'Nemesis' has a delightfully nasty villain and pumped-up action, albeit along familiar lines

The consensus in Hollywood is that the whole science-fiction genre is suffering from a terminal case of tired blood -- especially the venerable "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" franchises. The zeitgeist, such as it is, has passed to the fantasy of "Lord of the Rings."

MOVIE REVIEW

STAR TREK: NEMESIS

DIRECTOR: Stuart Baird

CAST: Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Tom Hardy

RUNNING TIME: 116 minutes

RATING: PG-13 for sci-fi action violence.

WHERE: Auburn Cinema 17, Bella Bottega, Crossroads, East Valley, Everett 1-3, Factoria, Galleria, Gateway 8, Grand Cinemas, Issaquah 9, Kirkland Parkplace, Lewis & Clark, Longston, Monroe 12, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Varsity, Woodinville 12

GRADE: B-


	Paramount Pictures
The USS Enterprise-E approaches Shinzon's warbird, the Scimitar. FULL GALLERY

Paramount and the "Star Trek" producers have even joined the naysayers by strongly hinting that their series' 10th big-screen outing (the fourth with the "Generations" crew) may be its last: the publicity tag line is "A Generation's Final Journey Begins."

Still, clearly, the studio doesn't want to lose this cash cow, and the truth is they've gone all out to goose up the franchise with a new director and a hot new non-sci-fi screenwriter, and are obviously hoping "Star Trek Nemesis" will be this holiday movie season's surprise hit.

Only the box office will tell whether or not they succeed, but despite its superior production values and enough explosive action and respectful nods to tradition to please the hard-core Trekker audience, the movie comes off as a by-the-numbers retread.

The story has the Enterprise lured to the Romulan neutral zone, where the senate of the planet Romulus has been taken over by invaders of its subjugated neighboring planet of Remus, led by a mysterious human warlord named Shinzon (Tom Hardy).

It seems the Remans and their turncoat Romulan cohorts have a new death-star weapon capable of destroying the Earth and crippling the Federation for a takeover. But first, there's something they need that only Capt. Picard (Patrick Stewart) can give them.

As this segues into the usual series of chessboard maneuvers and deep-space naval battles, the effects are first-rate, the series regulars (particularly Stewart and Brent Spiner) are winning and the action plays off a rather timely and intriguing cloning premise.

Yet, despite this premise, the script -- by John Logan, who wrote "Gladiator" and the upcoming Tom Cruise movie, "The Last Samurai" -- narrows down to the same old one-on-one with a supervillain and predictable ticking-clock/save-the-universe climax.

And director Stuart Baird -- an ex-editor whose best-known directing credit is the insipid 1998 "Fugitive" sequel, "U.S. Marshals" -- also fails to do anything new with the material except to pump up the pace and carnage of the action sequences.

We're teased with the "death" of one of the series' regulars, but even that novelty is taken away in a final scene that leaves the door open for a resurrection. Nothing is at risk here, so there's no reason to be emotionally involved.

If the producers really wanted to breathe new life into the series, they might consider breaking that formula stranglehold on every aspect of the production, and give us something really new and challenging, instead of one more overblown James Bond-in-space movie.