-- Enjoyable, and wasn't as bad as everyone predicted, and I'm a biased Trekkie. But the next one better have Q, dang it!.
1998, 1 hr 41 min., Rated PG. Dir: Jonathan Frakes. Cast: Patrick Stewart (Capt. Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Cmdr. William T. Riker), Brent Spiner (Lt. Cmdr. Data), LeVar Burton (Lt. Cmdr. Geordi LaForge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Cmdr. Worf), Gates McFadden (Cmdr. Beverly Crusher, M.D.), Marina Sirtis (Cmdr. Deanna Troi, Counselor), F. Murray Abraham (Ru'afo), Donna Murphy (Anij), Anthony Zerbe (Admiral Dougherty).
Yeah, yeah, the famed Star Trek odd movie curse, but I don't care because I like anything that has to do with the franchise. I'm a Trekkie, and proud to admit it--you should have seen me at The Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas last August, giddy as a school girl! Or boy.
But I was nervous going in to see Star Trek: Insurrection, the ninth installment in the Star Trek movie universe, because I'd heard lots of bad early press, which upset me because I don't want anything to ruin the Star Trek name, especially with Deep Space Nine ending this season and Voyager doing so-so on UPN.
Well, I shouldn't have worried, because Star Trek: Insurrection will be successful. Why? Because it's typical The Next Generation fare: a great blend of likeable characters, humor, action and the Prime Directive. The bad guy, Ru'afo, wasn't as bad as he could have been, but we won't subtract too much.
First, trailers: Instinct with Hopkins and Gooding, Jr.--I'm still unsure about it; Varsity Blues with James Van Der Beek and Jon Voight--MTV flick looks campy; Virus with Jamie Lee Curtis--won't see, even the trailer freaks me out; Payback with Mel Gibson--positive audience reaction, will do well; Star Wars Episode 1--gee, I'm not sure about this one (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).
Quick plot review of Star Trek: Insurrection: Lovable utopian society of the Ba'ku are the only 600 people on this planet that is a fountain of youth, and the Son'a with their questionable practices want to drive them out, but have the cooperation of the Federation Council in the Federation's bid to defeat the Dominion. Enterprise interferes, refuses to leave and instead protects the Ba'ku and the Prime Directive as Picard laments past human travesties of relocating or killing the few for the good of the many. Lots of fighting, loving and techinical mumbo jumbo ensues, with fun for the whole family.
I enjoyed seeing the youthful exuberance of the Enterprise crew when they are realizing the planet's "fountain of youth", as Worf goes through puberty again, LaForge sees a sunset as we do, Riker and Troi renew their romance (which I wanted to see more of), and Troi and Dr. Crusher notice: "Have you noticed how your boobs have started to firm up?" Even more amazing, perhaps, is that Data's constant yearning for being more human didn't annoy me in Insurrection. But they keep giving him cliche lines such as the "Lock and load" schtick.
But the Ba'ku didn't have that same youthful exuberance. Maybe after 300 years you get tired of being happy all the time. And I would like for once to have Star Trek showcase the good guys as the ugly ones, and the bad guys as the Barbie and Kens.
The Son'a weren't the bad guys we've come to expect, but had a lot to live up to as we've met the Borg and the Dominion. Basically they were good people, but their leader, Ru'afo was a bad seed who everyone was afraid to anger. But even he wasn't that imposing as an evil character.
I wish I could have seen more sweeping pans of the beautiful landscape that the movie was filmed. It was very beautiful, with the crystal blue lake and whitecapped mountains rising over the village and its' green pastures. Spectacular, and would make for a soothing utopian setting.
The CGI graphics for the Spacecrafts and space shots were pretty good and made satisfying eye candy, though there were a couple of noticeable shots that were hokey.
Star Trek: Insurrection will do very well this weekend; it's enjoyable and had great audience reaction, but I'm worried about the next two weeks with the substantial number of movies premiering (next week alone has Prince of Egypt and You've Got Mail. Here's how number nine now rates on my Star Trek movie list:
The verdict: -- Enjoyable, and wasn't as bad as everyone predicted, and I'm a biased Trekkie. But the next one better have Q, dang it!.