In short Star Trek Generations is simply a big missed opportunity. Considering that just 3 years earlier Undiscovered Country came out and was hands down among the best Star Trek movies. This is a very weak follow-up of that film.The opening of the film is quite OK but from there it just goes downhill. There is a lot of boring screen time filler scenes that simply do not serve a purpose and while the movie is redeemed by some really great scenes and some elements that make Star Trek so great. Sadly this is just a film with so much missed opportunity.Considering they managed to bring together Kirk and Picard into one film you would expect so, so much more. Even if it was a film with just Picard it would have been quite mediocre.It just lacks focus and direction in the script writing and in general it just feels like they really had to pull out all movie clichés just to get the story to work.It is watchable and it can be entertaining at times so I would still say to give it a watch especially if you are doing a Star Trek Bluray marathon (like I am doing) but just be prepared to experience a mediocre Star Trek film.

This film is the seventh of the franchise and renews almost everything, as we advance in time to follow the adventures of Captain Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, the new protagonist. Okay, in this film William Shatner still makes a brief appearance, but this happens in a context that the script clearly specifies, and which may (or may not) make logical sense. Either way, the film deserves a positive note regarding the use of new special effects and technologies. They have proved to be very useful to the film. I also liked the new improved sets and costumes. As far as the actors' work is concerned, Stewart does not disappoint, giving us a good participation, but I also really enjoyed the performance of Malcolm McDowell as the villain and Brent Spiner as Data, a humanoid robot who has difficulty understanding feelings. The franchise, thus, takes up a new breath, and this is a good promise for the future.

After Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was made, everyone had to be feeling that The Next Generation crew had to given their chance, especially after how successful the aforementioned film had been. And while I understand the excitement behind combining the two Enterprise captains, Kirk and Picard, it was a highly unnecessary step in passing the baton to the new crew.Generations has its quality moments: Kirk unease with the struggling new Enterprise captain, the always enjoyable give-and-take between LaForge and Data, the acting chops of Patrick Stewart, Riker's turn to lead an astro-naval battle against Klingons, and state-of-the-art visual effects. But overall the film fails to captivate the viewer because of very mundane plot seemingly designed solely to bridge the gap from the Original Series crew to the Next Generation. The Nexus is hardly a sinister problem since it provides so much comfort to those who fall in it (and can seemingly get out of easily). The main villain in this film is played by Caligula himself, Malcolm McDowell, who definitely brings a sinister edge to Dr. Soran. But his motivations to return to the Nexus are unremarkable aside from the fact that he clearly believes in "the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many," a truly poor choice of words from Kirk back in Search for Spock.The drama is mainly lacking in this film and it never requires the viewer to consider moral issues, like a great Trek story should, since the Nexus has almost no bearing in our real world. Yes, it can be unwise to constantly reminisce and dwell in the past or what could have been, but that usually does not have a widespread impact on society. The moment when Kirk and Picard meet is enjoyable for long-time fans of Star Trek, but The Next Generation crew has enough clout of its own, not needing the reins of Trek to be passed on to them by Kirk in this movie. Now, give this crew their very own film and see what happens…Some final thoughts: It was disappointing that the audience was shown which characters from the original crew in the opening credits, taking away from the hopeful suspense of seeing old friends. And were we really supposed to believe that Ferris Bueller's friend would ever get promoted to captain of the Enterprise? While, I'm sure Shatner thought Kirk's heroic death was a fitting end to the character, we were already given a perfect ending for him in the previous film. And Picard's crew really has too much time on its hands to spend so much of it in the Holodeck.*My film rating follows the soccer player rating measure of 6 as a baseline: you did what was expected of you. This film is a 6 because it gave us generic Star Trek intrigue, but lacked the villain and plot to really captivate the audience. The Next Generation crew rose up to the occasion, but were held back by being forced to take the baton from Kirk & Co.

Sometimes a franchise and its characters have run its course to a point where new faces and fresh ideas are needed. Though the Star Trek franchise as a whole was at a high in 1994 with two acclaimed TV series airing and the films coming off a great finale in 'The Undiscovered Country', to me, 'Generations' wasn't the proper next step to take.Sure, it's hard to let go of beloved characters, but 'The Undiscovered Country' felt like the perfect send off for all of the original cast members, including Captain Kirk. Nonetheless he was brought back to past the torch to the next crew to man the Enterprise. Of course, that group being the cast from The Next Generation. Which is exactly where the film has most of its problems.Attempting to balance both timelines, Kirks being 75 years or so earlier, and Captain Picard's (Patrick Stewart) being present day, sometimes the film feels jumbled and bunched together. In other words, there's plenty of set up with the main antagonist played by Malcom McDowell, but the pay-off takes a great deal of time and exposition to get to. It's a much different universe, but Star Wars did an impeccable job blending both casts into The Force Awakens, so that's more along the lines of what I was hoping for.With all that being said, the new cast from the TV series definitely deserve their own individual film (which is obviously what they got a few years later). It's impossible to top the original crew, but there's enough personalities and likable characters, including Stewart's stern but sympathetic Picard.As far as the actual plot itself goes, it pretty much follows the same Star Trek formula, except for the trippy Nexus sequence where Picard and Kirk are stuck in a time loop. It's the most talked about and controversial scenes from the film, and for good reason. I don't necessarily think the sequence works the way it supposed to, but it is where we end up getting the most emotional pay off. So overall, Generations is a middle of the road Star Trek adventure, but at the very least, it gives the new crew some time to shine.+Picard & Kirk+Nexus+Beautiful score-Choppy first half-Formulaic6.3/10