Wiz RECOMMENDS Star Trek: First Contact
One of the things I liked about the movies based on the original Star Trek series is that the films largely didn't require you to be that familiar with the crew originally.
I came into watching the films with zero experience with the original cast and came out enjoying 2/3's of the films that were made from that cast.
Going into Star Trek: First Contact, it's quite clear that the filmmakers were not concerning themselves with introducing these characters to viewers with no experience to The Next Generation.
In fact, in this movie it feels like a requirement: several things seem to have happened as the movie begins that didn't happen in Generations: Picard was captured by the Borg, Worf has his own ship and LeForge doesn't have his visor...for reasons?
I'm more than certain someone can tell me who's familiar with the series what has happened but the movie leaves someone like me in a confused state. Who is the Borg? What's going on with Picard? Where the hell is LeForge's Visor and why does he have those freaky eyes?!
And because the film feels like it requires you to know what has happened before all of this, the film feels much less enjoyable when it comes to knowing the characters.
This is now two movies where Picard, a character that seems to be beloved by many, just feels like a bossy, overly emotional dick. His No. 1, Riker (Jonathan Frakes) is either comic relief or straight man, depending on what the scene needs.
This is in stark contrast to the original series where in Wrath of Khan (where you should start watching the Star Trek films) the personalities are clear: Kirk has bravado, is a man's man and loyal, Bones is sarcastic but cares in his own way, Spock is cold, thoughtful but slowly warms to the crew. Hell, even characters like Scotty and Uhura have personalities that are well defined by then.
It just doesn't feel like I know the personalities of these characters at all, except for Data because he's an android.
If I'm honest, I'm liking Star Trek not for its action or sci-fi elements, but because of the characters. And so far, The Next Generation films are a letdown on this side.
But what isn't a letdown is the action and drama. Gone are the corny and bad special effects; in are some good action sequences and some really well done effects when it comes to ship battles and shooting.
The film also keeps a very consistent cadence of action and drama. All of the scenes either have a fun action sequence or tell the story in a very brisk clip making it an entertaining film as the movie goes on.
What helps the drama is the interesting villain that is on display: The Borg. They are played off as scary, deadly and have a very intriguing concept that helps up the drama. But it would have been a lot better if the film gave more depth to them...which may have been something that was delved into in the series (or just to make them more scary, not give them any kind of background).
Despite my main reason for liking Star Trek being the main weakness for First Contact, it's an entertaining science fiction popcorn flick. It's got some exciting sequences and a pretty good villain...but my guess is that if they keep making the films in hope that you already know the characters going in, the next two might have a big issue for me.
