Star Trek: First Contact Review

by Michael J. Legeros (legeros AT pagesz DOT net)
December 2nd, 1996
[Note that followups are directed to rec.arts.movies.current-films and rec.arts.movies.startrek.current only, not to rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator]
    STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT
    A film review by Michael John Legeros
    Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros

(Paramount)
Directed by Jonathan Frakes
Written by Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, and Ronald D. Moore
Cast Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Alfre Woodard, James Cromwell, Alice Krige
MPAA Rating "PG-13"
Running Time 122 minutes
Reviewed at General Cinemas at Pleasant Valley, Raleigh, NC
    (22NOV96)

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    The best thing about seeing a Star Trek movie is that when the inevitable projection problem occurs, there's always someone more- obsessive than yourself who gets up to go notify the management. STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT is the perfect movie for those dedicated fans, because they can project their own excitement into an otherwise talky action movie. Despite a strong script and an excellent ensemble cast, there's a fundamental visceral tension that's missing here. Or, rather, which leaks out over time. In fact, the most exciting moment in the movie is a cabin-room confrontation between Patrick Stewart and Alfre Woodard. (How odd. Even with the best FX in eight movies, FIRST CONTACT is surprisingly thrill-less.) Everything else, however, is par for the course: in-jokes, one-liners (most of them hilarious), gizmos with lots of flashing red and yellow lights, explosions heard in the vacuum of space, and plenty of technical mumbo-gumbo like "we appear to be caught in a temporal wake." By the end, the resolution of the lengthy conflict (the Enterprise goes back in time to battle the Borg) makes perfect logical sense and little else. Next time, please reactivate the emotion chip.

    Grade: B-

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Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC, USA, Earth
[email protected] (h) - [email protected] (w)
I'm also on the Web! http://www.pagesz.net/~legeros/

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