DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Star Trek: First Contact - Special Collector's Edition (Recommended) (1 Viewer)

[Geoff_D]

Mikel, you'll basically hear Moore and Braga concede that Trek needs a long, well-earned rest, nothing harsher than that. And the Frakes commentary is great, if only for it's sheer comedy value. It's a shame that it looks like we won't be getting a Frakes chat-track on the Insurrection DVD.

 

[Pat Frank]

Some of the Frakes stuff was okay. I like the guy a lot and his sense of humor is great. It's just that he kinda smacked into one of my pet peeves about commentary tracks. If I'm going to spend a couple of hours watching the movie again then I really need to get something significant out of it.

But it's no big deal.

 

[Tarkin The Ewok]

Regarding the text commentaries:

In the early Director's Editions, the subtitles were a little fast, even for a quick reader. Sometime around the release of the SCE for Voyage Home, the speed was much better.

Generations and First Contact SCEs both go a little too slowly for my taste. Thankfully, the text was made easier to read on First Contact than it was on Generations.

Overall, I preferred the subtitles with a brisk but readable pace because they could include more information and be more shot-specific.

By the way, the teaser for First Contact has one of my favorite trailer images ever: a flyby of a Borgified Starfleet logo.

 

[Grant H]

I picked this up, the other week and have been meaning to comment on the quality of this release, at least the film content itself. I haven't checked out the extras yet.

Wow. The original transfer was nothing to sneeze at, but the CE is amazingly better. I'm pretty fussy with transfers, and this one was literally breathtaking at times. I found myself running back a lot of the space shots because they were so beautiful. You really can't appreciate the visuals of this movie fully, until you've seen this DVD edition. The transfer is much cleaner looking with improved contrast and much more vibrant and better-saturated colors. I can say this having watched the original release fairly recently.

When Data's new flesh was slashed by the Borg, the blood was really crimson and striking, creating much more dramatic impact than the original release. This is more how I remember the moment feeling in the theater.

I was amazed just how visually appealint this movie is, and I was reminded that Insurrection, though not a great Trek movie is also beautiful to watch. Frakes and his DP or DP's sure deliver in this department.

A while back somebody tossed out his name as a contender for the new Superman project, and I can't help but wonder what kind of great visuals Superman might have had with him at the helm. I liked the X-Men pictures, but I can't say that the visuals left much of a lasting impression with me. Also, I think Frakes' attitude could have helped forge a new Superman pretty well, but that's another matter all together. Still, having seen the great use of color in the Trek movies, I'd have loved to see that lent to the new Superman movies.

The DTS track was also top notch, at least in so-far as presenting the existing mix. Not as flashy as if it were made today, but good. I didn't really notice any problems with the dialogue. To me, variations just sounded like a result of the environment (cramped corridors and the like). They are supposed to be on-board a starship, not in a studio afterall. I did notice Worf's voice not being as deep as you might expect, but I believe this is the case with the following NG movies as well, or most of them. Maybe they used to process his voice to be deeper back on the show, and decided to not bother later, or his voice changed. Or they used cheap mic's.

I paid about $2 more than I wanted to when I picked up the CE, but I haven't regretted it one bit.

 

[Seth--L]

As other's have said, Paramount did an excellent job with this release. With the low MSRP -- I paid $13 -- it's definitely worth double dipping. Everything about it is much improved.

I'm not surprised to hear (on the commentary) that it was Rick Berman's idea to do a time travel film. If there is any fault with the film, this is it. Time travel is just a can of worms you never want to open. If you establish that the Borg can effortlessly time travel, then why don't they do this all the time? If they want to prevent first contact, and thus the forming of the federation, wouldn't it be easier to conquer earth farther back in the past? If only Star Trek could be taken away from Berman and given to Michael Piller.

 

[Ocean Phoenix]

I've had similar thoughts...not about Superman movies specifically, just wishing Frakes would get the opportunity to helm another great movie, out of appreciation for what he did as director of Star Trek: First Contact. I was rooting for him when Thunderbirds came out, hoping it would be a success for him, and was disappointed when seemingly everyone agreed that it was a disaster. I hope he makes a comeback as a director someday. It's a shame that his directing career has been on a downward sprial since Star Trek: First Contact.

 

[David Coleman]

I needed to also comment on the quality of the presentation.

I found the picture quality to be superb. Certainly the best transfer of the STAR TREK films and ranks amongst the finest film transfer's i've seen from Paramount!! They should be commended!!

The audio transfer is the same however their is somewhat more refinement in the DTS option.

And the right price too!!!

 

[DouglasRobert]

One of my favorite Trek films and now one of my favorite DVDs.

Just thought I'd add this about easter eggs.
DVD Review only lists two, I found a small, easily over-looked easter egg.

Insert Disc 2:
1. Main Menu
2. Highlight 'Production' Entry
3. Press Right to highlight a small circle on the far right of the screen
4. Press Enter
Now you will see a 'List of the titles applied to Star Trek: First Contact before the final title was decided'.

If that was already posted, sorry I didn't have time to go through all the posts.

 

[Anthony Neilson]

It's a good disc overall but I'm pretty disappointed by the MAKING OF material. Whereas on the other discs this feature is usually retrospective and reasonably candid, this is
just a promo piece,full of crap about how Frakes is one of the "great" directors.
The STORY featurette is the same and so is the UNIMATRIX ONE segment. I mean, I'm a fairly low-level Trekkie (only liked the Original series and the movies) and even I knew all the info there. Hope the next two don't continue this trend.

 

[Geoff_D]

So they went a bit overboard with the back-slapping and 'archive' interviews. But maybe, just maybe, it was actually a fun shoot and there wasn't that much dirt to dish? And as directorial debuts go, it's pretty darn solid. If you want more candid insight (not only about the film, but the Trek franchise itself) you only have to listen to the Braga/Moore commentary; I love the bit where they take the piss out of the slo-mo acting in the deflector dish sequence!

 

[Anthony Neilson]

I will listen to the commentary, but I'm not after "dirt",Geoff, that's unfair. It's not like I care who was f***ing who on-set. I just want a sober retrospective on the film, like there's been on all the other ones. Everyone always says everybody else is wonderful when they're shooting a movie, it's etiquette. Keep the promo stuff as a separate featurette is what I'm saying, unless you can't get the cast / crew member to contribute in any other way. And telling us how brilliant Frakes is isn't a contribution we need to hear more than once. I've seen (some of) THUNDERBIRDS, mate, and I don't buy it.

 

[RickB]

I have the original release on this and upgraded to the collectors edition. I just got around to watching and about 5 minutes in I saw what I thought was a white dot flash by on-screen. I was surprised and went back to check if it was really there and it was. I did notice these popping up occasionally thru the rest of the film and even went back a few times to isolate and make sure they were there.

They almost seemed to be easy to see due to the dark scenes they appeared in. After seeing more than a few I have to say they were somewhat annoying. I have not watched the earlier version in quite sometime, so I could not compare them. The film did look quite nice, however, I really thought these little white specks detracted from the viewing. I put them out of my mind as much as possible, though.

Watching on 53" RPTV at about six feet. Anyone else make this observation?

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Rick, I'm kind of too lazy to search for them but if you give the exact time of one of the spots, I will post 2 screenshots from the new and the old DVD.

 

[Geoff_D]

Hey, Anthony, I was only using a figure of speech. I know you don't care who was f***ing who.

But you have to remember that this movie was like one big family reunion for most of the cast (literally in the case of Frakes' godmother Alfre Woodard!) and it was a success to boot, so it's not surprising that they retrospectively gush about the experience. It'll be interesting to see the new interviews for Insurrection, given the relative critical & commerical failure of that one.

Anthony, you seem to admit that you haven't listened to the Braga/Moore commentary, so please give that a whirl. And some of the ILM segments are interesting as well; you can hear the disappointment in John Knoll's voice when he speaks over that glorious shot of the Borg Queen's upper torso being lowered into her body. Call it a hunch, but I don't think you'll like the Frakes commentary mate!

 

[RickB]

Sam, thats good, I threw this in and quickly found some times that contain debris, both white specks and a few black ones. These frames were all found within 4:00 and 10:35 but they do occur throughout the entire film. I do believe this presentation is a nice one, but I have to disagree on it being "up there" as far as tip videos go.

I would give this an 8 out of 10 because it certainly does a good job other than these caveats. It does seem that they could have done a little better job cleaning it up. Here's some screen times:

4:00--3-5 black, white specks, left side worse, but on right side too.

4:26--at laptop transition you get a black screen for a moment, big white dot middle screen

5:28--lower right over Data's left shoulder

6:33--right between Riker's eyes, large white dot appears

6:58--multiple black and white debris

7:54--Troi's beautiful left cheek

8:09--Riker's left side

8:35,36--Picard's left chest, multiple occurrences

10:35--more debris

Don't get me wrong, this is a nice presentation, but I just don't see it as extraordinary. I have many other films that blow this one away. I would almost compare this to an edition of Total Recall I had and traded off because I could not stand all the debris. This is not quite as bad as that if I remember correctly.

Take a look and see what you think.

 

[Seth--L]

He should have passed on the film. I mean, did anyone really want to see a live action version "Thunderbirds"?

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Special Collector's Edition
New dirt not present in the original release.





Special Collector's Edition
The Original Release
Dirt already present in the original release.

 

[Jay Pennington]

Those are all flaws in the film element.

 

[Grant H]

True enough. No one ever said this was a restoration effort.

You strike a new transfer with now older elements, chances are there will be more dirt. At the price they're not issuing these SCE, you can't expect them to do clean-up when it's not completely necessary.

Do you really want Lowry to get its hands on the Trek films? I'll take the original theatrical colors thank you very much.

It's easy to get spoiled my movies that are on DVD within a couple months of their theatrical release. When the transfers are made from brand spanking new elements, of course they're nice and clean an un-damaged. I know this isn't an old film or anything, but the prints have still been around for a bit now.

As far as video quality goes, though, it's still a superb transfer, especially from Paramount which has issued more than its fair share of severe EE-plagued transfers in the past. If anything, the quality of the video makes it that much easier to spot dirt and print damage. It's worth it for the clarity and detail though.

Since Star Wars I think it's become all too easy to expect absolutely no print damage or dirt in a film, but we should also remember the dangers of fixing things that aren't really broken. The money and time wasn't ponied up to even deliver those films properly. I doubt we'll ever see such extensive efforts taken with the Trek films, or if it happens it will be when I'm an old man.

 

[Geoff_D]

I'd love to see a Lowry pass on the older Trek films, especially The Motion Picture which has loads of dirt & debris in the optical shots. But dammit, it still looks so darn good that I shouldn't really complain (shame about the erroneous film/video flags though). Ditto for First Contact SCE, which looks far better than the original release. Less grain, more detail, more natural colours - it's bloody fantastic!