I went into this movie with a major grain of salt, despite the amazing hype (To my knowledge, the only Trek movie that had its own CHOCOLATE BARS) and glowing reviews I'd heard from the few people I knew who'd seen it. I first saw it sometime in 1997, and I was horribly disappointed. From the beginning and Picard's "Whoa! It was just a dream" sequence, all the way up to the just-plain bizarre fight between Picard and Worf, and the forced climax... I hated it.
After having rewatched it countless times (at least twice on Network television in the past 2 years), I can say that it's not as bad as I originally thought, indeed, it is a pretty good movie, and every viewing has given me new insights into the "best" TNG film. (I certainly do not agree that this is so, however!)
The movie still takes awhile to really warm up, which is unfortunate because the events at the beginning are crucial to the rest of the film, but the pacing's just off somehow. The battle is utterly forgettable, and it's not until the crew goes down to Earth that it really starts coming together, and the scenes in Montana are the only parts of the movie that even remotely ring of "greatness".
While Zephram Cochrane does a great job of befuddling the far-removed crew, and Lily kicks some serious ass, I just have difficulty buying the story that these two are the pioneers that they ultimately are. Of course, this is a large part of the plot itself, the shattering of historic idealism and the discovery that our idols are just human... but how human they are! Cochrane didn't strike me as the kind of man who could hit a garbage can on the first try, and all Lily seemed to do was rage at people.
Of course, above all, this was Picard (and to a lesser degree, Data)'s movie, and I was not disappointed by Patrick Stewart's performance. He did an amazing job of falling apart and being consumed by anger ("You broke your little ships...", Lily) only to turn around and see the error of his ways. And, of course, Data had his second (and, am I mistaken, last?) sexual encounter and learned all about angst from the Borg Queen (lessons that were ultimately forgotten by the next installment...).
This is a multi-leveled movie, there's so much going on at once that you will probably have to watch it more than once to get the full picture, and it is ultimately worth it the same way it's worth it to reread a chapter in a textbook. It's fascinating, simply fascinating, but not a masterpiece by any definition.
I will say, however, this is possibly the most quotable Trek movie to date. I can not tell you how often I use "Perhaps today IS a good day to die!" in daily conversation! I find ways to use it, even if it's completely out of context.
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