There is commonly held belief among a lot of Star Trek fans that the films are consistently hit-and-miss, with the odd-numbered films doing poorly and the even-numbered ones being the only good ones.
While I partially disagree with this statement in regards to the lesser
films, Star Trek: First Contact, the eight in the franchise,
certainly lives up to its number, executing not only a solid science
fiction film but one of the best films in the Star Trek franchise.

The film opens with Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E, having a horrific nightmare of the Borg, a machine race of cyborgs bent on achieving perfection by assimilating all-living things within its
collective infrastructure. Upon waking up, Picard is informed of a new
Borg assault on Earth, but is ordered away from the battle as he was
assimilated with the Borg six years earlier. Getting wind of the
Federations struggling position in the fight however, Picard and the
crew of the Enterprise disobey orders and enter the fight
against the Borg, destroying the Borg Cube but not before a smaller
Borg vessel is jettisoned into a temporal vortex. After following the
vessel, the Enterprise ends up in the year 2063, the day
before the warp drive was invented and mankind first encountered the
Vulcans. Picard realizes that the Borg is attempting to stop this from
happening so mankind can all be assimilated in the future, so the Enterprise must
insure the safety of the warp drive’s creator Zefram Cochrane (James
Cromwell), while fending off against an ever growing Borg infestation
on their ship, led by the malevolent Borg Queen (Alice Krige).

Perhaps this film’s biggest strength is the scope and detail of both the story and its characters, because this is one of the only Star Trek films that escapes the feel of being an extended episode from the television
show. It feels like a big-screen adventure, as it is exciting,
thrilling, and engaging with all of its elements. The story itself is
very well-handled, going back and forth between the Borg infestation
and the completion of the Warp Drive on Earth with balance and
equality. The action sequences with the Borg provide great tension and
payoff, while the more comedic scenes on Earth provide poignant breaks
for the audience that don’t overstay their welcome. Inter-played within
all of this is the action of the characters, which are well-fleshed out
and interesting to watch. Patrick Stewart’s Picard functions greatly
with multiple layers of fear, determination, and vengeance, James
Cromwell’s Cochrane provides an interesting portrait of an average man
reluctantly doing something great, and Alice Krige’s Borg Queen is
sleek,seductive, and deliciously threatening with a villainous caliber
only seen by a couple of other villains in all of Star Trek.

Supporting the solid story and acting is the technical aspects, which are some of the best I’ve seen in Star Trek. The models and computer-generated images are incorporated together seamlessly, and even the minor blaster effects are handled with great
skill by Industrial Lights and Magic. The make-up and costume designs
are also well done, particularly with the Borg soldiers and the Borg
Queen. They are technologically menacing, and yet still manage to evoke
pity for their states at the same time. The best make-up job though
goes to Data (Brett Spiner) as he is slowly transformed from android to
human over the course of the film. This metamorphosis is done with
great subtlety and skill and succeeds in visually equaling the
intensity of that character’s theme of humanity.

Now there isn’t really anything wrong with the movie, because everything works in the film, but the film has nothing spectacular about it either. Overall though, it’s well-crafted, it’s solid, and
it’s a great Star Trek film.