It is really sad to realize something you enjoyed when you were younger is in fact pretty terrible. I am not saying I thought FC was as good as Wrath when I first saw it, but I certainly thought it was as good as VI. But nope, it is more like Search for Spock. Not totally unwatchable like the rest of the TNG movies, but not great by any means. I am tainted by having read and watched a lot of reviews of this film over the last few years, but what all the reviews get right is that this movie gets the characters wrong. Especially Picard who up to this point has always been more of a diplomat than an action hero, but there he goes swinging from cables and kicking ass and hating on Borg. Not that the Borg aren't a good movie villain, actually the saddest thing is this may be the final Borg movie for a long time unless the reboots run out of ideas early (wait, the ran out after the first film...) Also Marina Sirtis isn't even trying to sound like Deanna any more.
The film begins with a nightmare sequence with Picard dreaming he is Borg again. He is then not surprised to be awoken by an admiral telling him the Borg are back. But Picard is ordered away from the conflict since they don't trust him apparently? But he ignores orders and saves the day (and the Worf). But the Borg escape and travel back in time to conquer Earth leaving the Enterprise little choice but to stop them. They arrive to find the Borg firing on the planet and easily destroy their sphere with some torpedoes. On the surface Zephram Cochrane was enjoying getting drunk until the Borg started shooting. Picard leads an away team (which since they didn't bother paying attention during the show should have been at least objected to by Riker) and finds Lily, Zephram's assistant who shoots Data and then collapses and is beamed aboard the Enterprise. Picard goes up to sending Riker down to try and get Zephram's ship working again.
The Borg were of course not defeated and start taking over the ship from Engineering. Picard manages to escape with Lily and shows her they are in space which convinces her to work with him. There is a subplot about the Borg trying to tell other Borg in the past about the Earth which requires Picard and Worf plus some red shirt to wander out on the hull to fight more Borg. Data is captured and meets the Borg queen (worst character in the movie) who tries to recruit/seduce him. On the surface Zephram and Geordi are working to get his ship ready to go and he isn't exactly in love with the idea of being famous in the future. Troi gets drunk yada yada yada.
Picard is finally convinced by Lily to destroy the Enterprise and kill the Borg that way so they all evacuate other than Picard who is staying behind to try and save Data. Picard makes his way to engineering but is captured by the Borg. He offers to join them but the queen is now interested only in Data who appears to have been convinced by her offers of increased humanity (which really makes no sense but whatever). Data gives her control of the ship and stops the auto destruct but then turns on her and breaks open a tank of coolant which kills her and almost kills Picard. Zephram makes his historic flight but with Riker and La Forge on board. The Vulcans show up and the Enterprise time warps back to its time.
Review: Not the most in depth summary I have ever written, but there is a lot of superfluous stuff in this one. Certainly not the worst Trek movie, but not one I would recommend either.
4 out of 10
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