One of the best of the franchise, both technically and story-wise.Woohoo, Kirk's dead! No more dealing with the old cast, and...
Oh wait, that was last movie.
Ahem. Yes. First Contact. The first Trek movie that doesn't feature a member of the original cast. These are all Next Generation folks (oh, and that Doctor guy from Voyager). Good thing.
The Borg have gone back in time to prevent Earth from making contact with its first alien species (who just happen to be of the logical, pointy-eared variety). They also want to stop inventor Zefram Cochrane (Babe's James Cromwell) from conducting the first warp speed flight, and populate Earth with Borg.
Picard (Patrick Stewart) is having none of that. He has the Enterprise follow the Borg back in time and sends an away team down to help Cochrane while he fends off a boarding and attempted assimilation by the Borg, who are led by their Queen (Alice Krige). Picard hates the Borg, he used to be one. So he's a little unstable, and he gets more so when the ship is taken over.
What's good about the story, despite the shaky time-travel premise (haven't we seen that before?), is that it's pretty seamless. You can follow the action (and there's a fair amount, more than the usual Trek film) and not be confused by the split plotlines of Earth and Enterprise. You've got your typical Trek-style gobbledygook tech-speak, but that really doesn't take away from the film.
Patrick Stewart has always impressed me. His Picard is tons better than Kirk. He's every bit as flawed as Kirk was, perhaps more, but the thing is, he knows it.
Oh, and the Borg Queen is hot. Creepy, but hot.
This reedems the franchise from the subpar Generations.Above average action sequences and effects, including an awesome opening shot, make this one of the better Trek films to date.
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