Star Trek: Insurrection Review
by James Sanford (jasanfor AT MCI2000 DOT com)January 1st, 1999
There's a time-honored theory among hardcore viewers of the "Star Trek" films: Every odd-numbered movie in the series stinks.
For example, the first, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," was a long-winded yawn, but the follow-up, "The Wrath of Khan" was terrific fun. The third, "Search For Spock," was mildly tedious, but the fourth, "The Journey Home," spiced up the usual formula with romance and wacky humor, as the Enterprise crew tried to fit in in contemporary San Francisco. And so on and on. "Star Trek: Insurrection" is the ninth installment, following 1996's "First Contact," which many regard as one of the very finest of the bunch. "Insurrection" doesn't have the nightmarish visuals of that film, or as strong a story, but it features enough goofy humor and clever plot twists to qualify as the "Trek" that effectively breaks the curse.
The movie's single best feature is its villain Ru'afo, played with scornful malevolence by F. Murray Abraham; he can take his place alongside Alice Krige's Borg Queen in "First Contact" and Ricardo Montalban's Khan as a memorably creepy nemesis.
Ru'afo is the leader of a race that ages so quickly they must frequently subject themselves to the scariest onscreen face-lifts since Katherine Helmond's nip and tuck in "Brazil." So who can blame him and his gang for wanting to move to a planet where pulsating rings of radiation have allowed the peaceful Baku to remain both youthfully spry and as mellow as the inhabitants of Shangri-La?
After meeting the Baku, most of whom talk like they've read too much Rod McKuen ("A single moment in time can be a universe in itself," theorizes one), Picard (Patrick Stewart) decides to prevent Ru'afo's planned relocation of the tribe to another world. Cue the requisite explosions, chases and perils.
But though it moves swiftly, Michael Piller's screenplay takes a few breaks for romance -- Picard and Riker (Jonathan Frakes, who also directed) each get a love interest -- and laughs, as Data (Brett Spiner) rehearses "HMS Pinafore" and Picard re-discovers the magic of the mambo. If the picture errs on the side of touchy-feely occasionally, it still manages to regain its bearings in time for a suspenseful climax that includes a major surprise regarding Ru'afo.
Though it's not quite top-flight, "Insurrection" is reasonable fun and its tale of eternal life is quite fitting in this, the 20th anniversary of the "Star Trek" movies. Live long and prosper, indeed.
James Sanford
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