I was for some reason compelled to put this into the old DVD player last night, and was pleasantly surprised. After 2009's big-budget reboot (which I was duly dazzled and entertained by), this comes off as a think piece/art film in comparison, and a time capsule from a period where 'Star Trek' was everything Gene Roddenberry wanted it to be- cerebral, compassionate, and thoughtful- and people were eating it up by the millions.
I recall being thoroughly underwhelmed by this in the late 90's- my younger self, like many others, was expecting a bombastic 'Event' movie- Kirk was meeting Picard, for crying out loud! But instead of a ripping, old-style Star Trek space opera, we got K&P meeting in a log cabin, while Kirk made breakfast, followed by an extended pony ride in which Kirk's character does little but support the story's themes of mortality. And you know what? That's FINE!
I recalled Roger Ebert's review of the second 'X-Files' movie, in which he called it refreshing, adding that it was heartening to see a summer franchise film that "didn't have a villain as big as a building". 'Generations' doesn't have a villain at all- it has an energy ribbon, and a scientist who desperately wants to harness that ribbon's power after a personal tragedy. What it does have are several indelible sci-fi images (the ribbon approaching Dr. Soran on the mountaintop, the Enterprise-D saucer touching down on a planet's surface) and an abundance of class. This is a gem of a film that now seems to hearken from an era when every genre film didn't have to be shown on a three-storey screen and have 3-D shrapnel flying at the audience throughout.
I recall being thoroughly underwhelmed by this in the late 90's- my younger self, like many others, was expecting a bombastic 'Event' movie- Kirk was meeting Picard, for crying out loud! But instead of a ripping, old-style Star Trek space opera, we got K&P meeting in a log cabin, while Kirk made breakfast, followed by an extended pony ride in which Kirk's character does little but support the story's themes of mortality. And you know what? That's FINE!
I recalled Roger Ebert's review of the second 'X-Files' movie, in which he called it refreshing, adding that it was heartening to see a summer franchise film that "didn't have a villain as big as a building". 'Generations' doesn't have a villain at all- it has an energy ribbon, and a scientist who desperately wants to harness that ribbon's power after a personal tragedy. What it does have are several indelible sci-fi images (the ribbon approaching Dr. Soran on the mountaintop, the Enterprise-D saucer touching down on a planet's surface) and an abundance of class. This is a gem of a film that now seems to hearken from an era when every genre film didn't have to be shown on a three-storey screen and have 3-D shrapnel flying at the audience throughout.