The REAL Clone Wars: Star Trek Nemesis versus Attack Of The Clones.

Rating: Null/10 (20 June 2004)

Bought this movie as an ex-rental for a really low price because the Star Wars name is really big. Even as a Trekkie I cannot deny that.
Since Star Trek Nemesis and Star Wars Attack Of The Clones were both released in 2002 and carry a common theme (cloning), I thought about comparing both movies.
First off, the central theme: clones. In Star Trek, Captain Picard is cloned. Picard is a man who holds a high rank in the Federation and has a lot of influence as well as won battles behind his name.
He won the fight against the Borg, The So'Na and various other races. He is also an accomplished diplomate and archaeologist. And he can hold is own in hand to hand combat.
Star Wars sees the cloning of Boba Fett, supposedly a successful bounty hunter. Yet, he is killed without too much effort. Has to happen for the story but still. He simply did not stuck me like a great fighter.
To me it seems like a drunk Klingon could easily defeat him in a bar fight. And Trekkies know that Quark (who is not a fighter at all) defeated a drunk Klingon in a bar fight. So Boba Fett seems like the wrong man to clone.
So that is a major advantage for Star Trek Nemesis.
Secondly, the single most important thing in a sci-fi movie like Star Wars and Star Trek are the space battles. Nearly every movie has had them.
Star Trek Nemesis delivers on that just fine with a long battle between the Enterprise-E and the Scimitar. I loved that part, especially since the Enterprise-E was hopelessly outclassed even with the help of 2 Romulan Warbirds.
Star Wars had a space chase but that was it. Granted, having a grandiose space battle with small primitive ships is not easy. A Starfleet shuttle craft is better armed than the average Star Wars ship. Still, Episode One had a space battle so this movie is quite disappointing.
But given they have had "real" wars in Star Trek Deep Space Nine I can understand that George Lucas does not dare try to improve on that. Why bother if you know you will not beat Star Trek.
Just take a look at the battle scenes in "Sacrifice Of Angels", "Tears Of The Prophets", "The Changing Face Of Evil" and "What You Leave Behind.". Those were excellent.
Star Wars does beat Star Trek in one area, boredom. The story was boring, most the characters were uninteresting and boring (did not care at all for the love relationship between Amedalia and Anakin) and the characters that were fun (JarJar Binks) were cut from the movie.
The movie was basically a long roller-coaster ride going from one action scene to another, similar to the James Bond movies. But unlike the James Bond movies, it is not working.
Most of the scenes though very impressive, have been done better in other movies. And even if they had not, they simply failed to excite or impress me.
Whereas Star Trek Nemesis kept me on the edge of my seat for the whole time. It was exciting, it was witty and it was refreshing. All what a movie needs to be.
So I declare Star Trek Nemesis the winner of the clone wars.