Now for the nit-picking: Given the security situation on Romulus, I don't think that it would have been that simple to seize control of the Romulan government. I mean, where's the Tal Shiar?
Worf at his normal post. Didn't he resign his commission in the finale of DS9 to become Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire?
Riker with a beard again. Didn't Troi made him shave it off before?
Kate Mulgrew's cameo as Admiral Janeway. Did that seem out of place to anyone other than me? A couple of years ago she was quoting Picard as "one of the greats" and now she's calling him Jean-Luc and making jokes about how tough his missions are?
GOOD THING: Wesley Crusher's part was written out of the movie. You see him at the head table at Riker and Troi's engagement party, but that's about it.
Still having a hard time getting my brain around this though: I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY KILLED DATA!!!!
The long version:
Rather a wimpasaurus villain in this one, eh? OK, so he's a French clone with an English accent and a killer case of acid reflux disease, he's got a bad ship, a few pug-ugly henchcritters, and a serious attitude problem from being forced to mine dilithium for 20 years. Big fat hairy deal - if he had a lick of sense in his bald head, he would have simply put it in reverse after being rammed, backed up, then crushed the helpless Enterprise's bridge. Crew dies, you pluck Picard's lifeless body out of the vacuum of space, get the blood you need from the corpse, then proceed to Earth and wipe it out on schedule. No rocket science needed - game over.
And while I'm at it, was I the only one who thought that an "ultimate weapon" that takes 7 minutes to deploy is extremely lame? Must have been tech they stole from the "We are smarrrrrt!" Pakled.
At least Berman didn't have to pay Wil Wheaton (at the head table in the reception scene) outrageous union rates for a speaking part. Allah be praised (although they should have just put a cardboard cutout of Wesley Crusher up there and saved even more money) ...
OK, there was some cool stuff in this movie. The Reman's little Scorpion fighters were just the thing for those nasty traffic jams on the interstate, I'm glad I was sitting down during most of Marina Sirtis' scenes (especially in the white, sheer full-length nightie), and they killed off Data but really didn't in a fairly adept way. The Reman's redshirts are just as lousy shots as any other villain in a Star Trek movie though. And, with 350 years of human progress between the Federation and us, can't they come up with anything better than an ATV (with Bridgestone tires - I recognized the tread pattern) and eyeglasses (EYEGLASSES?) that would have looked at home on Lance Armstrong's brow? And what was this bullcrap about Picard "looking forward" to flying the Argo so much? Its a freaking shuttle with little wings on the side. Yaaaaaaawn. Go fly the Captain's Yacht next time, Jean-Luc - its the only ship we didn't see in the series.
I have a confession to make - I'm such a complete geek about this stuff that I almost screamed the name of the song that Riker couldn't remember Data trying to whistle the first time he met him (it was "Pop Goes the Weasel"). I laughed knowingly at Worf's reaction to being told that he was going to have to get naked at a Betazoid wedding (although he apparently had no trouble getting naked with the bride-to-be in the last Next Generation episode).
But I have to wonder - who did Gates McFadden piss off? The last three movies have featured her smiling wanly and generally just standing around doing nothing. Geez, marry her off and get her off that ship - they've got holographic doctors now anyway.
Anyway, go see the movie if you're a fan. Maybe Patrick Stewart will make enough from this one to get a decent weave.
Is Spot okay?