Movie Notes: Star Trek 9: Insurrection

May 15th, 2009

= 2 stars

Starring Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner
Directed by Jonathan Frakes

Synopsis

The Enterprise must thwart a plot by the plastic-surgery obsessed alien race Ru’afo to take over a planet occupied by the peaceful and technology-eschewing Ba’ku people.

The Good

• Starts out with an amusing mystery of why Data goes nuts.
• A few scattered, neat moments, such as the discovery of the relationship between the Luddite Ba’ku and the Ru’afo. The latter race is obsessed with plastic surgery, kind of the like the mom from Brazil.
• Stewart — as usual — is solid as Picard.

The Bad

• The Ba’ku eschew technology, but turn out to be rather selfish folks that want to keep their planet all to themselves. Can’t 600 people say, spread out a bit and share?
• All tension is eliminated once one realizes this will play out like an episode of self-contained television — there’s no question the cerebral Enterprise crew will resolve everything by film’s end. The story’s justification for the movie treatment never arrives.
• Save for Picard and a few funny lines by Data and Worf, all other characters are completely forgettable.

Conclusion

Star Trek 9 isn’t anywhere near as terrible as the travesty that is Star Trek V — everyone acts in character and the plot works out exactly like you’d expect from Trek — which creates a different sort of problem. Despite twice as many locations and characters than either Star Trek 1 or 7, it actually makes the future seem like a real snore — and that’s bad sci fi.

IMDB: Star Trek 9: Insurrection
Wikipedia: Star Trek 9: Insurrection
Rotten Tomatoes: Star Trek 9: Insurrection