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Star Trek: First Contact
The Borg, a relentless race of cyborgs, are on a direct course for Earth. Violating orders to stay away from the battle, Captain Picard and the crew of the newly-commissioned USS Enterprise E pursue the Borg back in time to prevent the invaders from changing Federation history and assimilating the galaxy.
Release : | 1996 |
Rating : | 7.6 |
Studio : | Paramount, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Assistant Property Master, |
Cast : | Patrick Stewart Jonathan Frakes Brent Spiner LeVar Burton Michael Dorn |
Genre : | Adventure Action Thriller Science Fiction |
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Reviews
Great Film overall
Absolutely Fantastic
It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
This IS a Star Trek Movie !!!! That might be considered a spoiler to some body because of what i.m.d.b. has done at the top of their page for this film. Huh? you say, let me explain with cut and paste.First Contact (1996),Star Trek: First Contact (original title)NO!!! Bad IMDer'B...!.... 'Star Trek: First Contact' is the only title.This is an Amazing movie, with many memorable scenes. And compliant with cannon. ('Too!'), ("Yeah!"). This is one of the many True Star Trek things Ya'll need to have. SO BUY IT!!!*LF = Line Feed, i cant put a line with a line under it unless there are 2 or 3 lines to make a paragraph. And other Weirdness!also no brackets, really?DAMMIT!!! IM-Doh!-B!
Although the "rebooted" movie series is not over (yet) this still remains my best-loved Star Trek Movie to date, but I also have to include the 2 part episode "Best of Both Worlds", as a runner-up from Star Trek:TNG TV series. What is so fascinating about the Borg? Certainly their "Frankensteinish" appearance and Borg Queen which has also appeared with "7 of 9" in "Voyager" as well. (Actress Alice Krige won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as the Borg Queen in the movie.) She apparently likes mating with humans and Data as well. Capt. Picard still has a link with the Borg Queen as she almost turns Data into a real human being (like Pinocchio) and that's the 2 illogical things about this film. Borgs try to rewrite history so that Dr. Cochran never launches the first warp-drive prototype and meets The Vulcan spaceship, hence the title "First Contact" with aliens for Mankind. Lots of hand-to-hand combat on 21th Century Earth and 24th Century Enterprise. As always, it is almost self-destructed as in other films. Capt.Picard is compared to "Capt. Ahab pursuing Moby Dick" with the Borg as the prey, in this case. The film manages to cover all the details including Geordi's enhanced new eyes (from Borg technology) to the Holodeck "Speakeasy". Very few, if any, "errors" in the plot. Most of the computer generated ships and effects look quite real considering that this is from 1996. So well scanned that I waited years before buying a disc copy. A great space-walk on the hull of the ship and the usual great interiors. The "curse of the red shirts" continues as all of the assimilated humans are new "recruits". As I have mentioned before, why is there never a reference for the creation of The Borg, which happened when "Commander Decker "joined" with an electronic entity in "Star Trek:The Motion Picture"?
As of the 8th Star Trek feature film, the even-odd rule still holds. That is: the even numbered treks are awesome while the odds suck. I'll be the first to say it's very subjective (I still think Trek 5 aka "Kirk vs God" was awesome, but I wouldn't recommend it to the average movie goer). Casual fans and hardcore geeks alike gotta agree that the most crowd-pleasing treks are #2 ("the wrath of khaaaaan"), #4 ("Spock hugs a whale"), #6 ("Kirk vs Shakespeare") and now I would add #8 ("Picard loses his sh**"). Why are these the best? I think it's because they had the most exciting plots combined with some great character development."First Contact" may not have the most original plot (Enterprise goes back in time to try to save humanity from a future threat), but the interesting character development is definitely there. I think this is because this film returns to a wonderful Trek tradition where one of the cast members directs the film (here it's Jonathan Frakes "Riker" calling the shots). Whereas the prior film "Generations" seemed to play it too superficially, not really exploring the personalities of the crew, here in "First Contact", we delve deeper into the mind and personality of Picard, giving the story more depth than your standard linear plot. Picard is shown to be a conflicted individual with his motivations bordering on Ahab-like obsession, even down to the obligatory quote from Moby Dick.OK I know what you're thinking. We already covered the Moby Dick theme in Star Trek 2 The Wrath of Khan, and yes we did (imo more dramatically thanks to Ricardo Montalban's chilling, psychotic portrayal of the vengeance obsessed madman). But golly, its such a good theme that we'll let it slide, and to be fair, this is different because it's the good guy who is now vengeance obsessed.Even supporting characters are given their chance to prove themselves as more than background scenery. There is a subplot involving the android Data who is taken prisoner and tempted by the borg with the promise of sensual pleasure. Giordi, Deanna and Riker (who, in "Generations", seemed as wooden as the townsfolk at the end of Blazing Saddles) had a fun little subplot opposite James Cromwell who played Zephram Cochrane, a cynical, alcoholic, rock-n-roll-blasting antihero who is supposed to lead the human race to hippy flowerpower peace. That was a cool spin.The bottom line is that this even-numbered installment had all the elements that have appealed to Trek fans since the 60s. Tense stories overtop some great character moments. The only downside, as my title implies, is that I'm still not quite sold on the Enterprise's new crew. I'm getting there, but I still gotta say I prefer the originals, and I say this only to remind my fellow Trekkies that sooner or later we gotta give in.. So if you're an old school trekkie like me, I don't think this flick will convert you instantly. But it was much better than "Generations" which, in my opinion, did a lousy job of bridging the generations. I mean, when did Capt Kirk trade places with Walter Matthau from "Grumpy Old Men"? This Trek flick puts us on much firmer footing.
The 'Next Generation' crew are now aboard the new Enterprise and are surprised when they are ordered to patrol the Neutral Zone just as the Borg launch an attack on Federation space; Captain Picard realises it is because he still isn't fully trusted because he was once assimilated by the Borg. As the defensive of Earth is not going well Picard ignores orders and returns to Earth. Here he takes control and destroys the Borg cube but not before it launches a sphere which heads to Earth's past; as the Enterprise follows they observe an assimilated planet. Following it further back they witness it firing on the planet. The sphere is destroyed but unbeknownst to the Enterprise the Borg crew, including a Borg Queen have beamed aboard the Enterprise.It turns out the Borg returned to a very specific date; the day before Zefram Cochran piloted Earth's first warp ship and first contact with an alien species is due to be made. A group beams down to ensure his flight is able to go ahead as planned. Dr Crusher returns to the Enterprise with Lily, an injured colleague of Cochran. Soon there are anomalous readings and Picard returns to the ship. It soon becomes apparent that the Borg are on board. Contact with the away team is lost and those on board struggle to stop the Borg contacting other Borg vessels while those on the planet work to make sure the warp flight goes ahead as planned.This is probably the best of the 'Star Trek' films; the story is really good and there is plenty of varied, exciting action. The Borg are one of the most fearsome of the Star Trek villains due to their unthinking, and almost unstoppable, drive to assimilate everybody they meet; the way they turn friends into Borg is particularly unpleasant. Some of the films best scenes involve the Borg Queen's attempts to assimilate Data; more by seduction than force. Having Lily beamed aboard the Enterprise gave a good excuse for some exposition that would be needed by anybody who hadn't seen the television series. The regular cast are on great form; I particularly enjoyed Brent Spiner's portrayal of Data after he is captured by the Borg. The guest cast is impressive too; James Cromwell brings some humour to the role of Cochran, Alice Krige is delightfully menacing as the Borg Queen and Alfre Woodard is good in the role of Lily; a scene where she tries to change the mind of the excellent Patrick Stewart's Captain Picard. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to fans of Star Trek TNG in particular and fans of action sci-fi in general it will help if you've watched the series but probably isn't essential.