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

From: [email-masked] (Michael Redman)
Date: 2 Dec 1996 20:19:25 GMT

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                           STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT
                       A film review by Michael Redman
                        Copyright 1996 Michael Redman

**1/2 (out of ****)

The "Star Trek" audience applauded wildly at the familiar figures,
spectacular special effects and blazing action scenes. Anticipation was
high for more of the same.

And then the "Star WARS" preview ended.

It might have been a tactical error to preview the re-release of the
Lucas trilogy just before the new Trek film. Movies about the Enterprise
crew tend to be slower moving and more methodical in their approach:
something of a disappointment in the sf action arena when compared to
Luke Skywalker and his buddies.

In this outing, the Federation starship must defeat the evil Borg who
have traveled into Earth=92s past to prevent the heavy-drinking
heavy-partying warp drive inventor from making first contact with a
friendly alien race. This will supposedly make it possible for the Borg
to assimilate our planet in their present.

This is the first Trek film without a single member of the original crew
on hand and featuring the new Enterprise E. No James T. Kirk to romance
the alien babes, no Spock to save the day, no Bones to proclaim "I'm a
doctor, not a quantum mechanic!" Instead we have the next generation
crew with a younger and hipper look. =

Some of the new cast look great on the big screen, especially Jean Luc
Picard (Patrick Steward who, oddly enough for being a Trek regular, is
in reality an actor) and Data (Brent Spiner), but the
Spectacular-Looking Award goes to the Borg. The cyborgs have always been
the creepiest of the Star Trek bad guys and they captivate the visual
aspect of the movie. The queen Borg (Alice Krige) is the perfect mixture
of exotic eroticism and lethal danger.

But the rest of the Borg, as cool as they look, just don't work as
menaces. Their method of attack is to lumber towards the enemy and
subdue him hand-to-hand so that he can become a new member of the hive.
The slow moving approach combined with Picard and crew waltzing through
huge numbers of Borg without even being noticed doesn't exactly create a
sense of excitement. They remind me of the zombies in "Brunch Of The
Living Dead" -- "Oh no, there=92s a Borg 50 feet away! We=92d better star=
t
to run in a half hour or so!"

The entire film runs as slowly as the Borg. There are not many highs or
lows in the level of action. Everything moves forward at the same
pondering pace.

Much of the movie must be a mystery to non-Trek fans. Picard's previous
experience with the hive (which changed mysteriously from a collective)
is underexplained. The holo-suite scene appears out of nowhere without a
background.

In terms of Trek films, this is one of the better ones: it's fun to see
the guys in another adventure; but when you compare it to other movies,
there's nothing spectacular. When the original series was on television,
we used to wonder what they could do with a huge budget on the big
screen. Now we know.

They make another "Star Trek" episode.

[This appeared in the 12/5/96 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana.
Michael Redman can be reached at [email-masked]]