"We are betraying the principles on which the franchise was founded. It's an attack upon its very soul."
"And it will destroy the integrity of those characters, just as characters have been destroyed in every rebooted franchise throughout history."
"Jean-Luc, it's set in an alternate timeline. We're only changing a few things."
"And how many changes does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong? Ten, twenty, a hundred?"
"How many changes does it take, Admiral?!"
"I'm making Spock french Uhura in a turbolift."
"Post in whatever forum you wish. By the time you do Kirk will have a motorbike."
Y'know, this movie has a much worse reputation than it deserves. After NEMESIS and NuTrek, I can't say I fault it much. It has two major issues -- one is that it tries too hard to be a big Hollywood action movie, and falls into all the cliches thereof. The second is that it doesn't really seem important, plotwise, in the grand scheme of things. It comes across as a two-hour episode of TNG with better effects and more shooting.
I mean, every other Trek movie depicts events significant to the overall story. But INSURRECTION, produced while DS9 was on, was clearly made with the intent of being accessible to an audience who weren't watching that show. But in making it accessible, it comes across as an irrelevant side story. The most significant things to come out of this movie are the renewed Troi/Riker romance (shown on-screen) and the Dominion finding an Alpha Quadrant supply of white (implied by the aftermath).
There are some good scenes here, good drama, but it's undercut by all the violence, explosions and lame attempts at humour. Data in particular is occasionally saddled with some character assassination in favour of some cheap laughs. Picard's rebellion, while appropriate to his character and coming off more than a little like an Ernest Hemingway hero, doesn't really have any consequences since he's so clearly right and Ru'afo and the Admiral so clearly in the wrong. I always thought it funny that Ebert didn't like the movie because he more or less sided with the Admiral's reasoning that better medical technology for the Federation's population of 800 billion or so is worth taking immortality from 600 people (Needs of the Many, right?)
But I see what Piller was going for, a return to the TNG style of ethical dilemmas and grand speeches from Picard. But it just feels so inconsequential. The movie itself is all right, well produced and put together, but never really excels into something special. To this day I still don't get what they were trying to do with the whole slow-down-time-Jedi-powers thing.
INSURRECTION is not a bad Trek movie. But it's probably the most easily skippable one.
5/10
1. STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT
2. STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
3. STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
4. STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME
5. STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE
6. STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK
7. STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER
8. STAR TREK: GENERATIONS
9. STAR TREK: INSURRECTION
10. STAR TREK
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