| Review : |
Generations is a good film, but nothing more than that. Firstly, I'm glad we got one last look at the 23rd Century, although I have to say that Captain Harriman should go back to flying a desk at Headquarters The loss of the Enterprise-D was almost meaningless in the end. This is the Federation flagship; the ship that faced down the Borg, the Romulans and the Cardassians; journeyed farther from Earth than any ship ever had; and made all those first contacts. Just as importantly, she was the ship that gave us so many wonderful stories over seven years, and she gets taken down by a tiny Bird of Prey that she should have blown to pieces in a very few shots. At least Kirk's death was more meaningful. We saw him die not once, but twice. Despite what he said in TFF, he did not die alone, and he saved Picard, the E-D crew and everyone on Veridian IV before he went. The sequence inside the Nexus was a bit confusing, not just because Picard the atheist was celebrating Christmas. They slipped Kirk's time with Antonia into a gap between TMP and TWOK, but I thought that he was supposed to have been in a post at the Academy at the time. Well, maybe he beamed in from Idaho every day. Still, it seems a bit odd that he went back to an obscure part of his life rather than the days when he wore a gold shirt (although that would have been hard to recreate). Anyway, there were some great sequences. I loved Stellar Cartography, and the saucer section crash was certainly dramatic. I can't fault the acting either. Patrick Stewart was excellent as ever, William Shatner matched him and Malcolm McDowell's Soran (was he inspired by Sting?) was convincing enough. He seems unbalanced, but not entirely mad. His age puzzles me, however. How can he be getting old at 300 while Guinan is going strong at 500-plus? We also had a good attempt to keep continuity with TNG at least, and the did OK in the end. Still, despite not quite being right, it is indeed a very watchable film. |
