This is the last of the original continuum. I don't expect that they will make another one that is in the same universe - they will likely concentrate on the spin-off timeline from the two new movies instead. This concludes the stories that included the original series, Enterprise, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager among others.
So, this is the fourth and last of the Next Gen movies. Let's face it - the TV series was pretty good, but they ran into issues with their movies. They knew this was the last of the movies, so they had to try to make it better than the previous ones. So, they had a nebulous energy distortion and a mad scientist in the first movie, they had the Borg in the second one, they had the terrible aliens in the third, but here they go for the Romulans... kind of. They actually use the Remans (who are from the crappy planet in the same system as the Romulans).
So, the Remans are bigger, stronger, have telepathic powers, and are more evil than the Romulans, but the Romulans somehow managed to subjugate them for pretty much the whole of their history. One of the many Romulan plans to defeat the Federation was to create a clone of Captain Picard, replace him with the clone, and control the Federation from within.
To that end, they create Tom Hardy's character (you may remember him as Bane from The Dark Knight Rises) but the Romulan Empire has a regime change, and the plan is scrapped. The clone is sent to work the mines on Remas and forgotten about. Somehow, implausibly, the clone manages to build a massive battleship in secret, infiltrate the Romulan High Council, and essentially take over the empire. So, you've taken over an empire. What do you do? Step one: send for the man you were cloned from so you can discuss your shared history.
The usual crew does a pretty damn good job. I could have done without the backstory of the wedding between Troy and Riker, but I guess it was an excuse for Worf to be back on the Enterprise again. Tom Hardy does an excellent job, but he does not do any kind of Patrick Stewart impression. This is good, because it would probably have come off as pretty cheesy, but it's bad in that there is almost no similarity between the actors.
The story was not bad once you get past the severe implausibility
Acting was sensational
Effects were fantastic
Direction was very good
Lighting (not normally something I comment on) was great.
This was the best of the Next Gen movies
4.0/5