It's always seemed to me that Star Trek (The Original Series) worked far better as films than it did as a television show. On the other hand, The Next Generation flourished on the small screen, and had a much rougher time when it made the transition to the cinema.
Generations is a dumb film, but it's an entertaining one. It's got a languid pace at times, but it manages to be somewhat enthralling. The correct decision was made early on to have feature both the classic and modern cast as a way to pass the baton from one generation to the next, but almost all the story decisions following that were stupid ones.
Fortunately, the film doesn't take itself mega seriously, and the opening section on board the Enterprise-B is exciting and full of humour. Once the transition is made to the "present day" Next Gen crew, things just become a bit dull. The film assumes knowledge of these characters and gives us only the lightest of introductions to people like Data and Geordi. Worf, Troi and Crusher barely get a look in. Riker is there a lot but doesn't do much, so this is all about Picard. And Patrick Stewart does admittedly give a great performance, particularly in regards to the heavily emotional stuff he has to do concerning the loss of his family.
For a fan, the film gives us a lot of story points to work with which will resonate because we were introduced to them in the TV series (Picard's family, Lursa and B'Etor, Data's emotion chip), but I'd imagine if you were coming in to this cold then a fair bit would be lost on you.
It's also something of a character assassination that doesn't really respect the TV characters we've come to love. Data suffers greatly here, with the emotion chip changing him entirely and without much of a process behind it, but it's really Picard who is ruined. I don't believe for a second that his idea of a perfect life is to live in some Victorian-era perfect family world, with bad actors for children. He's an adventurer and explorer at heart.
The Nexus is just a dumb creation. It makes no sense. How characters interact with it makes no sense. The convoluted plot tells us that the evil Soran can't find his way back into it without killing millions of people, yet the opening sequence of the film clearly showed us that you just need to take a ship in (the ship will probably be destroyed, but you could get out before then).
Once he decides to leave the Nexus, Picard and Kirk travel back in time to the stupidest moment. Why not go much earlier? Or even an hour earlier? They could have made things a lot simpler for themselves.
But, just roll with it. The film has some great action moments and is a fun adventure. It also has some emotional impact as Captain Kirk finally meets his end (although, not in a very interesting or satisfying way). The Enterprise-D is also destroyed, which is kind of heart wrenching, and a fantastically put together sequence.
In fact, in terms of visuals I find it hard to fault. It's amazing to see the sets upgraded for a feature film, beautifully lit and in full widescreen with extra details. The special effects are magnificent too, and I love the use of practical models over CG. It just looks great and I find myself wishing that modern films would take a bit of inspiration from the on-screen clarity of 1990s film making.
