Star Trek Insurrection
Star Trek Insurrection, starring the usual Federation suspects, with F. Murray Abraham and Donna Murphy. MPAA Rating PG for intergalactic violence and bad acting by The Director. Directed by Jonathan Frakes. Possibly offensive to lifeforms with baggy facial skin.
Jean-Luc Picard will always be, to may way of thinking, the standard for Starfleet Commanding Officers. Having said that, it seems the Star Trek juggernaut has slowed a bit - not that the characters are stale - but rather that we know them too well. Such is part of the appeal of a Star Trek movie to begin with - we don't have to suffer through character development, we can get right on with the story. Suits me fine.
In S.T. Insurrection, the Ba'ku, a non-violent race of peaceful artisans living on a Utopian island planet are threatened by the So'na, a bunch of not-nice people with baggy, stapled on, shrink-wrapped skin. The So'na, led by F. Murray Abraham, seem to spend a lot of time in Buck Rogers barber chairs getting their faces re-wrapped, tuckpointed, pulled and polished by a bevy of well-endowed intergalactic open-minded cosmetologists. The desparation of the So'na existence is made more real by the rarity of So'na women on screen. No wonder they're cranky.
The Ba'ku, on the other hand, are all beautiful. The Ba'ku children are beautiful. The Ba'ku village is beautiful. The Ba'ku sky is beautiful. If the Ba'ku eat pork rinds, they're probably beautiful pork rinds. The Ba'ku are technologically literate, but embrace a Intergalactic Luddite policy of technological avoidance. They also have the advantage, provided by the planet's rings, of never growing old. So when Picard discovers that the Federation is secretly spying on the Ba'ku's idyllic Peter Pan existence, he sticks around to investigate.
The rest is classic Star Trek Formula: Obey the Prime Directive. If you can't obey the Prime Directive, blow something up. If you can't blow something up, do a close-up of Counselor Troi shaving goofy Riker's beard in a bubbly hot tub. When did they become an item, anyway; and what's he got that I don't have? Please, that was soooo rhetorical.
Speaking of the love interest, Captain Picard finds his one-episode soul mate in the person of An'ij, a high-profile Ba'ku woman, as played by Donna Murphy. They don't do much about it, but they seem perfectly suited for each other, even if she is three hundred years older than Picard. You see, when she's eight hundred, he'll be five hundred, and everybody will tell them what a nice couple they make. They do, in fact, make a nice couple. An'ij is a quiet, elegantly handsome woman, and Picard is the strong silent bald type. (They bagged part of the romance plot device from a science fictionish short story I read some twenty-five years ago , called "Rent Control", the basis of which is passion's ability to make time stand still, or at least to make moments in time last an eternity.) <Sigh.>
Star Trek Insurrection is classic Star Trek as it should be. Reasonably well directed, well written for what it is, and starring some our best friends. While Frakes shouldn't be making room on his mantle for an Oscar, I like this stuff. It's easy to wrap your head around. There's always something for everybody; a few laughs, some smoochin', some action, a couple of minor twists, you don't have to think much, and only bad guys die. The Federation uniform seems a bit theadbare at times, and there's enough corn for a couple of movies, but I'll take all the Star Trek you can throw at me - keep 'em comin'.
I gave Star Trek Insurrection two and a half spacecows
Jean-Luc Picard will always be, to may way of thinking, the standard for Starfleet Commanding Officers. Having said that, it seems the Star Trek juggernaut has slowed a bit - not that the characters are stale - but rather that we know them too well. Such is part of the appeal of a Star Trek movie to begin with - we don't have to suffer through character development, we can get right on with the story. Suits me fine.
In S.T. Insurrection, the Ba'ku, a non-violent race of peaceful artisans living on a Utopian island planet are threatened by the So'na, a bunch of not-nice people with baggy, stapled on, shrink-wrapped skin. The So'na, led by F. Murray Abraham, seem to spend a lot of time in Buck Rogers barber chairs getting their faces re-wrapped, tuckpointed, pulled and polished by a bevy of well-endowed intergalactic open-minded cosmetologists. The desparation of the So'na existence is made more real by the rarity of So'na women on screen. No wonder they're cranky.
The Ba'ku, on the other hand, are all beautiful. The Ba'ku children are beautiful. The Ba'ku village is beautiful. The Ba'ku sky is beautiful. If the Ba'ku eat pork rinds, they're probably beautiful pork rinds. The Ba'ku are technologically literate, but embrace a Intergalactic Luddite policy of technological avoidance. They also have the advantage, provided by the planet's rings, of never growing old. So when Picard discovers that the Federation is secretly spying on the Ba'ku's idyllic Peter Pan existence, he sticks around to investigate.
The rest is classic Star Trek Formula: Obey the Prime Directive. If you can't obey the Prime Directive, blow something up. If you can't blow something up, do a close-up of Counselor Troi shaving goofy Riker's beard in a bubbly hot tub. When did they become an item, anyway; and what's he got that I don't have? Please, that was soooo rhetorical.
Speaking of the love interest, Captain Picard finds his one-episode soul mate in the person of An'ij, a high-profile Ba'ku woman, as played by Donna Murphy. They don't do much about it, but they seem perfectly suited for each other, even if she is three hundred years older than Picard. You see, when she's eight hundred, he'll be five hundred, and everybody will tell them what a nice couple they make. They do, in fact, make a nice couple. An'ij is a quiet, elegantly handsome woman, and Picard is the strong silent bald type. (They bagged part of the romance plot device from a science fictionish short story I read some twenty-five years ago , called "Rent Control", the basis of which is passion's ability to make time stand still, or at least to make moments in time last an eternity.) <Sigh.>
Star Trek Insurrection is classic Star Trek as it should be. Reasonably well directed, well written for what it is, and starring some our best friends. While Frakes shouldn't be making room on his mantle for an Oscar, I like this stuff. It's easy to wrap your head around. There's always something for everybody; a few laughs, some smoochin', some action, a couple of minor twists, you don't have to think much, and only bad guys die. The Federation uniform seems a bit theadbare at times, and there's enough corn for a couple of movies, but I'll take all the Star Trek you can throw at me - keep 'em comin'.
I gave Star Trek Insurrection two and a half spacecows
