There are those who say that the Borg are not a good villain. Mostly, their problem is that the Borg are portrayed as more powerful than the Federation in every aspect, but somehow the scrappy Federation manages to beat them every time. At one point, the Federation was going to defeat all Borg everywhere by simply showing them the digital equivalent of an MC Escher drawing. That seems more than a little stupid.
In this encounter, the Borg are personified by Alice Krige as the Borg queen. Okay, let's ignore the fact that this flies in the face of everything we have ever known about the Borg hierarchy. Let's ignore the fact that she, for some reason, has to make gestures and speak commands to other Borg that she is, presumably, completely linked to at all times. Picard comments that she wanted an equal to "bridge the gap" between Borg and humanity. What? Huh? I remember that storyline from the series, and it didn't make any sense then, either.
I find it interesting that the fallback plan for the Borg was to travel back in time. Wouldn't it have been more logical to travel back in time before moving into Federation space in the first place? And why try to stop first contact? Wouldn't they have wanted to capture the Vulcans, too? For that matter, have a dozen or so Borg cubes travel back in time, and then send them throughout the galaxy in search of the originating planets for all of these species that appear to have developed in parallel (Klingons, Romulans, Ferengi, etc.).
I found James Cromwell's Cochran character to be exactly what Hollywood writers think smart people are like. It just so happens, that this is NOT what they are like. I'm not saying there is no one out there who is in the sciences and is motivated by money, and I'm not saying they don't drink. What I'm saying is that no one works for years on converting an ICMB into a vehicle with the ability to bend space (as if one person could build all this by himself) and then just decides to scrap it the day before the flight.
So, if you find that your enemy is able to adapt to your energy weapons, but they remain vulnerable to something as primitive as bullets, what would you as a Klingon Security Officer do? Again, you have access to replicators that can build or synthesize anything. Think hard... and... yes! You would just use the energy weapon for the first four guys and then use it as a club. That's brilliant.
Quibbles aside, the story was interesting. The problem with these time travel movies is that they are always unrealistic in the way they alter history. Their interaction with the people in the past is also just nuts. They think nothing of removing them from their time, giving them information about the future, or just showing off; all of those are directly against the Prime Directive. Still, they think nothing of it.
Directing was good
Cinematography was great
Special effects were exemplary
Acting was very good
Story was interesting enough
3.75/5