Star Trek: Horizon (2016) User Reviews

Flawed but impressive fan flick

[jim-j-moore · 6/10 · 4 March 2016]

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.

Unofficially official... this isn't too bad.

[sykespj · 6/10 · 21 August 2016]

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.

great film but below par dialogue

[dwarfy-57922 · 5/10 · 1 June 2016]

This is a film made on a very low budget compared to other Star Trek movies. I was very impressed with this movie and with the way it was made and produced Sadly I found it was let down severely by the dialogue; (The way that Captain Harrison Hawke communicates with his crew really was not in my opinion the way of a Star Trek captain, there just did not seem that authoritative tone). That being said this was a good film with good effects and acting and if it was not for the aforementioned dialogue I would have rated this a lot higher. Well done to everyone involved this was a great fan made film and I am sure future projects will be even better than this one.

Missing Spirit of Trekery

[d.rust · 1 March 2016]

Filled with errors and stilted dialogue, this effort by fans is laudable in its vision. But shaky cam and haze doesn't a good film make.

Star Trek: Horizon lacks the grandeur of the feature films: there is no grand stage and Shakespeare feel. What made ST: TWOK great isn't here. There isn't a cracked mirror to see ourselves make things worse: there are ill-fitting uniforms, wooden performances and a very weak enemy. The Romulan Admiral shows how a twenty-something might react to adversity, and probably because the actor playing him is still in his teens.

Here's an example of poor writing: Captain Whatsisname orders the crew to abandon ship. But of course, no one does.

The ship is out of the fracas: shaky cam is still shivering, swaying and generally producing mal-de-mer.

The film would have been better to curb the enthusiasm, spend a little more time on plot, story and dialogue. Who's at fault? The director of course. It *looks* OK on the surface mostly. The CGI effects are compelling, the sets look good, the sound is mostly good. But there is no reason to go beyond the first forty minutes.

Lucky for us it's a freebie.

Not bad, once

[jimvandemoter-50236 · 7/10 · 31 March 2019]

I'm old enough to remember when Star Trek first came out, and I thought it was fantastic. I was ten years old and easy to impress. This movie has some of those same qualities, it looks cheap, sounds cheap and for what it is not a bad job overall.Yes it has its flaws but it also has its strengths. All in all not bad, considering.

not too bad by fan film standards but terrible script

[simonpcpearson · 3/10 · 7 September 2017]

I suppose that it is unfair to judge Star Trek: Horizon by professional standards. Perhaps we have been spoiled by the excellence of Prelude To Axanar, Star Trek New Voyages and Star Trek Continues but I have begun to have high expectations for Trek fan films, perhaps unrealistically so.Those involved in the making of Star Trek: Horizon are , I assume, amateurs and probably cannot attain the professional standards of the aforementioned productions.

Excuses can be made for the poor acting and the fact that the film looks as though it was filmed through a dense fog, but there is no excuse for the completely unoriginal script. A good script should cost no more than a bad one. Horizon ( or should that be STH?) has a script that feels like a blatant rip off of previous Trek scripts with the elements put together in some semblance of order. That is simply not good enough. We loved Prelude To Axanar ( like the original Star Trek TV series) for their innovation. We adored Star Trek New Voyages and Star Trek Continues for their attention to atmosphere, tone and detail.

Mayve I'm being harsh but Star Trek:Horizon fails short in all these areas 3/10

An Impressive Fan Trek

[timdalton007 · 7/10 · 7 August 2016]

Ah fan films. With the rise of crowdfunding, affordable high quality cameras and the ability to create CGI effects on one's own computer (or to find someone else who could do it) the last decade or so has seen the rise of this genre of fan works. Perhaps the most notable franchise to have seen this proliferation is Star Trek which was essentially being kept alive by fan films after Enterprise finished its TV run and in-between entries in the rebooted film series.

While things like New Voyages and indeed Star Trek Continues have been doing excellent recreations and pastiches of the Original Series, they seemed to really be going where that series had gone before though they got better over time. What I suppose I really craved as a life long Trekkie was for the Trek universe to be expanded upon, not just recreated in all of its original glory. Hence why I found Star Trek: Horizon so intriguing when I stumbled back across it recently having heard of it some months ago. I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.

Horizon is set during the Romulan War, a much talked about piece of Trek's history that has never been explored on-screen. Set not long after the TV series Enterprise finished, the fan film focuses on the NX-01's sister ship the Discovery in the midst of that conflict. The ship and her crew led by Captain Hawke, after surviving a battle in the film's opening minutes, are sent on a mission to take out a new Romulan weapon that could turn the tide of the war. Their mission leads the crew, which also includes a Romulan defector, to a bigger threat to the Coalition of Planets and the future of Earth.

Being a fan of Enterprise (that ill-regarded prequel series filled with great ideas but which took four years to find its feet and lost its audience along the way), the idea of a fan film set during its era and the Romulan War appealed to me. Tommy Kraft, the film's writer/director, has created a love letter to that series in every way possible in creating this movie length spin-off of Enterprise dealing not just with the Romulan War but tying up a lose end or two from that series as well. If you're aware of that series and some of its bigger plot lines, there's plenty to enjoy here plot wise as Kraft creates a compelling story. The dialogue, which can often be tricky for fan films, is good most of the time (though a couple of times it gets a bit too involved in technobabble). It's a prime example of good fan film writing.

Horizon is also visually impressive, something even more surprising given its budget of about $22,000. The film is a a mix between Enterprise and the reboot films with the costumes and sets of the former being central to the film (and recreated spectacularly) while the cinematography and overall visual style of Horizon draw heavily from the reboots. Indeed there's a sequence involving Hawke and the villain's eventual villain that owes more than a small debt to the mind-meld sequence form the 2009 film. That's not all though.

Where the film is most impressive is in its effects. The ship exteriors and the battle sequences are top-notch and might well be the best I've seen in any of the fan productions I've watched to date with the film's opening fifteen to twenty minutes especially being a visual feast. Where the visuals are perhaps less impressive is in the film's sometimes over-reliance on green screen which can become obvious at times as the film was shot almost entirely that way. That being said, those moments are few and far between and the film's visuals are amongst its strongest selling points.

Indeed, Horizon is even more impressive by that small budget. Despite that small budget, it's an impressive effort which puts many bigger budgeted films to shame. For a fraction of the budget of a SyFy, the film looks and flows far better than many of those films or their straight to DVD counterparts. It's a sign of what low- budget genre films that can do and I find myself hoping that Kraft goes on to future projects. For now though, if you're a Trekkie look this up and give a watch.

Star Trek Horizon -- a worthy effort

[ssaggio · 5/10 · 21 March 2017]

I found this movie to be a worthy effort.

The GOOD: Considering it is crowdfunded, this movie is INCREDIBLE for the shoestring budget that it was made on, and a somewhat enjoyable viewing experience. If you are a fan of Star Trek, then check it out! Special effects are on par and done very well. The plot is well thought out and is intriguing.

The BAD: Some of the acting just isn't there... occasionally a line is delivered and I just sat there saying to myself "Huh". Some line just drop like a rock in the ocean. The seem out of place or lacking any real emotion.

Much of the filming on the "ship" itself leads me to believe that they don't have LED bulbs in the future... they might as well be filming in a cave, everything is SO Dark.

The UGLY: The script is spattered with lines that just don't feel right for Star Trek. Some of the Characters don't feel real, they are a cliché (perhaps more character development was necessary)... I feel like the script needed to be a bit more polished, and some of the acting just isn't on par with the big budget products.

Summary: All and all Star Trek - Horizon, is a worthy effort that is a decent story and worthy of your time if you can forgive some of the bad lines and characters that you just don't connect with. Would I have paid $8 to see this movie?? Probably not, but considering what it is, and how it was made, it is a decent movie.

Nice job!

[KathyL59 · 10/10 · 29 February 2016]

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.

For what it is ... this is a pretty good flic

[dennishorne-54679 · 7/10 · 9 November 2020]

Nobody is going to mistake this for a highly polished big production movie ... but the average Star Trek fan is going to love it. For me, it was a pleasant surprise, sure the script is a little weak, the acting is a little weak too, and the CGI was, well, actually pretty good given the budget.

Definitely worth watching ... grab some popcorn and enjoy.

Disappointingly bad

[milly903md · 5/10 · 16 August 2018]

Poorly written, poorly performed. While it's trying to present a close bond between crew members, the scenes are superficial and don't do a good job making you believe and feel that they actually care about each other, especially since most of the dialog is basically them putting each other down and being sarcastic. Or maybe that's a failed attempt at teasing banter between friends. Although with an ok-ish mildly captivating plot that could have been spinned into something much better, it fails to convince. I can't believe it's a 2016 release!

Very good for a fan film.

[adric22-1 · 8/10 · 1 March 2016]

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.

Not bad, could use some improvements

[michaelltaylor-03930 · 7/10 · 17 September 2022]

The storyline was interesting enough to keep me engaged and there was enough action to keep it from getting boring, but it had visual problems. The film relies much too heavily on camera blur, lens flare, and shaky camera effects. Also, scenes inside the ship always seem to show the air to be a bit foggy. That was very distracting. I almost stopped watching part way through, but stuck with it because it's Star Trek! Also, since it's a fan film those camera effects may have been needed to make up for set problems or inadequate special effects. All in all, it's worth watching at least once if you're a Star Trek fan, but I doubt many people will watch it repeatedly.

$22 600 Star Trek Cosplay?

[jaydoo · 2/10 · 20 February 2018]

If you want to get your friends together and play Star Trek, then by all means break out the cosplay gear and have a good time. If you want to use some kickstarter money to make a film, then hire some actors and tell your friends they can hang out and watch. Don't give your friends parts in your movie and blow your meager budget on lame CGI. Why? Because your friends can't act, and $22 600 of CGI is not enough to save your movie.

Skip this stinking steamer and rewatch TAS if you feel like some cheap-a$$ crappy Star Trek... at least you will get a coherent story or two.

Just too much MORE Trek techno crap.

[oscar-35 · 17 March 2016]

*Spoiler/plot- Star Trek: Horizon 2016. Galactic alien race works with StarFleet to solve a massive problem of the legendary Iconian benevolent race competes with a militaristic alien race for control of the known universe.

*Special Stars- Fandom amateur & unknown performers, Paul Lang, Marc Bowers, Ryan Webber, Callie Bussell, Ashley Croft.

*Theme- Scientific exploration of the galaxy is possible.

*Trivia/location/goofs- internet fan donation project. fan video, online.

*Emotion- While visually this project looks professional in it's massive and boring planetary and space flight scenes; the script dialog writing of huge amounts of necessary ex positional plot scenes make this show very slow stone-age, and plodding. What is worse is the project's writers have taken mind-numbing Star Trek 'technobabble' into dizzying lengths for the audience to follow. TOO long CGI shots to provide plot understanding and progress into this confusing plot video drama. Overuse of CGI generated 'lense-flare' and 'soft focus' is annoying to the viewer. The viewer is turned off to watching much more from this fan group. That much plot exposition has made this project hard for audience to get involved, understand and therefore boring for the viewer. Use of trendy 'flavor of the minute' gimmicks like artificial software lens flare makes this video unwatchable.

*Based On- Star Trek 'Enteprise' era canon.

Good bones, wish it was the worst of a series

[shoobe01-1 · 6/10 · 18 March 2022]

Solid overall entry in the Enterprise (ENT era) universe, while it goes all Temporal Cold War again, at least that was a major story arc in that show vs just deciding they wanted to do a time travel episode, and... they didn't time travel! Good choice.

Pretty decent acting for the available cast, I give credit to direction here, as whatever they do is very very consistent. Good work.

Overall... weirdly slow. Inconsistently engaging. Just sorta not quite as good as it should have been.

Too dark. Not grimdark, not gritty, just too aughts all-film-is-dark. Turn on a light.

Can't tell if VFX are good because SUCH bad video quality. Atrocious. Comically bad. I'd have assumed my system was broken if other reviews didn't mention it. Seeing teasers and stuff at high res (I GUESS there's a good copy somewhere?) they didn't do themselves any favors with lens flare, shakeycam, the dark lighting (MPEG artifacting is bad in dark and high contrast!), and all these weird haze/fog effects they added.

Worth it. Lots of fanfic is unwatchable, this is worth it.

this is not real Star Trek

[frerouma · 1/10 · 15 July 2019]

Quite terrible. B- class actors. Why even made someting crap like this. 15 minutes is too much for this movies. I rather watching paint drying in the wall...

A worthy "closing out of open threads" for the TV-series "Star Trek Enterprise"

[Green_Wolf · 8/10 · 6 March 2016]

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 you like Star Trek, give it a shot ....

[tmf084 · 8/10 · 31 May 2016]

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.

Horizon, a superior Fan effort

[jc-48411 · 9/10 · 4 March 2016]

This is a fan film produced with a budget just over $22K. The Executive producer, Tommy Kraft, wrote script, built props (some he CAD designed and 3D printed), sewed the uniforms, filmed, directed, created the VFX/CG, edited, wrote and played the musical score by himself. With the help of some talented professionals, family and friends, he was able to finish the movie in just over 3 years.

Horizon is set during the same time as the series "Enterprise" and Capt. Archer (Scott Bakula) and is done in cannon making use of and references to prior productions (Enterprise, STNG,Star Trek 2009). The movie is very dynamic and adept at filling in holes in the time-line and expands on the history of the Iconians. Paul Lang does an admirable job as Capt Harrison Hawke. The other actors interact well and create a believable and a bit tongue in cheek real-life feel.

Tommy's effort is an example of what can be done with a bit of passion, drive, and the desire to excel. It is deserving of praise as this is literally something out of nothing. Tommy should be recognized for his accomplishment and hopefully have great career in film and movie production.

Epic Film - Well Worth It!

[humaki · 10/10 · 28 March 2016]

@@@ What a great film!, well done everyone who took part in making it, thank you, brilliant! @@@

I know its a fan film, but its up there with some of the best Original Star Trek productions... the story is good and special effects are awesome.

On a down side (not mentioning names) but one of the actors was a bit wooden for me... but all in all the casts acting abilities was excellent. I especially like the captain, who was sincere, grounded.

Id love to see more of these if thats possible. Expand on the their journey. There's a whole chapter missing about the temporal cold war that needs expanding on and explained.

If there's more funds available - please make another one. All the best.

Well, that was a nice surprise....

[legindyoll · 8/10 · 2 August 2019]

I decided to watch this film due to boredom during a week off work when the weather was darn poor. To my great surprise I really enjoyed the film and was even more surprised because I've just read it was made on a budget of a mere $22,500 raised through a Kickstarter scheme. Well done to the people behind the production, it was a wholly enjoyable film and quite professional in it's production, much better than some fan productions I've seen. The only real drawbacks were that some of the acting was a little wooden, and the script was like a crossover of some episodes from Enterprise and some from Discovery. But those brickbats apart, I say a big well done to all those involved in the production, and I would highly recommend it to all but the pickiest of Star Trek fans.

Storyline OK, acting so so, video's quality is crap

[grafxman · 8/10 · 2 January 2017]

It has a decent enough storyline. The writing isn't bad but not particularly inspiring. Frequently the audio is not very good. The actors occasionally mumble their lines. There are no subtitles so some dialogue is often missed.

However worst of all is the video. I have complained about this in another review of a Star Wars fan film. Apparently the folks who made this film believed that 10 million candlepower lights were necessary for the lighting. Many scenes are so contrasty that the video reverts to black and white with the white part akin to staring into an arc light.

AAA standard Fan Flick - worth watching even for non fans

[Zaturn · 8/10 · 31 August 2016]

I usually do not write reviews for movies I watch. There are already enough reviews written by other viewers but this movie is the exception that compelled me.

The words fan flick should not deter those who haven't watched it. I am a Sci-fi fan. I have watched all the Star Trek TV series and movies. Even some fan made ones.

This movie in my opinion is even more interesting than some of the AAA productions even a few of the movies.

Well written, well made with nice CGIs, the sets and equipment are also quality and canon. Overall quality is very good.

Some negative aspects; poor acting in some scenes, excessive soft blurring of backgrounds and too much lens flare.

Bottom-line: worth the watch even if you are not a Star Trek fan. 8/10.

Very Enjoyable

[FromDecatur · 8/10 · 17 July 2016]

As a Star Trek fan, this was a very satisfying film. It enlivened the universe of the Star Trek: Enterprise show without seeming weighed down by history as Enterprise was. It beautifully referenced the STNG show which featured Iconia.

The plot had a lot of action balanced with human relationships in the finest Star Trek tradition. We had a sense of established relationships among the crew of Discovery. The Captain was an interesting character, with a balanced yet strong approach to command.

In a good way, the film left me wanting more. I'd like to have seen the events leading up to the film and the events following the film with the Romulan War.