Star Trek: First Contact
1996
1996
Earth is under attack by the Borg, a race of half-human, half-machine beings who attempt to travel back in time to prevent earth’s first contact with an alien race, thereby crippling the planet’s technology in the present and enabling the Borg to defeat them. After the disappointment of Generations, I thought the series was surely dead. But this one caught me off guard. Finally, villains that aren’t Klingon! The Borg were truly menacing, as was their seductive Queen. They all share a collective consciousness, so what one of them knows, they all know. They can quickly adapt to projectiles, renduring phazers practically useless. And they can “assimilate” their victims, which turns them into a fellow Borg. It’s like a zombie movie in space. However, the race did have a moronic weakness that prevented them from defending themselves until provoked, even when surrounded by armed Starfleet officers. The theme was revenge. Jean-Luc had a bone to pick with the Borg because they had assimilated him six years earlier. Luckily, he was deprogrammed/rehabilitated/whatever, but the traumatic experience also provided him unique insight into Borg strategies. The cast finally won me over, mainly due to Patrick Stewart's stellar lead performance. Oh, and here’s some food-for-thought for you Trekkies: remember the “machine planet” in The Motion Picture? Could that be the Borg? Great use of C.G.I. and another excellent score by Jerry Goldsmith made this the Khan of the Next Generation series. 4/5 stars.
Warp to my Star Trek: Insurrection Review
I agree Generations was not a good movie at all, it was like watching a two hour episode of TNG just on a larger screen. At least that ugly ship was destroyed, and that is one of the things that made First Contact a successful movie. Without that oddly rounded ship in the picture it removed them from the television show somewhat and made it stand on its own as a movie, and First Contact was an excellent movie. Patrick Stewart did seem to give this movie a little extra push with his superb acting through it. My girlfriend has never been that big of Star Trek fan, but I think she will enjoy this movie even though she doesn’t like the television series. I was talking to a movie geek I work with at DISH about the TNG movies, and he was along the same lines with me, the only two movies that separated themselves into being movies were First Contact and Nemesis. I found Nemesis paying on EPIX which comes with my blockbuster @home package, and I rented First contact through the DVD by mail service, now to see if the girlfriend likes them.
ReplyDelete