Star Trek: Generations (1994)

Considering that this installment of Star Trek saga features both Captains Kirk and Picard, I was incredibly disappointed by this film. Together with a supposedly dead Kirk, Picard and the Next Generation crew must stop a madman who has created a weapon that can destroy a star simply to fulfill his own selfish desires. When I began watching this film, I thought that it might present be a good opportunity to discuss the Kirk v. Picard debate, but Generations was such a let-down that this no longer seems like the right time. While Generations certainly failed to deliver, it was not all bad. I like the crew of Next Generation a lot, and whether or not you find him superior to Kirk, Picard is at worst the second best Star Trek captain to date. Whoopi Goldberg plays a surprisingly minor role in this film, and does so well enough, but I found it odd how small her part was. I guess the best thing that I can say about Generations is that it is a decent Sci-Fi movie, and those are generally hard to come by. I think the reason I am so down on this film is that my expectations were too high. In my mind, I saw Kirk coming to Picard's aid in a blaze of glory, and I assumed their would be tension and a clash of egos between the two Enterprise captains. As it turns out, this was not at all the case. This installment of Star Trek was more like an episode of The Twilight Zone, involving people long thought to be dead, time travel and a euphoric 'nexus'. This movie was a poor attempt to transition the films from the original cast to the Next Generation; Picard's crew is better suited to fighting off the Borg than they are to the type of challenges the original crew often encountered. My wife does not like Star Trek, or even Star Wars, so I watched this alone; unless you are big Star Trek fan, I would not recommend this film. That said, I really like the franchise, and plan on watching the rest of the movies when I get the opportunity. This film was disappointing, but it has not soured me to the genre. I give Star Trek Generations 2 stars.