Star Trek: Insurrection 20th anniversary thread!

[WarpFactorZ]

I haven't seen Insurrection since it was in theatres in 1998. I found it uninspiring and a let-down, considering the momentum created by First Contact. I did catch it half way through on TV a couple years ago, and the only new thing I came away with was the realization that Anji was the voice for Mother Gothel in Tangled...

 

[gottacook]

Insurrection is the first of a long uninterrupted string of Trek movies I've avoided paying to see in a theater. Of course I've seen it since, but I find Piller's Fade In a lot more interesting.

 

[CorporalClegg]

The dialog was painful. The premise was stupid. The characters were caricatures. The baddies were ridiculous. The CGI was amateurish.

But none of those compare to the film's worst offense: they made the victims completely unsympathetic. No one cares about a group of condescending and aloof upper white middle-class hipsters hanging out in a commune in Northern California.

And their attempt to make a metaphor or draw a parallel to American Natives was embarrassing, if not downright distasteful. Gene Roddenberryism at its worst.

*And it's the reason the film failed to get its point across. And what there's even such a debate over the film. Of course Picard was right -- but that's only true if the audience makes an emotional connection with the Ba'ku.

 

[Nyotarules]

And it's the reason the film failed to get its point across. And what there's even such a debate over the film. Of course Picard was right -- but that's only true if the audience makes an emotional connection with the Ba'ku.

True, if the Baku looked like aliens instead of a wannabe Scandinavian colony, the story might be more effective. But then Picard only romances Caucasian, human females.

 

[pst]

True, if the Baku looked like aliens instead of a wannabe Scandinavian colony, the story might be more effective. But then Picard only romances Caucasian, human females.

you know, they considered giving the ba'ku trill-like spots but abandoned that idea for budgetary reasons.

but seriously why did that mean they could only cast white folks as ba'ku?

 

[Nyotarules]

you know, they considered giving the ba'ku trill-like spots but abandoned that idea for budgetary reasons.

but seriously why did that mean they could only cast white folks as ba'ku?

White actors are cheaper????

 

[pst]

White actors are cheaper????

 

[Nyotarules]

 

[JonnyQuest037]

One of the most mediocre and forgettable movies I've ever seen.

 

[thribs]

Should have made it a Dominion War Movie with the Enterprise

 

[USS Firefly]

Should have made it a Dominion War Movie with the Enterprise

I agree, they could have visit DS9 or liberate Betazed

 

[pst]

I agree, they could have visit DS9 or liberate Betazed

that was the subject of one of the TNG novels i never read but i would've watched the shit out of that movie.

i like insurrection in hindsight, but it was a big missed opportunity that the producers were too afraid to connect it to the larger narrative of the dominion war. the passing references to the war only made it more egregious that the enterprise crew wasn't on the frontlines. and picard grousing about missing an archeological dig because of the war? yikes.

 

[Vger23]

The only thing that would have been worse than what we got would have been a "war movie".

I tried valiantly to re-watch Insurrection last night. First time in years. I went in completely open minded and ready to feel differently.

It didn't work. It's just a stinker of a movie. Deathly dull and hopelessly illogical.

 

[Lord Garth]

Cue super-melodramatic '90s-style trailer music...

Tom Hanks: "I guess sometimes the past catches up to you, whether you want it to or not."
Picard: "Can anybody remember when we used to be explorers?"
Ruofu: "The Borg, the Dominion, the Cardassians. They harvest the scent of death on the Federation!"
Sisko: "I just posted my 14th Casualty List. I'm already involved in a very messy, very bloody business."
Tom Hanks: "I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing."
Dax: "If we could use a new ally, it's right now."
Dougherty: "Jean-Luc, we're only talking about 600,000 people!"
Picard: "How many people does it take?!"
Tom Hanks: "Houston, we have a problem."
Sisko: "You killed him!"
Garak: "Consider them casualties of war."
Quark: "This isn't the Starfleet you know."
Data: "Saddle up, lock and load."
Sisko: "Fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Tom Hanks: "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it."
Worf: "Perhaps today is a good day to die!"
Lily: "Jean-Luc, blow up the damn ship!"
Picard: "NOOOO!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Tom Hanks, Partrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, a Jonathan Frakes film... Star Trek: Saving Ensign Nobody.

Rated R. Coming soon to a theater near you.

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

FC was better than GEN, so I really wanted to believe INS would be better than FC. Sure, it was a tall order to fill, and "better" doesn't mean just more explosions, but in all regards INS was so underwhelming compared to my expectations that it soon became perhaps my least favourite Trek movie. More than any of the film's other qualities, it was my own anticipation and subsequent disappointment that spoiled it for me, and those personal memories will always overshadow a more objective analysis. I agree with the sentiment that INS is by far the most forgettable in the franchise.

It is interesting that while this seems like a TNG episode-type story, and STB feels like a TOS episode-type story, and yet I find the latter to have a much higher rewatchability factor.

Cheers to another 20 years!

 

[DarKush]

My take on Insurrection is that it wasn't a bad film, but a wasted opportunity. It was just okay. I do understand the reasoning behind doing a film less heavy and less dark than First Contact, but I think Insurrection as TNG's forced comedy just didn't work, especially when the Federation was embroiled in the Dominion War at the time.

I wish Insurrection had been connected to the war. It would've been great to see the Dominion ships, the Jem'Hadar, etc. on the big screen. Even though I only read one of the four-book TNG Dominion War series, a kind of story like that would've been more up my alley.

From what we did get, I did like the Son'a quite a bit though. F. Murray Abraham did a very good job as the lead heavy. The Son'a backstory was okay. I really liked the Son'a ships. I do wish the Son'a had physically showed up on DS9. Adding those ships to some of those big space battles would've been cool. Doughtery made for a good evil admiral. I also liked the new Starfleet shuttle that Data was flying in. I also liked the rekindling of Riker and Troi's romance and how Geordi regained his sight.

Once I read that the Romulans were originally supposed to be in the film, instead of the Son'a I wish we had gotten that because I feel the stakes would've been raised. The audience knows the Romulans, and they are more of a threat on an existential level to the Federation than the Son'a who only showed up for this movie and a mention on DS9. I think it might have added some more weight to Picard's decision to go against Doughtery if the tenuous alliance with the Romulans was at stake, and the war hung in the balance. It might also have invited some internal division among the TNG crew. Instead everyone was on board with Picard's decision easily.

 

[Terok Nor]

The Gilbert and Sullivan singalong was great and I did like Joan Rivers giving the evil Admiral death by face-lift but this movie is basically an overblown TNG two parter and I can't think of any two parter I'd put it above.

 

[pst]

The Gilbert and Sullivan singalong was great and I did like Joan Rivers giving the evil Admiral death by face-lift but this movie is basically an overblown TNG two parter and I can't think of any two parter I'd put it above.

i can only think of one: "descent".

 

[Terok Nor]

i can only think of one: "descent".

I liked the Beverly portions of that two parter and the fact Lore and Hugh were in it but yeah its not great.

 

[pst]

I liked the Beverly portions of that two parter and the fact Lore and Hugh were in it but yeah its not great.

oh totally, but generally speaking i'd watch insurrection over most TNG season 7 episodes.

on another note, i was just thinking about how we almost got this little gem in insurrection too:

which... i just can't.