Two films separated by 10 years in terms of release date and as much thematic clear water as you could imagine. I'm not trying to launch a ground-breaking thesis on their tonal connections, it is simply that I watched them back to back last night, so I thought I would review them together.
ST:FC is undoubtedly the finest of the now concluded Next Gen cycle of feature films and right up there with the best of the season-finale two-parters from the TV series. The Enterprise finds itself once again up against the Borg, a part-organic, part-cybernetic race intent on assimilating all they meet into their hive-like collective. By way of a convenient plot-device, the Enterprise finds itself orbiting earth in 2063, with some of the crew on earth helping a pioneering scientist perfect the first ever warp drive and the remainder on the ship, fighting a losing battle with the Borg drones who are intent on taking over the ship, before assimilating Earth.
Given how "by the numbers" many of the other Next Gen feature films were, this has a surprisingly fresh, engaging quality to it. Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard has vengeance on his mind and refuses to back down from the Borg, even if there seems no hope of victory and Data faces a conflict of his own when faced with a tempting opportunity to accelerate his progress towards experiencing human sensations. The earth-bound elements feel a little perfunctory, as if the screenwriter realised there was not enough happening on the ship to warrant a full-length feature and therefore needed to broaden the scope a little, but the Enterprise-based elements are exciting, well-filmed and paced and in the case of a space-walk sequence on the outside of the hull, genuinely tense.
All of which makes The Sentinel only seem more derivative and hackneyed by comparison. It has some good ideas (assassination plot, veteran Secret Service agent vs protege, an adulterous first lady) but it all gets lost a bit among some of the more preposterous elements. Michael Douglas looks far too old to be giving Jack Bauer the run around, the President himself, on whom the whole plot hinges, is bland and unaffecting and the assassins are barely given identities, much less motivations, or defined characters. The film begins with an almost Se7en-esque montage of death-threat sound-bites and letter excerpts, but these do not ever appear in the film, or indeed have any connection to the plot and so feel like a stylised bolt-on to try to grab some much-needed attention from the viewer who might otherwise disengage. The script does not help much, Kiefer Sutherland looking genuinely uncomfortable at the of a scene where he has managed to work out exactly what happened to the murder victim and then has to finish by referring to the "rate of speed" of a bullet. At times it is incredibly difficult to understand what is happening, especially at the climax when everyone is being rushed out amidst the key assassination attempt. Must try harder.
Obviously, a film featuring time travel, aliens that assimilate humanity, warp speed and androids is skating on thin ice when being contrasted with the lack of realism in a film about an assassination attempt on the President, but it is all a question of your fidelity to the world your film inhabits. It is no reach for sci-fi fans and Trekkers in particular to accept all of the elements listed in the previous sentence, however in this age of 24, Bourne and their kin, viewers expect a little more nous and expertise from their thrillers. If your film makes no sense or stretches credulity, then you either need to take the Con Air approach, stick your tongue in your cheek and go for it or rein the screenplay back in, get it under control and try again. Sadly, the prospect of Gordon Gecko squaring off against Jack Bauer isn't enough on its own.
