Star Trek: Horizon

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.

This a non-profit movie made through a Kickstarter campaign, and does specifically NOT include any actors from the commercial Star Trek movies or series.

Done with a budget of only $22.600 (minus the Kickstarter share) this movie makes a good job at closing out the story threads left hanging after the cancellation of the TV-series Enterprise in 2005. The story and writing is quite good and the acting ranges from sufficient to good. The special effects, sound and music is of commercial quality. If you cannot tolerate the use of "lense flares" and "soft-focus haze" you might be a bit irritated due to its frequent use, though.

In contrast to some other fan films they took the time to edit the whole movie together properly (looking at you "Renegades"). I could only find one or two occurrences where they could have fit the pieces better together, and this wasn't due to "missing scenes" - but rather they unnecessarily repeated some information.

I give the movie 8/10.

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.

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.

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.