Subject: REVIEW: STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (1996)

From: [email-masked] (Michael J. Legeros)
Date: 2 Dec 1996 20:18:23 GMT

[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)

==

    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-

--

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