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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 mredman@bvoice.com]
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