8. Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
The tenth
Star Trek film,
Nemesis, was coming at a time in which interest was perhaps beginning to wane as George Lucas had recently resurrected his
Star Wars series with an admittedly horrible trilogy of prequel films. It might go a way to explain why the film grossed an embarrassing $67m against a $60m budget, when the 9 previous films had performed pretty reliably, making a decent enough return for a relatively niche element of the sci-fi genre. Also, it is important to remember that at the time of its release, it was competing with entries in the
Lord of the Rings, James Bond and
Harry Potter franchises. Nevertheless, it was also a critical flop also, earning a middling 38% on Rotten Tomatoes, and stars LeVar Burton and Marina Sirtis vocally criticised director Stuart Baird, citing his lack of familiarity with the Star Trek brand as contributing to the film's failure. Also, roughly a third of the content shot for Nemesis was ultimately excised, most of which is apparently character-centric scenes, which might help explain why many critics complained that the film felt cold and mechanical. Poor box office returns were obviously the motivating factor here, meaning that we didn't get another Star Trek film for 7 years, at which point J.J. Abrams was drafted in to reboot the thing entirely, creating a new Star Trek franchise with a different tone, style and direction. It was a success critically and commercially, and so thankfully this is one franchise flatline that can be quietly ignored by most of us. This stands as one of the few instances where a reboot was actually needed, and was different enough that it actually worked.