The Final Frontier 9/Final Frontier 9 (Disk 2 of 3).adf/LCARS/TextFile/Generations/Generations_Movie_Bad.pp/Generations_Movie_Bad

Text File | 1995-11-18 | 19KB | 363 lines

TF01
3,Generations - Movie Review
4,Negative Reviews of the film...

                              Tim Smith
                             -----------

I won't bother boring you with  the  plot  of this, the latest in the
successful series of Star Trek movies as you will have either seen it
by now or have read the plot in some magazine. What I will do is tell
you what I think of the film and whether it works or not.

I can quite happily watch this  movie  and enjoy as a science fiction
spectacular. What I cannot do is watch  this  movie and enjoy it as a
Star Trek spectacular. Why? Well, read on.

1) The old lot are back.

As we know, the beginning of the  movies sees Kirk, Chekov and Scotty
on board the Enterprise B. I have  no  problem with this. It was good
to see them again and made  me  realise  that they could quite easily
have made another movie with  the  original  cast,  but Sulu having a
daughter?! As Kirk said, when did he  find time to have a family? Not
a mention, not  even  a  hint  in  any  previous  film  or television
episode, and now, all of  a  sudden  he  has  a daughter in her early
twenties!

2) Captain Incompetant.

Poor old Harriman. He was a nice  enough  bloke and came up with some
ideas, but he didn't really know  what  he  was doing, did he? He may
well have been reasy for a  command  sometime but it certainly wasn't
this one. There is no way  Starfleet  would  put someone so unsure of
himself in charge of any  starship,  let  alone  the Enterprise B. Of
course the reason why the character  is  written like this is so Kirk
appears more heroic, but that's a very  crude way of writing. Why not
have Harriman injured?

3) No medical staff, no tractor beam, no torpedoes, no sense.

I ask you, is it either sensible, or believable that they would allow
a ship without any torpedoes,  medical  staff  or tractor beam out of
dock? I don't think so.

4) Scotty, have you lost your mind?

Relics, written by Ronald D. Moore.  Generations written by Ronald D.
Moore. Yes, you all know this one.  If  Scotty had seen Kirk die, how
come he assumes it is Kirk  who  rescues him in "Relics"? The answer,
the writer thought we wouldn't notice.

5) Game for a laugh.

What can I say about the way Data was portrayed? The all singing, all
dancing, all swearing android. Again the  result of crude writing. No
insult to those who liked  Star  Trek  V, but the supposedly humerous
antics that Data gets up to in Generations (Mr. Tricorder, singing et
cetera) are at the same purile level as the humour in Star Trek V. As
for the swearing, I just don't  think  Data would do that, and anyway
it doesn't belong Trek. The only other time there was swearing was in
5 (again, not justified) and  3  (which  I  didn't like, but could be
argued to be understandable).

6) The Next Generation.

A lot of assumptions are made  in this movie, particularly concerning
the Next Gen' crew.  The  writers  just  assume  that  everone who is
watching Generations is cognizant with  the  show. The characters and
their relationships with each other are  never explained in any great
detail. Now that's okay for  you  and  me,  but for those who haven't
seen the show before it can be confusing.

7) Where have all the light bulbs gone?

Just why, oh why, was the Enterprise  lit  like it was? As with a lot
of the writing, it is all too crude and obvious. About as subtle as a
sledge hammer and as effective as lead balloon.

8) The special effects.

For the whole, they are pretty good.  There  is a really nice shot of
Soran  awaiting  the  energy   ribbon,   but   the  crashing  of  the
Enterprise's saucer section is awful. It's  like someone has thrown a
frisbee onto a model railway.

9) The plot doesn't make sense.

Picard is in the nexus. Picard  can  go  anywhere and anytime. Why go
back to just before Soren launches  the missile? Surely it would make
more sense to go  back  to  the  observatory  and  arrest him? Geordi
wouldn't be kidnapped, the  Enterprise  wouldn't  have been destroyed
and Kirk wouldn't have died. In fact,  he could have gone back to the
bridge of the Enterprise B just after it had left the energy ribbon.

10) Bridge on the captain.

I'm sorry to say that Shatner  didn't  deliver his farewell speech at
all well. It sounded like  he  had  just  woken up rather than fallen
several hundred feet. Of course he shouldn't have died at all, but he
shouldn't have been in the  movie.  I  know that Gene Roddenberry was
not the sort of person  who  would  want  everything set in stone and
unchangeable but these are major plot  points  and I don't think that
he would be pleased.

11) I've seen it all before.

I have read that  to  prepare  for  writing  "Generations", Braga and
Moore watched all  the  previous  motion  pictures  several times. It
shows. So many  elements  in  "Generations"  borrow  from the previos
movies: the use of an incredibly  powerful  weapon (Star Trek II) the
destruction of the Enterprise (Star Trek  III) time travel (Star Trek
IV) a renegade trying to find  his  own personal heaven (Star Trek V,
in fact,  originally  Soren  was  a  Vulcan)  the  destruction   of a
star/planet causing a  massive  shock  wave  (Star  Trek  VI)  and of
course, the death of a major  character (Star Trek II, again). That's
not to mention the numerous television  episodes that the writers got
their inspiration from. Watch "Yesterday's Enterprise" and you'll see
that the warp core breach scenes with Geordi are virtually identical.

12) The good bit.

Malcolm McDowell is quite brilliant as  Soren. In my opinion he gives
the performance of the movie and  is  the best villain that the movie
series has seen.

Well, thats about it. I'm sure that many others, whether they like it
or not, will come up with plenty  of  other  points. As I said at the
beginning, I can enjoy this as a  movie  but as a Star Trek film it's
not all that good. Well, actually,  it's pretty dreadful. I would put
it on the same level  as  Star  Trek  V.  It  has its moments but not
enough of them.

Rating: 30%


                             Sven Harvey
                            -------------

Stardate: 5th February 1995
Location: MGM Cinema in the Arcadian complex, Birmingham City Centre

As many of you know I  wrote  an article last issue (Overload!) about
my experience at an all  day  showing  of  the  Star Trek movies. The
final movie in the programme was  the  latest  in the Star Trek saga;
Star Trek: Generations.

Now to say that Generations had a bad press before it release in most
fanzines would be the grossest  understatement  of the (last?!) year.
With that in mind and  the  fact  that  Voyager  was treated as badly
before its actual emergence and the  Voyager pilot was REALLY good, I
went into watching the seventh Trek movie with an open mind.

I am not going to bore you with  the  plot again as I am sure someone
has gone through it already  above  me,  but  I  will have to mention
certain plot points... these  are  potential  spoilers  for those who
haven't seen the movie... sorry!

The opening titles was a major let down  to start off with. I had the
soundtrack to this movie quite a  while before actually seeing it and
I felt a lot of emotion from the music and imagining what the opening
scene of the  champagne  bottle  spinning  through  space and finally
hitting the hull  of  the  Enterprise-B  would  be  like. However the
actual scene was no  where  near  as  good  as  I  had imagined it. I
imagined  the  bottle  hitting  the  ship  and  then  the  spotlights
illuminating the main set  of  registry  markings  on  the top of the
saucer section... no such luck just one anonymous docking port on the
side of the ship. Oh well missed opportunity numero uno.

Then Kirk steps onto the  bridge  of  NCC-1701-B  and half a tonne of
news reporters jump on him  (and  Scotty  and Chekov). Excuse me, but
why? What are the press doing on  a  Starfleet ship? Why do they have
video cameras? Why not  just  use  small  tricorder like devices etc.
that don't need extra  light,  oh  yeah  and  why  the  lights on the
reporters heads? Damn stupid  scenes  if  you  ask  me! After a while
though with  an  emergency  situation  arising  and  Captain Harriman
showing himself to be a useless waste of uniform you think why didn't
Kirk take command a darn  sight  quicker?  Kirk  would normally be in
command the moment the situation arose!

Anyway the Enterprise-B picks up a  distress call from the El-Aurians
escaping from the Borg (and  why  didn't  Guinan  mention the Borg to
anyone? Oh yeah and how did the El-Aurians get to Federation Space so
quickly?). The ship is trapped in  a mysterious energy ribbon and the
Enterprise  has  to  get   close   to   beam  the  survivors  aboard.
Unfortunately they have  problems  and  Kirk  volunteers  to  do some
engineering work in the secondary  hull.  The  day is saved but after
the loss of some of the  Enterprise's  hull,  Kirk seems to have been
sucked in (correction sir, that's blown out) to space.

Now call me picky but wouldn't Scotty have done the engineering work?
Plus Chekov is doing a  good  impression  of  Bones. Were these parts
written for someone else? Like DeForest and Leonard and then adapted?
Not all that obvious... honest.

Then we are whisked from  the  23rd  to  the  24th century to witness
Worf's promotion  ceremony  on  the  sailing  ship  Enterprise  (in a
holodeck). Will gets his own  back  on  Worf for taking Deanna during
the  latter  part  of  season  7   but  a  majorly  unneccesary  plot
development was the death of  Picard's  brother  and nephew (but were
they? They certainly weren't the same actors in the photos!)

Unfortunately the film  then  stumbles  into  further trouble, simply
because it IS  Star  Trek!  Compounding  on  the  errors  with Scotty
earlier on, some  of  the  crew  of  the  Enterprise-D underwent some
inverse-character development! Picard  became  the  cold character of
the early 1st season episodes while Riker became less experienced!

Data was  given  emotions  and  reacted  as  he  should  have done...
initially. Unfortunately his changes were taken  miles too far. I can
understand Data being engulfed by  a  massive  fit of laughter, as he
has only laughed once before  properly  (thanks  to  Q) but turning a
tricorder into a hand puppet? I don't think so. Data being scared and
overwhelmed by  it,  fair  enough  but  not  saving  Geordi?  In that
situation a Data with emotions  would  have got rather angry (because
Geordi is his friend) and was more likely to do Soren some damage.

On top of all of  this,  Riker  allows  Picard  to beam down (via the
Klingon vessel) to stop Soren and instead wears a uniform that really
doesn't suit him at  all  while  landing  the saucer section! Beverly
doesn't do much  except  evacuate  everyone  from  sick-bay  into the
saucer section (not far to go  considering  sick-bay IS IN the saucer
section) and isn't around for the  majority  of the movie. Troi seems
to gain a cockney accent while a bunch of Klingons in an underpowered
little old bird of prey manage to destroy the Galaxy Class Federation
flagship while the Enterprise  fires  off  a  couple  of pathetic (by
Enterprise-D standards) pot shots  to  completely  destroy the little
SCOUT ship. The actual scene of  the  events leading to the warp core
breach is  more  than  dodgy  as  it  is  an  almost  carbon  copy of
"Yesterdays Enterprise"!

The reason that the Enterprise  should  be destroyed? Because someone
thought "That could be fun!" ARRRRGGGGGHHHH!

The saucer landing sequence is also less than convincing and probably
worse than the BBC's sequence used for the crashing of the Scorpio in
Blake's 7. The saucer is the  wrong colour, the surroundings look far
too green and the saucer does  look  too  much like Centre Parcs when
stationary. A particular insult to a brilliantly designed vessel.

The film does have good points.  Some  of the effects, especially the
rendered effects are gorgeous and there are some great moments in the
movie. Unfortunately the complete lack  of continuity with Star Trek,
Star Trek:  The  Next  Generation  and  Star  Trek:  Deep  Space Nine
(remember Lursa and B'Etor  visited  the  station)  doesn't allow the
movie to actually work  within  Star  Trek  lore.  As  a  movie it is
exciting and fun to watch. As a Star Trek movie it is disgraceful and
a total cock-up.

If Rick Berman and Co.  had  taken  Star Trek: Generations, fixed all
the continuity cock-ups and not  destroyed  the Enterprise at the end
(maybe by ejecting the warp  core?)  then switching places between it
and "All Good  Things..."  would  have  resulted  in  far  more happy
people.

The only way the people behind this movie are going to get back in my
good books are  by  following  it  up  with  a  fully  Next Gen movie
featuring Q, the Borg, and  a  Nova class USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-E,
with Frakes directing. AND then  a  series  of Captain Sulu TV movies
(Enterprise-B?). But then again  the  likely hood of Viacom/Paramount
being intelligent at the moment isn't too high!?!

The movie isn't the worst in the  series, that is still Star Trek V's
crime but it does fall into the same category as the second and sixth
films as good movies but terrible  Star  Trek movies. At the moment I
can only bear to watch Star  Trek  IV  out  of the movies. Unless the
added material in the Laserdisc or VHS video version do make a marked
difference I am afraid that, as I  did  with Star Trek V, I will have
to think very carefully about buying this.

Overall score: 40%


                              Paul Chan
                             -----------

A Review of Star Trek: Generations  (by  someone who hasn't even seen
the film!).

My opinion on Star Trek 7,  or more correctly, Star Trek: Generations
is coloured by the fact that  I  have  not  seen  the film yet - only
clips from trailers on CIC videos of Deep Space Nine and the odd clip
from a film review. I can,  however,  deliver my thoughts on the film
in a biased Waterworld style :-).

I'm not going to nitpick  it  scene  by  scene  (others will be doing
that) but rest assured, I've seen the script and I'm disappointed.

Overall, I think that Star Trek:  Generations  was doomed by being an
odd numbered Star Trek  film.  Paramount  seem  stuck  in  the rut of
releasing even numbered films  to  apologise  for the shortcomings of
the odd  numbered  ones.  Generations  was  a  financial  success  by
breaking the $100 million mark but on the whole, it seems empty. Even
from the trailer,  Picard  seems  to  have  gone  back  to the boring
captain he was in TNG seasons  1  and  2, Riker looks dishevelled and
fat as ever,  and  you  can  see  the  cracks  in  Data's makeup. The
uniforms have been changed (and from  the  trailer it looks like Troi
held on the to old style uniform).

Data has been completely wrecked as a character, and they just had to
smash up the Enterprise, didn't  they?  The  Enterprise was also VERY
darkly lit - did they forget to pay their lighting bill? I know drama
in a film can be paid  for  with  moody lighting, but the lighting in
the TV series was fixed at a  bright  level. The sudden change is all
too strange. Another change is uniforms, out go the old TNG uniforms,
and in come Deep Space Nine  style  uniforms, but why wasn't everyone
wearing them?

All these are just nitpicks of  my  own,  but the storyline is a dead
loss - they could  and  should  have  made  much  more of the old/new
transition (if they had to have  one),  and while giving over a dozen
actors a meaningful part  in  the  movie  may  have  been difficult I
didn't want just Chekov and Scotty being the token TOS appearances.

The problem here lies with  the  transition  from  TV series to film.
With the bigger budget, they could  theoretically do more things (and
earn more  money).  Why  does  Generations,  therefore,  look  like a
distinctly average episode of TNG? In  my opinion, a story like "Best
of Both Worlds" in 2 hours 20 minutes could have been much better. As
I said, the advantages of moving to the movies grants a bigger budget
and a worldwide audience but this is a curse.

The actors demand a  larger  wage  packet  and  more screentime - you
can't promise them  an  episode  to  themselves  in  a fortnight. The
audience changes from a  generally  Trek  knowledgable  audience to a
general worldwide audience so you have  to write for them. This means
that you have to go through  the  rigmarole of introducing Star Trek:
The Next Generation to  a  new  audience  -  diluting  the power of a
script. In other words, you get  told  again  that Worf is a Klingon,
Data is an android, and Geordi  is  blind  but can see. I'm sure this
doesn't help the fans feelings  when  they  are  already looking at a
film that has slayed their fond memories of the Next Generation.

The other bugbear with the transition  to  the big screen is the fact
that all the plot devices have to be so much bigger than on the small
screen. The Nexus is  a  contrived  piece  of  writing  as was Data's
emotional chip (a big embarrassing  mistake  in all counts). Picard's
family is killed in  a  fire.  Data  tells  us  the population of the
system under threat but we don't ever get  to see them, so how can we
sympathise with them? Dr  Soran  should  have  been the stereotypical
maniacal geniusTM (but ends up  being  a pathetic desperate man). The
TOS crew needn't have been there, and  Kirk's end was a poorly staged
one - they knew he had to  die  from the beginning so they had plenty
of time to plan it  -  why  couldn't  they  get  it right first time?
Finally, they just HAD to crash the saucer section didn't they? Well,
I suppose they had to give ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) something
to do.

Well, this was a very short review, and I should be able to finish it
with a high point about the film  -  so,  I choose the still shots of
the TNG crew giving Worf the  "promotion"  right  at the start of the
film. It's the only part of the film that looks nice. :-)

Summary: Kirk "dies"  on  Enterprise  B;  Worf  is promoted; Picard's
family is killed in a fire;  Soran  tries to kill billions; Lursa and
B'Etor are killed  (?);  The  Enterprise  D  saucer  section crashes;
Picard meets Kirk; Kirk and Picard fight Soran; Kirk "dies".

That summary is just some of the major events in Generations - As you
can see, the writers basically  drove  an average script, loaded with
obligatory "major" film  events,  down  the  throats  of  an audience
composed of a good proportion of disappointed fans.