Movie Notes: Star Trek 8: First Contact

May 13th, 2009

= 4 stars

Starring Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Alice Krige
Directed by Jonathan Frakes

Synopsis

The cybernetic, alien Borg visit the 21st century to disrupt “first contact” — the first faster than light voyage by engineer Zephram Cochrane which leads to Earth being visited by aliens and ushering in world peace. The Enterprise crew, led by Captain Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) voyage back in time to assist Cochrane while simultaneously battling Borg assimilating the Enterprise.

The Good

• Borg. They kick ass, and cannot be killed, only delayed. A creepy Borg Queen has tense encounters with both Data and Picard.
• Parallel stories of the crew on Earth and Borg on the Enterprise.
• Picard (Stewart) has some powerful moments, namely when he admits to being fueled by revenge (leading to some Moby Dick quotations) and the aforementioned encounter with the Borg Queen.
• Data’s situation is interesting; he’s an individualistic android striving to be more human (still struggling with his emotion chip), while the Borg is robotic, seeking to assimilate individual, organic life forms into a collective machine. They are similar in nature but with opposing goals.

The Bad

• Rather “by the book” direction — resembles the television show a bit too much and rarely feels cinematic or epic. A battle on the exterior of the Enterprise is one situation that could have been really exciting but comes off as rather a snooze.
• How the future Enterprise crew interacts with Cochrane in the 21st century is handled too antiseptically for my taste. This is supposed to be post World War Three yet his village looks like a camping trip, and Cochrane’s reluctant mood is no more gritty than listening to loud rock and running off into the woods (Christian Bale would have something to say about this). Second, the Enterprise crew takes a surprisingly hands-on approach when guiding Cochrane along, telling him extensively about his own future and participating in the event even to the point of riding along in his warp ship.
• Worf gets one quotable line: “assimilate this!”

Conclusion

First Contact is a fun ride, improving on Generations considerably, and is one of the better Trek movies, mostly achieved through the parallel threads of monkeying around on Earth and battles aboard the Enterprise.

However, I must mention a comparison between this trip back in time and the original crew’s in Star Trek IV. The most notable difference is planning — Picard’s crew executes theirs with capable purpose to save the future, while Kirk’s team is essentially clueless, has trouble adjusting to the ways of the past, and comically stumbles toward success almost by accident, despite themselves. They save the future solely through personality. I actually prefer the old generation’s approach — it’s much more entertaining, and much more — human. Assimilate that.

IMDB: Star Trek 8: First Contact
Wikipedia: Star Trek 8: First Contact
Rotten Tomatoes: Star Trek 8: First Contact