Review of Star Trek: First Contact (1996) by Movie G — 23 Aug 2011

A lof of people consider Star Trek: First Contact to be the best film of the series. I wouldn't go that far, but it's definately the best Next Generation movie and it's much more accesible to non Star Trek fans.

The plot is when The Crews arch-enemies The Borg show up. They soon discover that The Borg have travelled back in time and altered the past so that Earth is inhabitited by in the future. The Enterprise follows them back and discovers that they arrive a day before First Conctact, the moment when humans were able to fly far enough into space that finally make contact with aliens.

This is the first film to contain all Next Generation characters but I think they've taken over quite nicely. Picard, played awesomely by Patrick Stewart, is a great leader and he shows a lot emotion in this movie trying to forget his bad exoerience's with The Borg. Commander Riker returns but he has a lot more to do in this movie which is nice because I always liked his characters. LaForge, Worfe, Data, & Beverly Crusher all return, but none of them have a lot to do. James Cromwell plays Zefram Cochrane, the man flying the spaceship that makes first contact. What's interesting about him is that he's sort of a reluctant hero. All the people from the future look up to him as a legend, the man who revolutionized space travel, but in reality he's just sort of a semi-redneck kind of guy who built a rocket for fun and after being told what he has to do becomes reluctant to do it.

I also love the use of The Borg in this episode. They were by far the most popular and best villain from The Next Generation and fans had been dying to see them back ever since the episode Best Of Both Worlds where they took over Picards body.

The film is also very well directed by Jonathan Frakes who plays Commander Riker. It's going back to the same formula used with Leonard Nimoy. He knows the actors, he knows how to get the best out of them.

The films effects are topnotch. CGI is now fully integrated into the series and actually looks better than most modern CGI. The makeup is also excellent, especially on The Borg.

The movie's music was once again handled by Jerry Goldsmith who has doen the films on and off since the first film, and once again it's awesome. It also makes use of Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" during the rocket's takeoff which is awesome to say the least.

It's interesting to note that in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan many compare Khan to captain Ahab and Kirk as Moby Dick, but in this film it's Picard who's Captain Ahab and The Borg that's Moby Dick. He doesn't want to stop until he can get his revenge on The Borg, even if it means letting his friends die. Ultimately though Picard overcomes the desire and lets The Borg die the way they're supposed to.

All in all Star Trek: First Contact is a great movie. It's exciting, has some great deeper meaning, and it's a fun ride to say the least. I would really recommend this move to anyone, but I would recommend watching the episode Best Of Both Worlds first.