Delayed Reaction: Star Trek: First Contact

The Pitch: Well, the last time we let an actor in a supporting role direct a Star Trek movie that included time travel, it did really well.

The crew of the Enterprise attempts to stop a Borg assimilation of Earth by traveling back in time to when the first man from Earth went to warp speed.

This is another one of those movies I've seen a couple times but not at all recently. One of the weird things about getting older is when I can say "I haven't seen that movie in two decades" and mean it. It's probably more like 15 years for this one, but my point stands. I don't remember it well.

It's kind of fun how after the inert austerity of the first Star Trek movie, all the movies until the 2009 reboot really run with the aesthetic "a TV show episode", albeit longer and more expensive, of course. I have to believe that was a stylistic choice and not a limitation. Their sweet spot was when the budgets were small enough that the studio left them alone. They weren't going to recast the crews, and most of those actors weren't movie stars (especially in that era). It's ironic that they rebooted the franchise as a tent-pole Hollywood movie (2009) right as the media landscape was catching up to the way Star Trek used to do things. TV and movies are far more intertwined now. Actors freely move between either platform. It wouldn't be as odd to see casts do what Star Trek did for 10 movies. All that said, Star Trek is an anomaly that has no comparison.

First Contact is a fun hit of TNG without the risk of committing to a multi-season rewatch of the series. That was enough to get it out of my system. The effects are a little dated. HD has made the makeup a little more distracting. Certain elements play a little cheesier, simply because this is made with the rules of a TV show.

Here's the thing though. I love that cast. Patrick Stewart isn't at all out of place on the big screen. Bringing in Alfre Woodard and James Cromwell help to up the prestige of it. The Borg are a fantastic enemy. This is Star Trek putting its best foot forward in nearly every way. While Generations is technically the first movie with the Next Generation cast, First Contact is really their first unassisted showing and it's the best case scenario. I have no memory of Insurrection* and poor memories of Nemesis.

*OK. I have one Insurrection memory. In the middle of the Enterprise crashing, when I saw it, the fire alarm started going off in the theater, creating one of the most visceral movie-going experiences I can remember.

Verdict: Weakly Recommend