Insurrection was the best NG movie.

[RyuRoots]

Incidentally, INS is by far the worst TNG movie to me. I liked Generations, absolutely loved First Contact (FC ties with XI for my favorite ST movie, a tad above VI) and Nemesis....while very disappointing, was still better than Insurrection to me. It's like...how to put it...Nemesis actively does more wrong, but Insurrection just fumbles and drops the ball more. That funny review buy that one old guy on youtube sums up a lot of Insurrection's flaws. I mostly agree with Too Much Fun, especially about the humor.

Anij to me was also just another love of the week. I hated that crap on television, and it's just as bad in the movie form. Just another random woman who we'll never hear of again once this episode-I mean movie-is finished. She was pretty bland, too. It's not even that I hate her. She just didn't really evoke anything for me, and I don't get on a personal note what Picard saw in her.

And as that youtube review says, it seems like Picard is acting a bit out of character for the sake of moving the plot forward. There was a similar situation in Journey's End (only there, I think the Indians had more right to that land), and Picard followed his orders even though he wasn't happy about it.

I also was not emotionally invested in the story or the Baku. The whole time I thought "...so move them. Who cares?" So less than a thousand people will no longer have unnatural immortality. I'm failing to see the tragedy here. They're not indigenous to this planet either, and they were just planning to relocate them, not slaughter them all (not at first, anyway).

 

[Psion]

The biggest problem I have with First Contact, and the reason I count Insurrection as the superior outing, is the way it completely neutralized the horrifically alien nature of the Borg. With the personification of the Borg Queen, they went from a distributed intellect to drones controlled with another hum drum authoritarian hierarchy. It's as though the writers heard the concept "hive mind" and thought that implied a structure similar to social insects.

There are lots of other elements that bug me on a nit-picking level, but this movie killed the Borg and made them a B-grade nemesis.

Speaking of "nemesis", Nemesis and Generations are riddled with really bad ideas and aren't even in the running, even if there's enough left over for me to have enjoyed each in the theater.

Insurrection doesn't get a free pass. I'm disappointed in Picard for finding the Baku's lifestyle so appealing. This was a man of science ... an explorer, an ambassador, and a bit of the conquistador, who strives to look past every horizon, and he is suddenly tempted to stay in one place for century after century and do ... nothing? No way ... deep inside, he should have abhorred the very thought. These people had become intoxicated and addicted to a narcotic fountain of youth and abandoned their culture.

Let's not forget the ridiculous joystick, the simplistic Baku and Sona, the bizarre physics of the ultra-dense Briar Patch nebula (I blame TWOK for this misconception), the flotation device, and ... boobs. And will someone please explain to me how perceptually slowing time could possibly have aided Anij after the cave-in?

 

[Chrisisall]

I also was not emotionally invested in the story or the Baku. The whole time I thought "...so move them. Who cares?"

I would kill you where you stand, were you not my commanding officer.

 

[kustirider2]

I really liked Insurrection. I liked how Data had a friendly relationship with a child that kinda helped him become more 'human'. I also liked the scenery and landscapes, and how it was always sunny.

 

[Chrisisall]

Let's not forget the ridiculous ... boobs.

Let's regenerate your pectoral muscles, and see no comment from YOU!

And will someone please explain to me how perceptually slowing time could possibly have aided Anij after the cave-in?

Slowing the subjective perception of time could effect the heart rate, and blood loss; are you a doctor, or a doorstop?

 

[RyuRoots]

I also was not emotionally invested in the story or the Baku. The whole time I thought "...so move them. Who cares?"

I would kill you where you stand, were you not my commanding officer.

I wonder how well that response works when you're a Fleet Captain and I'm a commander. >_>;

But really, that was a huge issue for me. In Journey's End, I felt bad for the Indian dudes. At the same time I didn't envy Picard since he was being the dutiful captain despite any feelings on the matter. In Insurrection, I just didn't feel anything.

 

[Psion]

And will someone please explain to me how perceptually slowing time could possibly have aided Anij after the cave-in?

Slowing the subjective perception of time could effect the heart rate, and blood loss; are you a doctor, or a doorstop?

Sure, I could buy that as a side-effect for the person who slows time, but the onlooker as well? All he did was prolong Anij's suffering!

 

[Colonel Midnight]

^ Indeed. I never quite got that whole scene. You're stuck in a cave-in, and you slow down time to do... what?

Anywho, INS for me was the first realization that 'Modern Trek' was inherently broken. To this day, it's the only movie I walked out on... and because of the bad taste it left in my mind, I haven't watched NEM. Apparently, I haven't missed much, from what I've seen/read about the latter.

To each his/her own, though...

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Funny, especially the comment about the costumes.

The film would've been so much better almost as is, if the filmmakers intentionally had the heroes fight the wrong battle. That's never been done in a film and would have made it interesting

 

[Cyke101]

That Zephram was an idiot drunk, as WELL as a genius?

Hey, ain't nothing wrong with that. Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were well-docmented manwhores and they started a country!

Insurrection had a good story with believable character motivations, good FX,

These points I'd argue with the most. While the Baku had the motivation to, y'know, stay alive and on their home, our band of merry heroes' motivations were never beyond saving a group of people. Other motivations they may have had were the result of the planet's influence upon them. Motivations brought upon by gimmick rather than character development is mostly meaningless in the end.

As for the FX, even 10 years ago I remember asking myself if the FX crew had taken a step back, not just from FC but from Generations as well. The shot of the Captain's Yacht detaching from the Enterprise, back then, looked like a cut scene from a video game rather than from a sci-fi epic.

Now, had the original premise for INS been truly played out, that is "Heart of Darkness" in space (or a kinder, gentler "Apocalypse Now" in space), then I could perhaps stick with it. Trek's been mostly good with moral dilemma and mystery and intrigue, and in such a setup, the story would be much more dependent on character development, rather than the other way around the way it is in INS.

Then again, that's my problem with a few Trek films. The story shapes the characters, rather than the characters shaping the story.

 

[trevanian]

Funny, especially the comment about the costumes.

The film would've been so much better almost as is, if the filmmakers intentionally had the heroes fight the wrong battle. That's never been done in a film and would have made it interesting

Well that was the original thing. Picard kills Data, THEN finds out Data was doing the right thing. Being Picard, i guess he doesn't lose any sleep over it, but even so ...

 

[JarodRussell]

I really enjoy Insurrection. I love the music, I like the action (although the Enterprise takes a bit too many punches, there could have been a much better space battle), there are many original ideas, and it simply FEELS like TNG.

 

[Chrisisall]

it simply FEELS like TNG.

 

[RandyS]

I know I'll end up being hit by a lot of tomatoes for saying this, but I've always like Insurrection. Of all the Next Gen movies, it was the one that felt most like Next Generation.

No sweat. I hated Insurrection my self and my opinions for it match popular opinion, but I can understand your affection for it. I like Nemesis in the same way, and everybody seems to hate that one too.

And I promise to shield you from the tomatoes if you'll return the favor.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

This is the only Trek movie that I believe I've only seen once. I'll qualify that a bit - I did pay to see Insurrection once; I've seen Nemesis twice, but it was free on each occasion.

I was just completely unimpressed. I wouldn't even call Insurrection a bad movie; it was a movie that didn't interest me at all.

 

[Chrisisall]

I wouldn't even call Insurrection a bad movie; it was a movie that didn't interest me at all.

So, you don't like to have fun...?

 

[sonak]

I agree with other comments about the fundamentally flawed premise of this movie. The TNG crew are NOT the good guys in this movie. Why are they backing a self-centered group of Luddites? I also think it's dumb the way they stack the deck against the Son'a with their arms dealing and drug dealing and that they're (GASP) ugly! while the Baku seem largely attractive.


Also, I'm not clear as to why the Baku wouldn't have benefitted from the Federation and Sona's harnesssing of the planet's "youth rays" even away from the planet just as much as the next group of people. They just simply didn't want to move from a planet that wasn't even their place of origin????? Can someone elaborate on this point?

 

[Aragorn]

This was the first Trek movie where, when it ended, I wondered what the hell I just wasted two hours on (I was too young to comprehend how bad The Final Frontier was).

If Kirk had lived in Generations, he would've died in Insurrection and his last lines would've been, "It was... not fun... at all! Oh my..."

 

[Hober Mallow]

Generations was a dud.

Agreed.

First Contact was certainly exciting enough, but what did it really have to say?

That Trek fans don't want an intelligent coherent SF story, they just want slam-bang action, with cool cameos like Dixon Hill, Barclay, the Voyager Doctor, and Zephram Cochran. FC sucked donkey balls.

And Nemesis...well, nuff said...

Agreed.

Insurrection had a good story with believable character motivations, good FX, and a meaningful & subtle semi-love interest for Picard.

I don't agree with a single one of those points, except the good FX part.

About half-way through the movie, I started wondering when I was supposed to be drawn into the story, when I was supposed to care. Piller based the story on "The Magnificent Seven," itself based on the Akira Kurosawa film "Seven Samurai." What made "Seven Samurai" a compelling film was that all the characters had deep character motivations for doing what they do. There was conflict between the Samurai and the villagers they were supposed to protect; they have a rocky history of distrust. The villagers are no saints; they've killed passing Samurai in the past. Likewise the Samurai have a history of mistreating the villagers.

Now take that compelling story, take away all the personal character motivations, all of the conflict between the Villagers and the Samurai, and have the Samurai defend the villagers simply and only because they're supposed to be the heroes of the movie, and strip away all ambiguity so that good is clearly good and evil is clearly evil, and you have Insurrection, the least interesting adaption of Seven Samurai ever filmed.

BTW, I recommend renting Seven Samurai, one of the greatest films ever made, to see what Insurrection could have been.

I've heard much negativity about it, but rarely much beyond "Meh, it's like a long episode!"
LOL, like that's a bad thing???

It wouldn't be were it a long good episode. I will say I love the opening sequence, though, with Data going crazy. And I definitely appreciated a story without time travel.

 

[RyuRoots]

[That Trek fans don't want an intelligent coherent SF story, they just want slam-bang action, with cool cameos like Dixon Hill, Barclay, the Voyager Doctor, and Zephram Cochran.

That Trek fans don't want an intelligent coherent SF story, they just want slam-bang action, with cool cameos like Kirstie Alley and a 1-dimensional original series villain. Apply it to any Star Trek movie you dislike (except TMP or TVH), it's easy.

And yes, problem was that INS was a bad TNG 2-parter.