YMMV / Star Trek: Renegades

• Broken Base: Flawed but fun film that should've been made into a show as originally proposed, or badly-shot, poorly-edited hackwork with a script like a bad fanfic?
  • Blunty tries to take the middle ground, saying that it's nice to have some new Trek material and he wants this production to succeed, while still criticizing the numerous production mistakes.
  • The number of characters and the limited scope of the film probably would've made this an inevitability anyway.
• Contested Sequel: Though popular in some Trek circles, Renegades has taken considerable flack for its budget, writing, and the way it handles some of the returning characters.
• Creator's Pet: Lexxa, with her alleged skills and planning abilities, strawman adversary, and background as a descendant of Khan Noonien Singh, falls pretty squarely here.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: T'Leah and Shree, the Romulan and Andorian assistants of Admiral Chekov, are only supporting characters, but seem to be among the most popular.
  • Tuvok and Chekov, played by two of the only experienced actors on the production, are quite fun to watch.
• Ham and Cheese: Pretty much the whole movie.
  • Grant Imahara's delivery when he reveals himself as the Big Bad is downright painful. But still fun.
• Narm: So much. Some examples:
  • The camera work, randomly zooming extremely close to characters' faces for no apparent reason.
  • The writing makes Into Darkness look logical and internally consistent by comparison, and mostly consists of the protagonists being told to stop the bad guys, flying to the Big Bad's planet, and stopping the bad guys in formulaic fashion.
  • The final fight between the protagonist and the bad guy. It's shot in super-slow motion, so the wirework is obvious and the "action" sequence interminable.
  • Grant Imahara's big scene is simply too narmtastic to take seriously. The lighting doesn't help.
• Narm Charm: The film runs on this. It's not so hard for many people to accept the campy acting and effects, because very little in the plot or visuals suggests a movie that is taking itself dead seriously. The new brightly colored Starfleet uniforms, the abundance of old-school sci-fi cliches in the story, and the many references to Classic Star Trek make the corniness far more fitting than it would be for, say, a drama set in the real world.
  • Since the average viewer has probably stopped taking the film seriously by this point, Grant Imahara's big reveal as the Big Bad falls squarely here. It's almost impossible to avoid laughing uncontrollably at the atrocious lighting and his melodramatic delivery.
• The Scrappy: Lexxa, to many reviewers, thanks to her Creator's Pet traits and her annoying arrogant smirk.
  • The villains, who some fans see as being as comparable to the Kazon. That is, annoying, cartoonish, impossible-to-take-seriously villains who are not worthy of being such a "great threat" to protagonists fans actually like.
  • The Betazoid, Romara, for her lack of agency, wooden acting, and poorly-handled romance plot.
• So Bad, It's Good: Admit it, Grant Imahara's Ham and Cheese delivery made you laugh.
  • Actually, the entire scene where Grant Imahara reveals himself as the Big Bad is Sharknado-level schlocky. It's so poorly lit, poorly-shot, and badly acted that the natural audience reaction is laughter.
  • And then there's the random oversexed Andorian out of nowhere.
  • Tuvok's first appearance, with his face hidden in the shadows for the majority of his first conversation with Chekov, until he dramatically steps into the light to "reveal" his identity to the audience. Were Trekkies not supposed to recognize Tim Russ's voice (or remember that he was director)?
  • An increasing number of Trekkies consider the entire pilot film this, due to the numerous failures of writing, acting, filming, and lighting.
• Special Effects Failure: Icheb's magic CGI Borg arm-thingy doesn't quite track properly with his arm. Also, the bad guys look rubbery even for Trek, and their dialogue is frequently unintelligible.
  • In Grant Imahara's big reveal scene, the way he's lit, while clearly intended to be dramatic, is...less than intimidating. Doesn't stop that scene from being hilarious, though.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Robert Picardo, and likely Russ and Koenig as well. All three are experienced enough to see the problems with the pilot film, but also are on record as loving Trek extensively (probably why they signed on for this series).
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: While her backstory is undeniably tragic, Lexxxa's constant oily smirking is abrasive to many viewers.
• Wangst: A lesson for the writers to learn: When you don't establish your characters' backstory, their emotional issues come off as this.
  • Ironically, this is the one trait that Lexxxa seems to lack; unlike the wooden Betazoid and the cardboard-cutout Bajoran, she actually gets backstory showing her mother leaving her on some desert planet as a child, which is enough to traumatize anyone.
    • It was not so much her mother leaving her but a pair of armed guys in black outfits shooting and taking her mother that traumatizes her.

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