I thought Nemesis was a fantastic movie.