I’m going to come straight out and say this, the unwritten rule that odd numbered Trek films are poor and even numbered ones are good has finally been broken. Nemesis is the tenth film in the Trek franchise and despite the Trek rules; it doesn’t deliver where the other even films have. It pains me as a Star Trek fan to say it but what is likely to be the last big screen outing for the Next Generation crew is a mediocre movie watching experience at best.

From a movie fans point of view Nemesis has little to offer. The first half of the film has a pace akin to a sloth with 2 broken legs. Unnecessarily talky and bogged down with seemingly endless conversations between Picard and Shinzon the only action to speak of in the first half is a (admittedly fairly enjoyable) dune buggy combat sequence. The pace picks up in the second half as we get some damn good space combat scenes that almost make the first half worth sitting through.

A large chunk of the blame should be shouldered by director Stuart (Executive Decision) Baird; he seems to have a real problem shooting action sequences with any kind of energy. The shoot out scenes feel flat and lifeless and even the climatic one-on-one battle lacks the certain sparkle that a scene of its magnitude deserves. It almost makes you wish that they had kept Jonathan Frakes in the hot seat.

Strangely for a Trek film the usually high standard of acting takes a slide, the cast just don’t seem interested. Patrick Stewart, whom is an outstanding actor, mails it in and Picard just doesn’t feel like Picard. Jonathan Frakes is Jonathan Frakes, a lot of people hate Frakes, but I quite like him. Brent Spiner plays Data just as he’s always done; the only difference is that he now has a double chin. Nice to see him get to do something a bit different with the B-4 android though, I liked that stuff a lot.

Marini Sirtis has bit more to do than normal, but since she partakes in the worst lighting effect in a movie ever, that’s probably not a good thing. The rest of the regular cast is posted missing for large portions of the film. Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden & LeVar Burton have little to do and you could probably get away with calling them cameo appearances.

The guest players are a mixed bag to be sure. Tom Hardy practically chews the scenery as Shinzon and aside from his hokey reason for being evil; he is one of the best Trek villains since Khan. Ron Perlman is an actor that I love to see in films, he has a brilliant look and I loved him in stuff like ‘The Last Supper’ and ‘Blade 2’. However, when you hide him behind a mountain of poorly applied latex and give him nothing to do, he kind of struggles to make an impact. Ditto for Dina Meyer, an incredibly good looking woman who is hidden behind some truly terrible Romulan make-up effects.

This brings me nicely to the other problems with the film. The make-up effects are terrible, which for a Trek film is unforgivable. You only have to look at First Contact to see what good sci-fi make up looks like. Nemesis’s make-up looks like it was designed and applied by a five year old. Perhaps the same five year old that wrote the hideous score. This is without a doubt one off the (if not the) worst musical compositions for a film I have ever heard. Star Trek needs a grand orchestral score, what we get in Nemesis is something that sounds like an aborted Tubular Bells tribute. Horrible, cheesy synth music is mixed in with the classic Trek music and it just sounds terrible, an insult to the ears.

One thing that I did genuinely love about the film is the FX work by Digital Domain. There really are some great effects sequences in this film, if only the rest of the movie could have taken their queue from them. The space battles are full of energy and are cleverly shot, which is in complete contrast to the rest of the film.

As poor as the film is, as a trek fan I did find things to like about the film. I always appreciate the interaction and banter between the crew and there is some touching moments near the end. This is after all (supposedly) the last Next Generation Trek film. However, when you see things like Janeway from ‘Voyager’ becoming an Admiral and giving Picard orders. Or the Enterprise crew completely disregarding first contact laws and going down to a pre-warp world on a dune buggy, you have to wonder what the makers were thinking.