Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Star Trek VIII: Sounds Swedish

Picard and crew go back in time to prevent the Borg from Borging up Earth.

Geoff: Look, Angry Picard is not my Picard. This is so weird I just don’t get it. It just shows how little Braga and Moore understood about Star Trek and even TNG that they were part of. Let’s blame Braga since Moore went on to do one of the greatest sci-fi shows of all time, and Braga went on to do… the opposite of that.

Picard is an intellectual. He reads. He likes archaeology. He sings Gilbert and Sullivan and plays the flute. THE FLUTE. I just don’t understand the desire to make him an action hero. Soooo not the point. For that matter, his hatred of the Borg, while understandable, is also at odds with the series. Where is the Picard that let Hugh go back to the collective, without the recursive program that would have killed all Borg?

But again, this is fanboy nitpicking. This is a great movie. It moves quickly, there are great character moments (Picard and Worf, Picard and Lily), you care about the action happening, all things that many of these movies miss. The Moby Dick scene is fantastic.

Sadly, it often looks like crap. There were episodes of the series that had better lighting.

And perhaps best of all, despite some of the dark aspects, it’s still infused with the optimism that is at the core of Star Trek (something so sadly lost in Nemesis. Humanity will succeed, as long as we try hard! The ultimate extension of the Horatio Alger mentality that is so intrinsically Star Trek and, indeed, so intrinsically American. But that’s a point for a different article.

Rank: 5th

<Carolina: What a surprise, another enjoyable time travel movie. And like all good Star Trek movies, it starts with a bang and the plot immediately kicks into high gear. Even more than the even/odd number thing, all the movies I’ve liked have started right on the action. The ones I haven’t liked started slow and stayed slow.

This story moves so naturally, nothing feels forced. There are consequences to their actions and the stakes are high, not just with the crew, but the future of humanity. They need to keep the timeline safe and they need to make sure the first step into this universe’s utopia happens. There are also nice inspirational stories sprinkled in, plus it touches on themes like aspiring for greatness and not letting traumatizing moments fog your judgment. Good stuff.

The only real problem I had with this movie is that I needed to watch the show to understand better what was going on with the Borg. A movie should be able to stand on its own. If you need more information you should only have to rely on the previous movies, not other media (like TV shows, books, or comics). That's just a slight nitpick and I have to let that pass because, in the end, they do explain what the Borg is. And also, at the end of the day, this movie is a continuation from the show and if I'm interested enough I can always go to the show and see those episodes.

I wouldn't say it's the greatest of Star Trek movies, but it is certainly very entertaining and a good movie to pass the time.

Rank: 6th