Star Trek: Horizon

I am so amazed at all the work that goes into making a fan film. This is one of the best I've seen. This film was made to tie up some loose ends caused by the cancellation of Enterprise. It was very well done and made to look very professional. The special effects and story line complemented each other and it seemed like most of the characters played off each other very nicely. Some people seem to go above and beyond to critique the acting, story, cgi, etc... for those of you who do, why bother watching at all? Me, I am happy to no end that people give their time, talent and money to put together a quality film that could have actually been made into an episode.

If I had to rate this along side official Star Trek productions, I would say it falls right in the middle. Much better than the really bad official stuff, but not as good as some of the best Trek out there.

In fact, my only complaint has to do with the videography. There appears to be this ambient haze everywhere, especially inside of ships. I don't know if this is a result of green-screen usage, or just creative license. But I didn't like it. I kept thinking "Why is the ship always full of fog?" But it certainly wasn't a deal-breaker. Really a minor nit-pick more than anything.

The characters and acting seemed different from regular Star Trek, but not necessarily bad. In fact, I'd say these characters were more like real people.

It's hard to decide what rating to assign to this Kickstarter-funded Star Trek fan film. The fact that it's been done on an absolute shoe-string budget by commercial Hollywood standards plus that the crew and cast are amateurs means that one is inclined to be generous with the critique.

However, a movie deserves an honest review no matter who made it and I wouldn't want to be generous to the point of patronising.

Given the humble resources from which it was created, this is really quite a good film. Okay yes, the acting is a little awkward and the dialogue a bit stilted. But lest we forget, some of the original Star Trek cast were a bit hammy (I'm looking at you, Shatner). It also has a tiny cast, so you don't really get the sense of Starfleet...more a sort of Starsquad. Overall, though, it's a huge leap forward from earlier fan film efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the film relies heavily on CGI just like its commercial cousins. What is surprising is that it's mostly quite well done, especially the spacecraft. Mostly.

By far, by a veritable country mile, the worst thing about this movie is that it's absolutely saturated with lens flares and an almost constant soft-focus haze - perhaps to help disguise the imperfections in the background CGI or scenery? From what I could tell in the few scenes where the blur and lens flares weren't dialled up to eleven, it still looked okay so I really think it was a mistake to go so overboard with the visual distortions.

This is especially unfortunate because this movie almost...almost...had me suspending belief and becoming immersed but the god-awful continued glare and flare visual overlays just kept breaking the mood.

Final verdict? A flawed but nonetheless very impressive fan film. I doff my hat to Tommy Kraft, his cast and crew.

Having watched quite a few Trek fan productions, I didn't hold out much hope for this film. It was a pleasant surprise to be able to sit down and watch it from start to finish without any real pain. The special effects are very good. No out-of-perspective CGI, some top-notch cosmology, and an overall nice look that fits beautifully in the Trek Enterprise universe. The "smokey" ship background that some have complained about didn't bother me at all. It was really just a bit of soft-focus designed to disguise some prop flaws and low-budget backdrops... a pretty standard strategy for made-on-a- shoestring flicks.

The acting was a bit wooden at times, as might be expected from amateurs. It wasn't great, but never dipped to MST3K standard. Paul Lang's Capt. Hawke reminded me a bit of Avery Brooks' Captain Sisko. He just didn't fit the classic rugged Starfleet captain mold. That said, he was by no means a disaster.

Most Trekkers will be familiar with the plot. We've seen it all before in bits and pieces. Overall it was nicely assembled and had plenty of action to keep things moving along. As they say, saved the Universe... again.

This is not a great film, but it does show up some of the big-budget flops that seem to occasionally pollute the Star Trek pantheon. It may not be official Trek, but it is pretty darn good.

Fan made content is usually way too raw to create an enjoyable experience for me, but ST Horizon definitely sets itself apart and can stand on it's own even by regular standards. The production value is pretty good and I even liked their cinematographic choice of using blur and lens flares to hide imperfections. It may not be everyone's cup of tea and needs some time to get used to, but I think it's better this way than to have distracting green screen sets like they used on Sanctuary (TV show). The acting is also decent, Lang carries the movie quite well and Bussell, Thompson and Kaiser deliver performances around him that really feel like a genuine effort. It still is a bit flat at times and the movie had a few difficulties to evoke emotions in me, but it's absolutely no cringe-fest like lower quality fan content.

The story itself is also very good, there are a few flaws in the plot but it's still rock solid and made the movie for me. I got hooked right away and was thoroughly entertained by it. Some of the dialogues could have used some polishing, but that would be nitpicking on an otherwise great experience.

Overall, I can highly recommend the movie to fans of the franchise.