Jared's Pick - Movie Reviews: Star Trek: Insurrection

Star Trek: Insurrection

Star Trek is unique in its ability to draw an audience. No other movie franchise can boast a guaranteed return on investment the way Star Trek can; its hordes of loyal Trekkies will plunk down 7 bucks to see just about any big screen release featuring the intrepid explorers, if only out of the completist urge usually reserved for collectors of Beatles memorabilia. I generally see films on Monday nights, and even for hugely promoted films there are frequently less than 10 people in the theatre with me. Star Trek: Insurrection drew a crowd of about 50 last Monday. With such a devoted fan base, Star Trek could (and occasionally has) grind out unentertaining drivel and still profit; luckily, Star Trek: Insurrection is solid if unremarkable entertainment for people who show up with Spock ears and earth-bound humans alike.

Essentially a two-hour version of the TV show with better special effects, Star Trek: Insurrection maintains the series' focus on characters and moral issues. While there are a few battle scenes, they hardly get the blood pumping - action is secondary to the story, which is actually a bold move in these days of Extreme sport drinks, bloody video games and explosion-driven box office blowouts.

Central to the movie's theme is the question: is it morally right to force an indigenous people off their land for the good of the larger population? Picard and the Enterprise crew are called to investigate a race of people called the Ba'ku, a peaceful colony that lives in what is presented as an Eden; the Ba'ku are being manipulated by the Son'a for their ability to slow the aging process. This is a Ivy League baby boomer vision of Eden - there is no racial diversity, naturally, and the Ba'ku are an agrarian people who wear lots of earth tones and play hacky-sack. It's Woodstock without the loud guitars. If Eden is a bunch of white people in hippie clothes irrigating their hemp and anointing themselves in patchouli while forsaking "dangerous" technology which would allow them, say, to manufacture a decent gin and tonic, then give me Hell any day.

But Picard is enamored of this idyllic pastoral lifestyle, and of one of its inhabitants in particular, so he brings the power of his team to protect the Ba'ku against the diabolical Son'a and the corrupt Federation Admiral who wants a piece of the Ba'ku's fountain of youth. The Son'a can't just kill everyone for fear of upsetting the delicate treaty they have forged with the Federation, so they have to pressure Picard and the gang off the planet by other means. Until the Son'a leader goes nuts, of course, and then the fighting ensues.

Patrick Stewart (Picard) is a classically trained actor, and brings no small measure of dignity and diplomatic intelligence to the role - he's pretty much the polar opposite of Shatner, and his performance helps the film maintain a steady course. F. Murray Abraham gets in a few good howls as the Bad Son'a leader, but Star Trek has yet to come up with a villain as marvelously over the top as Khan. The android Data (Brent Spiner) gets the best lines and provides most of the campy humor that characterizes the series - loyal Trekkies will get a kick out of his attempts to understand humans, although non-initiates will likely find the jokes a bit forced, if harmless.

And that sentence, in a nutshell, describes the film. You won't be blown away by the message, the acting, or the special effects, but neither is there anything in here that will offend or particularly bore anyone. It's just a decent addition to the never-ending parade of Star Trek films, but when measured against other sci-fi offerings this year, at least this one is designed with families in mind.

- Jared O'Connor

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