Star Trek: Insurrection
reviewed by Vincent Vaughn
Star Trek: Insurrection is the 9th (and depending on how well it does at the box office, possibly the last) Star Trek film to hit the silver screen. For all intents and purposes, it is an extended TV episode without commercials.
The basic premise is the good guys (the bridge crew of the Enterprise) must save the seemingly-primitive, peace-loving, and rather attractive humanoid alien species from the evil, ugly, stretch-faced, drastically-more-technologically-advanced bad-guy humanoid alien species who want to mine the previously-unknown-planet's ring system for its remarkable healing, age-reversing, and life-prolonging properties. To complicate matters, the bad-guy aliens have in their midst the token grandfatherly-looking-but-obviously-misled Federation admiral who orders Captain Picard not to get too involved in this planet's affairs. In spite of this staleness, I still enjoyed it and found it to be a good, fun movie.
Very early on in the movie, the Federation is opening diplomatic relations with a new species that has just discovered warp drive. The Enterprise, being the flag ship of the Federation, is sent to host a dinner party for this new species. There is a humorous moment when Picard greets the diminutive species and they present him with a "token of appreciation".
The good news is that the costume designer for the movie saw it fit to redesign the dress uniforms for the occasion. The bad news is that the dress uniforms were changed from the long tunic-looking thing with cheap trim applied along the seam lines to a uniform that looked very reminiscent of nautical (both commercial and military) dinner outfits (you know the tuxedo-looking things). I like the fact that they used nice contrasting colors for the uniforms. Black pants and boots and white high collar on a close-fitting jacket that came to a slight point in the front. As most people know, in Star Trek, they use three defining colors for the personnel divisions: red for command, blue for sciences and gold for general services. This is carried over into the new dress uniform with a section of the appropriate color about 5 inches wide running down the center front of the new white jacket. The Captain's jacket, however, has a white center front section, as well. (After all he is the Captain and has to look spiffier than the other crew members.)
Down on the planet, the "primitive" species' outfits are typical of Trek depictions of low-tech home-spun material so there's nothing really remarkable or spectacular about it. The same cannot be said about the bad-guy aliens, however. As per Trek standards, the bad-guy aliens are not pleasant to look at. Added to this are scenes where a number of the aliens are literally having face-lifts. It involves pulling the skin taut to lessen the wrinkles and then stapling the skin in place to keep that "youthful" appearance. It's a visual thing and every time one of the "beauticians" shot a staple in, some of the audience that I could see, jumped. Then there were the big-head bad-guy alien accomplices. These folks made up about half the evil crew and all of the beauticians. The accomplices' outfits were generally lighter in weight and closer fitting. I was impressed with the beauticians' outfits, in particular . Since I could detect no obvious seams or texture, my thinking is that the outfit was probably made out of latex. It also looked like it was a metallic copper color and then airbrushed with some darker shadows for definition. All this led to an outfit with a very smooth line that begged to be touched and caressed.
Where the "primitive" aliens had simple clothing, earth-tone colors and very little, if any, jewelry or decoration or anything that might convey any kind of high tech manufacturing process, the bad-guy aliens are just the opposite bordering on opulence, the clothing much darker and heavier with accents of polished metal and plastic. The whole outfit gave the impression of protecting the body from the effects of deterioration (heavy boots and pants, thigh-length tunic and hooded jacket that comes down to just above the knee and heavy gloves.). Which is exactly what is happening to the bad-guy aliens' bodies. In one scene, the leader of the bad-guy aliens is in Picard's office and is so upset because Picard is interfering with his efforts that he literally bursts a blood vessel close to the surface of the skin on his forehead. Another trip to "Francine's Futuristic Face Fix-it and Toxic Fluid Extraction Boutique" and the head bad-nasty is - well, still bad and still nasty but no longer bleeding.
The scenic special effects for Insurrection are also part of what made this a fun movie for me to watch. I think the best way to view this film is on the big screen specifically because of the space scenes. They are expansive and full of astronomical detail. The images of the nebula that the Enterprise flies through and eventually does combat in are remarkably similar to those that have recently come from the Hubble Space Telescope. The colors are rich and the photography used implies depth and distance although the scale seems a little off in places. The atmospheric flights are handled quite well, too. The scene where two shuttlecraft are locked together plummeting towards the planet below was as dizzying and gut-wrenching as it should be when falling 20,000 feet in less than 15 seconds.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give Star Trek: Insurrection a 3½.