ST09 Trailer Countdown: A Look At ST:Insurrection’s Trailer November 11, 2008
by TrekMovie.com Staff , Filed under: Feature Films (TMP-NEM) , trackback
While the Trek world absorbs more and more descriptions and reviews of the upcoming Star Trek trailer, the anticipation mounts. With just two days to go, let us distract you with the next film in our trailer retrospective, 1998’s Star Trek Insurrection.
Who the hell are we…
Theatrical trailer for Star Trek: Insurrection.
Commentary:
The trailer begins as does the feature film, with images of the idyllic Baku village, before revealing the sci-fi adventure to come. Trying to get the same audience as the successful First Contact, Paramount amps up the action through the use of faster and faster edits and trying again to dip into the worlds of catch phrases, with Data’s "saddle up…lock and load" delivering much better than Picard’s "Who the hell are we to determine the next evolution of these people?"). Yet this trailer reveals that Insurrection, possibly more than any other Trek film, focuses on the moral issues faced by the crew. The film taps into the late 1990s individualistic zeitgeist with its notions of being defiant and joining the rebellion. But, in the end, the trailer doesn’t really sell the film well beyond saying "there’s a new Star Trek movie coming with Picard, the gang and that guy from Amadeus." But hey, Riker shaved his beard, that alone should be worth the price of admission right?
Teaser: There is a world…
Can you get more clichéd the starting off a trailer with the gravelly-voice guy saying "there is a world…"? The teaser gets better from there, setting the stakes of the film and even showing some of the effects shots.
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Comments»
Well, what can be said. Good trailer, bad movie. The beginning of the end for TNG. Who thought that plastic surgery would be a good Trek plot?
First-Haha!
Pretty tame movie.
Move on, give us the new trailer!!!
arggh-i was beaten to first.
I rescind my earlier remark!!
I thought it was kinda cool how the Paramount Logo disappeared and the camera went down to the Baku planet surface.
This was the first Star Trek movie, based on the merits of the trailer, that I did not see in the theaters, and is also the only one with the distinction of one single viewing.
But how about Picard slowing down time with the power of love?
I love love power.
Yeah same here. I didn’t even bother to see it opening day. I knew I would see it eventually.
Look, any movie with No Riker Beard isn’t for Remington Steele.
No Beard = No William T. Riker charisma.
LMAO and here I thought Nemesis was bad. I completely forgot about this junker!!! Almost as bad as that new Enterprise design…..almost
=0D
Well, the new Enterprise is gorgeous, but for the engines looking a little too like an American car of the 1950s…
This film, by contrast, was another abomination. Nearly as unwatchable as Generations, it showed once again why Star Trek 6 should have been the last film for a long, long time.
Tedious, inept, juvenile garbage. A waste of celluloid.
Just to add to my previous comments that I DO appreciate any attempt to inject philosophy back into Trek after the disturbing increase in violence in recent films but this was just very poorly handled here. Very poorly conceived and executed.
As an episode of TNG, this would have been great. As a movie? No.
This was a so-and-so movie, the first one a walked out of the cinema and thought: “So what?”
It wasn’t big, no event whatsoever, just a lame TNG two-parter with some nice SFX…the story would have made a great episode, but that’s not movie stuff…
positive:
- nice visuals of the Briar Patch
- romantic moments for Picard and Geordie
- Riker beardless again
- nice use of the quest for the “fountain of eternal youth” idea
- great acting by Patrick Stewart
negative:
- So’na makeup and background story (too contreived)
- the entire holoship conspiracy…lame NG gimmick…
- the joystick
- lame score (just the themes was nice)
- some bad SFX (shuttle pursuit)
- that collector was a lame rip off of DS9’s Bajoran “Explorers” ship
- lame and unispired directing by Frakes (what the hell happend? His job on FC was pure genious!)
- poor lines and partly bad acting by Brent Spiner (those jokes were awful)
- no action for Troy, Crusher, Geordie…it never worked as an ensemble movie like FC
Overall, a major let-down, only made worse by its horrible successor (which had a better plot but even worse directing and cinematography)
My favorite Star Trek movie, very TNG, excellent family movie, great use of the whole crew and we finally see some of the Enterprise E in action. Brilliant
For the second time, i feell asleep in a star trek movie. The first was TMP.
While the movie has its few moments. I felt that i didnt care about what the enterprise crew was doing, I could care less about the sona or any of the villians in this debacle. I didnt care about the admiral either , even though he wa a great villain in omega man. all i can say is that they tried to make a decent movie but we all got short changed in the end I think i’ll try watching it again soon, maybe illlgive it another chance.
Enough with the “gravelly-voice guy!!” I’m pretty sure it was Don LaFontaine!
I quite enjoyed Insurrection in the theater, but it didn’t leave a lasting impression.
They somehow lost the lesson of First Contact’s success, which was to make the story matter. Something must be at stake worthy of a movie, either to humanity (TMP, TVH, TUC, FC) or to the characters (TWOK & TSFS.)
The prime directive and previously unknown Baku don’t really pull an audience’s hearts.
I’ve said it once and i’ll say it again, how can you make THIS movie after such a rip-roaring dark and successful grown up film?!?
Whilst Insurrection was boldly killing Picard and Co. there was such a rich storyline developing in the same era with DS9!
This along with the studio’s wish to set Trek back on a ship and tell stories that were TNG/X-Files hybrids (Voyager) killed so much potential set by DS9 and First Contact.
the fall from grace had never been so fast.
Lazy ass and cheap movie, such cringe-worthy contrived moment’s – “Hey Data what do you think we should do?!”. Hated it when i saw it first time, don’t hate it anymore, just dont like it! uh and some of those fx shots, thats wot u get for being cheap berman.
YUCK!
This was the first Trek film I did not see in a theater. Waited until the dvd and even then I was not so happy. Can i fully say how yucky this is?
Overblown (yet mediocre) TNG-episode. ’nuff said.
(Nice trailer, though)
guess what? did y’all look at the trailer closely? hello…AGAIN those bermanesque idiots reused enterprise-d footage from generations and moreover added fleet battle footage from first contact…
The closest thing TNG ever did to the original series. Too bad so many fans lost their way and couldn’t see that this truly did contain the essence of what Star Trek is all about.
The teaser trailer has some really good music, the piece in the beginning is from the Star Trek V score. It fits perfectly.
I would love to get my hands on Michael Pllers ‘Heart of Darkness’-draft of the script, before Berman and Stewart decided they want to do a comedy instead of a First Contact-followup. I guess it would haven been 10 times better than this piece of garbage.
And whoever was responsible for the effects in that one should never be allowed to touch a computer ever again.
Zzzzzzzzz – oh wait. It’s been 10 years? What the?
Hmmm……You All Know What I think about it.
So rather than be predictable and just bash it, I’ll tell you why I wanted to go and see it in the first place. coming off the Heels of all the Life and Death and Doom and Gloom of FC and Generations, I just had a Feeling that a More light hearted Movie was going to follow. And that’s fine so long as It’s interesting. The Voyage Home was Funny, but it was also filled with character development. I read the Original description of what Insurrection was going to be and I got excited. It said something like The Crew betrays Star Fleet to protect an Alien Planet and the (Baku) who have Magic like abilities. I thought “Oh wow it sounds Very interesting.” I instantly began to picture How Alien the Baku would look.(They didn’t, they look Human) I kept thinking why are they picking on Worf so much?
I mean He just lost His Wife for crying out loud You silly bastards.
(AND yes I know Klingons Don’t F%#$ing Grieve!!) My point is that Frakes did Everything he possibly could to turn anything into a joke
in this film, and None of it was Funny. Afterward I was definitely Feeling Aggressive tendencies.
Clearly the turkey of the bunch then. Even those who tried to like it just plain can’t. I’d rather watch Nemesis. Which is saying something. But on the strength (or weakness?) of Insurrection, I didn’t bother going to see Nemesis in the cinema.
I just remembered something: Frakes did record an audio commentary for IX, but they did not put it on the DVD, apparently because he was very open about what went wrong with the project. I remember it being available for download somehwhere in the net ages ago. Does anyone happen to have the thing? I never listened to it.
******************BREAKING NEWS*************************************
I just read in the papers that George Takei is going to be in the new series of “I’m a celebrity……..”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv-entertainment/imacelebrity/
Oh yeah, sorry I had to put it in here-its the most recent thread!
Oh where d poop did “Transport Inhibitors” come from, oh and how selfish are the Bak’u they had a good run on the planet, the few hundred of them could have helped “billions”, but no, they insisted on “living in the moment”, thats a bit rich, considering they can’t age!! Ah i could go on and on, Oh yeah and that relationship between Data and the boy just freaked me out lol, my favourite scene would have to be Worf’s return to the enterprise, they really had a plausible explanation for him being on board.
Picard – ” Mister Worf! what the hell are you doing here ”
Worf – ” Oh i was just in cough cough cough cough, mumble mumble mumble mumble” lol priceless
..okay one more scene, picard returning to the ceremony of the oompa loompa’s joing the federation, – Door closed, no smile, Door Open’s, Picard Smiling – shame he did’nt realise the door was glass.
I kind of always liked the special effects…
There’s a rich, dark, painterly quality to them that you don’t see every day. However, INSURRECTION holds the dubious distinction for me as the only TREK film I intentionally missed in the theaters. It just screamed: “Typical TNG episode stretched out to 2 hours.”
like the trailer. but movie is a failier.. unfortunetly
Okay, I just watched it again….
YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK!
Yeeesh … how could anyone get excited about movies with this cast of boring and derivative characters? And this one is a turkey right on time for Thanksgiving. It runs like a long episode of the show … very dull when compared to the original series. Glossy, slick and boring. Glad the new film has the sense to return to Trek’s roots with the characters from TOS.
30 – “Typical TNG episode stretched out to 2 hours.”
I read this right after my previous post and couldn’t agree more. Look how ugly things get when stretched too thin — just like F. Murray Abraham’s face! ;)
#7 – Riker has charisma? Where’s he been hiding it all these years?
A massive disappointment after first contact.
#35 – Of Course the man has Charisma.
This picture proves it:
http://www.motifake.com/index.php?start=5573
#16 – I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here. There just wasn’t enough at stake. As Admiral Dougherty points out, “it’s only 600 people”. It’s not as if they were being exterminated or anything.
Yes, I get its about forced relocation and prime directive – would’ve worked fine as a 2-parter (even a 3-parter), but not as a feature.
‘They somehow lost the lesson of First Contact’s success, which was to make the story matter. Something must be at stake worthy of a movie, either to humanity (TMP, TVH, TUC, FC) or to the characters (TWOK & TSFS.)
The prime directive and previously unknown Baku don’t really pull an audience’s hearts.’
There are analogies in the real world, of people we do not know, who need our help in the face of ultimate defeat and/or Genocide. Rwanda for example. How is the analogy not pretty straight forward?
I thought this film, better than any of the other next generation films, captured the essence of trek at its finest. The philosophy of caring about the fate of those who you may not have identified with yesterday but whom surely impact your life today.
This coupled with the moral Dilemma of the eternal life question make it one of the best trek moments in the history of trekdom. So what if it’s not paced like a feature film? So what if it’s subdued by philosophy?
I nodded off during this movie. THAT had never happened at a Trek film before.
CGI ships: piss poor, especially the alien horseshoes.
Inflatable Data: dumb dumb dumb.
Plot: felt recycle.
Casting: Mixed. Main parts were fine. Love Donna Murphy. But, the rest of the villager looked like Southern California mall rats.
Locations: Mixed. Nice mountains, stupid, tiny village with four feet of tilled earth.
Trailer: Even F. Murray Abraham… and Don LaFontaine… couldn’t save this movie.
i think if they had gone in this direction insurrection might have had a lot more impact —- WATCH – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Coklq_pA0 – far superior to what ended up on the silver screen i think you’ll all agree.
This film had a good story, but in the end it seemed like an episode. And this little village, a few buildings for 600 people?? Really not believable! And most of all it had very BAD CGI, the worst since STV:Final Frontier.
BUT…the typical TNG-idealism was very positive and really I missed it for the last two feature films before this one here.
welcome to the worst trk film ever….TrekV’s marshmellons and Scotty’s bump on the head have nothing on Worfs zits…….
37 – LMAO! Yes, I don’t have it — nor do I want it (or dysentery, malaria, STDs, etc.) ;)
PS:
For those haven’t had the pleasure to read this gem yet:
The REAL script:
http://movies.trekcore.com/insurrection/insufficient.txt
The beginning of the teaser with the paramount disappearing behind the forest, still gives me goosebumps. It’s almost magic. The theatrical trailer is OK I guess. In difference from other posters, I love both Piccy’s and Data’s lines, they’re dead on!
@21 HSIV:
“guess what? did y’all look at the trailer closely? hello…AGAIN those bermanesque idiots reused enterprise-d footage from generations and moreover added fleet battle footage from first contact…”
Calm down for heaven’s sake and stop blaming Berman for everything. Obviously the effects weren’t finished in time for the teaser. Big deal.
@22 Phil
“The closest thing TNG ever did to the original series. Too bad so many fans lost their way and couldn’t see that this truly did contain the essence of what Star Trek is all about.”
I agree. If you don’t appreciate that with this film then I’m afraid you simply haven’t got what Gene’s vision was all about and I suggest you watch Stargate-SG1, Battlestar Galactica or any of the other just-for-some-cool-space-action, dumbed-down sci-fi series without a real spirit. I’ll admit, I wasn’t too thrilled about this film the first time I saw it, but I’ve learned to love the soul of it and it has actually become one of the most important ST films for me.
Yes, it is flawed, the whole revenge theme from Son’a against the Ba’ku isn’t quite working. But if you focus on that, then you will completely lose the heart of the film. First of all, Jerry Goldsmith’s score is simply amazing. The scenes between Picard and Anij are pure gold. It’s a film with a lot of sensitivity and warmth. As a romantic feature it works brilliantly.
I can’t quite understand people relentless hate for this film, even saying that Nemesis is decent in comparison. Now Nemesis is pure trash, it has nothing that makes Star Trek unique, but more about that tomorrow I guess.
Insurrection is about standing up for something, and caring about your fellow man, so if you think that is nonsense and prefer “every man for themselves” well then I guess you’ll hate everything with this one…
“Insurrection is about standing up for something, and caring about your fellow man…”
The problem is that that theme is buried in a boring movie. Who cares about the B’a'a’k'u’? If the S’o'n’a’ had just built 15,000 five-star resorts everywhere on the planet except their village, and then moved in, there would be no conflict. But no, they had to build a huge CGI thingie in space that would kill the B’a'k’u'u. It’s all so contrived… and cheap. The film looks cheap. The jokes are cheap. The villain looks cheap (2-dimentional.)
I have no problem with the ideas. I have a big problem with the crappiness of this movie.
@47 CmdrR: Yes, but didn’t I just tell you to look beyond that? ;-P
The first movie that was not a R. D. Moore and B. Braga collaboration…and it shows…
I have fallen asleep on this movie EVERY time I have tried to watch it. Still not sure how it ends? -CSM
I liked the film, it was real, clean, interesting and fun. It wasn’t as bombastic as some but it was an interesting story and ride. It also honored Trek in every way. You want to watch a bad movie? Watch ST 5 or 10. 10 was absolutely ridiculous, another data buried in the sand with his micro radiation being picked up by a starship hundreds of light years away? Total Crap
OK.
So i hated and was bored by this film when it came out.
but i recently saw it on TV and was very interested.
The scale of the film is really the only problem with keeping our interest.
Our “reality” is that on Earth 600 people are being displaced every minute. It makes it harder for us to believe that these boring little hippies don’t at least slightly deserve the shove.
Would it have been better if it was an entire world of ageless people? And that they were happy there, but also getting ready to flood the Federation with ageless people? and the Feds were xenophobic?
At that point Sona could have been interesting, and the Fed Admiral could have been interesting.
Some of the stakes had to be adjusted. A few Borg can be scary. These dudes were two bit villians.
This would have made a nice tng series 2 parter but not for a Blockbuester movie. They so missed the boat on this. I mean on Ds9 at the time there was the Dominion war going on and they should have done something with that and gave us some real action and battles and stories with great plots. Not this Story that no one cared about. I did see this on opening day and this is the only Trek Movie that i have seen only once at the movie theater. It was a fine Tv Episode but not a great blockbuster.
The article asks: “Can you get more clichéd the starting off a trailer with the gravelly-voice guy saying “there is a world…”?
Yes. You can have someone say: “Maybe you were meant for something different, something… bigger” to someone the audience knows is destined to be a hero :)
So, yes. A big fat yes.
Insurrection had the unenviable task of following up First Contact. Its biggest problem was that there was NOTHING the creators could do that would have lived up to fans’ expectations after FC.
While it is true that the scope of this movie is probably more suited to the small screen than the big screen, I still thought this was a good movie. After the success of First Contact, they HAD to go in a different direction, because there was no way they could top it. A smaller, more intimate movie was a good idea, it just didn’t work for a lot of people, I guess.
But what Insurrection does have is a very “Star Trek” story. More action, more big battles…this is not really what Star Trek is about (though that is part of it being a big sci-fi adventure). Insurrection has a lot more character, and an exploration of a moral issue, which is a hallmark of all really good Trek.
I like this movie. It only seems a bit inferior because it was smaller in scale, and it was the followup to the really great First Contact.
Funny, I liked this movie when it first came out but when I go back and watch the DVD’s I’m like, what did I see in it? Yeah, this one was just a glorified TV episode maybe one notch above Generations.
Not my favourite, but still liked it a lot. Very close to the TNG series.
Hated the poor CGI. All of it.
@54 S. John Ross:
LOL, I agree! And how about:
“One man… is about to find out…”
or
“This summer…”.
Now, THAT is more clichéd!
I have to be honest, Insurrection is the only TNG film I own (only a VHS, though). I guess my low expectations of TNG helped make Insurrection work for me. (TNG never worked for me, despite being a cheerleader for it from the day it was announced.)
Insurrection had lousy villains (face-stretching?!?!) but an interesting moral dilemma (don’t “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”?). Sure, it had Worf’s giant zit (typical TNG stuff) but it also had that wonderful scene of Geordi watching the sun rise.
Heck, I liked it better than STVI: TUC (which was a mockery of the TOS characters). Insurrection was an overblown episode, sure, but NONE of the TNG movies felt like MOVIES to me.
Lame jokes about Klingon zits and all… This flick was a travesty. – Another giant aBermanation. That perpetual puffy, sleepy look in the eyes of Picard’s love interest mirrored only a fraction of the collective attitude of the theater audience, as I recall.
I was just watching Generations and got so angry, and then i watched the beginning again and the champagne bottle in outer space and hit the enterprise b and liquid came out everywhere. I mean people are writing Kirks death can’t even figure out a champagne bottle would freeze in a 2nd in outerspace and these people controlled trek for decades. SOOO SAD…
I think that this movie is full of the original Gene Roddenberry’s spirit. None of the other TNG movies has it. The only thing I must to laugh on when watching it is the arabic numerals on the son’a consoles…
“The film taps into the late 1990s individualistic zeitgeist with its notions of being defiant and joining the rebellion.”
The “late 1990s individualistic zeitgeist” that directors like John Ford tapped into so successfully in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. LOL
This movie is a perfect example of what I hated about alot of the movies, esepcially the TNG cast movies. It just felt, and looked and seemed like a 2 part TV episode shown in a movie theather. The story was pretty blan. The effects were TV quality, not blockbuster movie quality. The acting was blah and uninspiring.
Several of the later movies were like this. This is why i’ve been excited about the Abrams movie, because it seems from all accounts that real money was spent making this a movie – a real live movie – not a overblown TV epsiode. Reviews of the scenes and trailer seem to indicate clear evidence of better acting, better cinematography, better effects…. basically clear evidence of a real budget.
It really irritated me when the movies would use stock footage from previous movies or the tv episodes even (in the trailers)…. it was so obvious to me and cheapened the film even more.
I know we won’t see that kind of thing in this new movie which really excites me. Everything will be new, and top notch, blockbuster worthy. At least that’s what people seem to think from what they have seen.
#61 Actually, physically, you’re incorrect. It wouldn’t freeze instantly. That’s a common misconception. In space, an object can only lose heat by radiation. There’s no conduction (no “stuff” to brush up against), and no convection (no air current to take or bring heat). Otherwise, on the Moon, everything would have frozen instantly (it’s “in space” too). The lit part of the Moon is rather warm, over 300 K. The darkened part of the Moon only sees about a 100 K drop in temperature. Although 200 K is a bit chilly at 73 below C (circa 100 below F). Vacuums help keep heat: that’s why your thermos bottle works, ya know?
#63 Touché. Zeitgeist is never a good word to come across in a trekmovie.com comment ;) Seeing it punctured brings me such great schadenfreude! :)
Overall, Insurrection was boring. After “All Good Things…” set the standard for what any TNG movie must be, anything less than that wasn’t going to fly. What would have made sense for IX would have been to followup with an Enterprise vs. the Dominion story. Something that only Picard’s crew could have dealt with. (Plus, it would have allowed Worf a rational excuse for being there.)
I like to just pretend Insurrection was a lousy holonovel that Quark was pushing. ;)
Well, I liked it. Both the trailer AND the movie (the essence of which the trailer really caught). It was a good, old-fashioned TNG psychology/ethical dilemma story, and a tidy Picard character study. And that moment where the Baku woman freezes time around the two of them still makes me tingle a little.
For me, the weak spots were Data ramping up the camp, and the villain being a bit blah. I know Abraham had a bigger performance in him, so I can only assume that the director wanted it toned down like that. Meh,
My favorite TNG movie. A wonderful Jerry Goldsmith score. And a brilliant use of the crew members. Finally there was a battle with Enterprise E, much more better than in First Contact. Reminds me a cat-mouse game like in The Wrath of Khan. Also the atmosphere was after the “dark” First Contact much frendlier, with lot of humor. That’s the way of Trek I like.
Anyone notice the Borg cutting beam from BOBW tearing into the Enterprise D?
I wonder why they recycle old TV footage when they create these trailers…
Oh, Insurrection. To paraphrase Closettrekker, the Great Trek Turd of 1998.
I’ve vented on this movie so often here I think I’ll just say this is my least favorite of *any* of the Trek films. Like a mashup of the most mediocre TNG episodes.That styrofoam Baku village was incredibly lame. These people are supposed to be back-to-nature types but everything looks freshly painted, everyone’s hair and makeup perfect, their clothes all look off-the-rack. And hacky sacks. A film about space Californians filmed in California. Strange new worlds indeed.
The laziest script for a Trek movie ever. Before the movie came out Michael Piller in an interview explains the whole idea for the story came to him one morning while putting on his Rogaine. I think the chemicals must’ve seeped into his brain.
Too me the humor was cliche. Very over done. Not funny and not at all Star Trek.
I think alot of the TNG movies got too hung up on trying to be funny. Star Trek has humor, but that’s not what Star Trek is about. It’s not a comedy… it’s a sci-fi drama.
It was very forced, especially when they try to make Data the central figure in the comic relief. It just didn’t work at all.
I always thought that one should be called: Star trek: Picard gets an Erection!
39. Databrain –
“There are analogies in the real world, of people we do not know, who need our help in the face of ultimate defeat and/or Genocide. Rwanda for example. How is the analogy not pretty straight forward? ”
You are right about genocide, but there was never any palpable jeopardy in this film to conjure up such an anaolgy. These people looked in no way oppressed and the real glaring analogy was more like a struggle between defenseless New Age Californians (Baku) and ruthless fake Hollywood types (Sona) — neither of which make for very sypathetic or compelling characters. I found the Baku smug in their highly evolved zen vegan ways, holier-than-thou platitudes and hypocritical hair products. Can’t say much about the Sona as they were shallow cardboard mustachio-twirling villains.
I liked it, not great, but I like it.
omg californians in space….thats dead on…lol
Joystick.
Enough said.
THis movie is about as exciting as mayo on white bread.
Actually, that’s an insult to mayo.
45: LOL. Thanks!
Not the worst movie, really. Just poorly paced and uneven. Really, much more like an episode of TNG in the moral angle of the story. The principles are right, but the execution leaves something to be desired. It just wasn’t a good concept for film.
The main problem I have here is the treatment of Data. It’s like the writers simply didn’t know what to do with the character after First Contact so they just hit the reset button. Very, very disappointing. I also found it a little unbeliveable that these renegade Sona (and there couldn’t have been that many of them, given this tiny village was their origin point) managed to establish a galactic empire in the space of, what, 100 years?
#33
You didn’t like TNG, fair enough. But millions and millions of others DID, given the fact that it was the most popular syndicated show at the time. I’m just saying. Different strokes for different folks. I am with you though in terms of the new movie. It was time to revive Kirk & Spock.
And I’m with everyone on the joystick being a really terrible moment. Though none of us seemed to mind when Chekov used one in TWOK.
My second favorite against TWOK. I loved this movie. TNG was always best as a TV show… and this movie let it be that again, except on a larger scale. Characters were about as real as they’ve ever been in a TNG movie, visuals were beautiful, music was peaceful… I adore this movie.
follow orders from starfleet? NOT a chance.
even though its coming from a admiral.
if it means starfleet protocols.
then orders are taken.
I’ve always found this watchable — not too bad for an odd-numbered feature.
I’ve never understood all the hatred people have for this movie.
It’s classic Trek. It’s got action, romance, sci-fi, and a positive message!
So many people complain about “dark” movies. Insurrection is a big, bright, beautiful flick. It’s not my favorite, but not deserving of so much negativity!
There is a lot of Trek V forced humor in this, I’ll admit. That I didn’t care for at all.
Yeah, a lot of hating going on for this film. I thought it was alright.
I liked the IDEA that was behind this one…but the writing was pretty poor (same problem I had w/ a lot of Voyager and Enterprise).
I guess that it was pretty representative of the state of Trek at the time…
Am I the only one who loved this movie? Compared to the Nemesis and First Contact, it doesn’t mess with cannon as much. It is also pretty solid in storyline. It is a fun movie and I really don’t understand why people always pan it. Frakes did a great job directing and it has a more familiar feel to it than the other TNG movies. There are also some great lines – especially between Riker and Data… Oh well. I love it.
Roger Ebert says this is favorite Trek movie. For what it’s worth.
For me, the movie’s failure was in the fact it didn’t know what it was. It’s a “message movie”!… no… it’s a comedy!… um, no… it’s an action movie!… well, not exactly… it’s a mystery… not really… um… it’s an epic? Nope.
It tried being everything, and it ended up being nothing.
The reason people pan it is because it’s a boring, lame movie. It is nothing more than an episode of TNG on the big screen.
Maybe hard core fans love seeing a TV episode on the big screen, but the vast majority of the movie going public that’s paying $8 to be entertained wants more than that. Something they couldn’t catch in reruns any night of the week on cable.
This movie, and basically the collection of the last 3 or 4 Star Trek movies, but this one eximplifies that the most, are the reason Star Trek is in a coma right now on life-support as a franchise. This type of movie – this movie in particular – only appealed to the most hard-core Star Trek fans and basically ignored the larger sci-fi or just general movie going public.
This is exactly the movie i think of when JJ Abrams talks about wanting to target a bigger audience for Star Trek and not just the hard-core Trek fans. By saying that, he’s implying that some of the movies – and I bet this is one of those he had in mind – were just appealing to the hard-core fans. And because they expected only those fans to go see it, they had very small budgets and used alot of stock footage – shot the movie in a short time frame which led to the acting, writing and overall feel of the movie to be rushed, and therefore feel like a TV episode. Because TV episodes have a very tight time frame where they need to get done and move on to the next episode. They can’t spend time (and money) redoing stuff to make it better, or rethinking dialog or whatever.
That’s why this movie felt so much like a TV show, like alot of the latter movies did. Because of time and budget constraints, because the target audience was so small, they rushed through them, reused footage and crammed cliched and lame one-liners in trying to be funny.
Insurrection was nice, but that’s all. The moral conflict was a good idea, but the execution of the story turned out to be very lame. The late Michael Piller was a good tv-writer, but had no sense for a good big-screen-movie. I can’t even believe it today they cut out so many action sequences and let out some really nice “Wow”-SFX, like the warpcore-injection. Beside that, the So’na were not a thread, nor menacing, like the Borg. They look not scary but silly and so, there were never a sense of danger or suspense in the entire movie. The jokes were silly and the duel between Picard and Ru’afo lame. The script was not intense enough and neither Berman nor Piller were able to recognize that. Frakes had no other opportunity as to fail with that movie. Insurrection is not good, but not as bad as Generations, TFF or Nemesis.
I was actually enjoying these threads discussing old TREK trailers.
Something happened recently to make them quite anti-climactic.
Wonder what it could be?
Good trailer, even now. Boring movie, even now.
72: Bingo. It has the makings of a powerful story, but it failed. It’s a mile wide and an inch deep.
Plus 87 gets it. It’s hard to go from a conspiracy to wipe out a civilization to Crusher and Troi talking about their boobs getting firmer. I can’t take the drama seriously, and the comedy isn’t.
Insurrection, to me, is a lot like ST:TMP. They both took a moral issue and ran with it. I liked both films a LOT! I’m sorry that more did not.
My biggest gripe about most of the TREK movies is that they have abandoned what made TREK great… moral issues. TREK should not be about BIG battles, explosions and loud noises, but about morality plays. Hey, I like the big TREKs too, but …
I prefer the more personal, smaller stories that the shows excelled at on the small screen, but someone in the big house who funds these things think they have to compete with the spectacle of Star Wars and the like… and that is not what TREK was ever all about.
The first TNG movie to have the cast line up on screen a number of times as if to say:
Here we all are again for one last time
This movie should have been about the Dominion. How in the world did you have a major war going on in the Star Trek Universe and the flag ship of the Federation is not involved. This movie was absolute garbage. Nemisis was much better than this film. I watched Nemisis the other day and was like it isn’t as bad as people have made it out to be.
I realize Piller, Berman and many of the TNG staff were not well-versed in TOS but one would’ve hoped that at least someone would’ve said, “Guys — these Baku are essentially ’space hippies’. There were space hippies in a TOS episode (Way to Eden) that is considered by many one of worst ever made. Maybe we should rethink this.”
How lazy does a writer have to be to make a science fiction movie based on the specifics of his own surroundings? Piller turns the superficial differences between his fellow Californians into the central conflict of the film. When I heard the basic description of this movie before it came out I was looking forward to seeing a fully-realized big-budget *alien* society on a strange new world. Instead we get humans in the all-too familiar-looking California landscape. That turned me off right at the opening credits. Everything about this film seems lazy to me. It looks and sounds like a 1980’s tv show — something like ‘Touched by an Angel’. Treacley, shmaltzy, preachy and cheap. A lot of people claim to like this film because they find it closest to TNG in spirit but I find it closest to TNG in production values and execution. To me it only puts the most imbarassing elements of the show in the spotlight — recycled ideas, hokey action sequences, a hollow emotional core, jokes that fall flat, a predictable climax, styrofoam sets, poor casting, 1-dimensional characters and simplistic lofty pontificating.
Awful movie…right down there with STV.
I guess i’m more of a realist, and as such I look at these movies from the standpoint of the general movie going public.
Hard core Star Trek fans that will go see any Star Trek movie, and mostly enjoy all of them, are in fact a very tiny population next to the general sci-fi or action/adventure movie fans. Abrams is targeting the latter group. That’s where the money is. and it takes money to make a good movie.
I think that those that liked this movie are almost exclusively big Star Trek fans. I think if you polled just general sci-fi or action/adventure fans that have seen this movie, they would overall rank it pretty low as a movie.
So, it makes sense that Trek fans say things like “this is what Trek is about – moral issues” and why general sci-fi fans say “this was a boring, cliched, and lame movie”
There is the problem. Either Star Trek as a movie fanchise dies, because it wants to be like this movie and be a cerebrial moral story, or it becomes more of a thrill ride adventure (with moral issues at the core, and character stories at the core) and therefore has a chance to live.
I think because of this situation, really hard -core Trek fans are probably going to be more likely to not like this new movie, because it’s too “new” and “different” and probably will be too “action oriented”. Where as I think the general movie going, action/adventure/sci-fi fan will probably love it and thereby make it a blockbuster hit resulting in more sequals.
93. Doug in Kabul, Afghanistan –
“My biggest gripe about most of the TREK movies is that they have abandoned what made TREK great… moral issues. TREK should not be about BIG battles, explosions and loud noises, but about morality plays. Hey, I like the big TREKs too, but …I prefer the more personal, smaller stories that the shows excelled at on the small screen, but someone in the big house who funds these things think they have to compete with the spectacle of Star Wars and the like… and that is not what TREK was ever all about.”
Even though moral issues and small stage drama is largely what made Trek so successful on the small screen, most movie-goers (many Trek fans included) don’t want to spend money to be preached at or wrestle with big issues. TWOK was closer to being a spectacle and as a movie it was a phenomenon. Same can be said of First Contact. These spectacles (along with the solid characters at their core) got non-Trek fans interested in the TV shows and brought in a large number of new loyal viewers. The movies act as hooks to non-fans while also giving longtime fans the pleasure of seeing something spectacular which a TV budget would not allow for.
I think Trek TV and Trek Movies are two completely different animals and I think that’s a good thing. When TV Trek tries to do a big budget action movie episode it rarely works because of budgetary and time constraints. A perfect example is TNG episode “Starship Mine”, TNG’s attempt at ‘Die Hard’. It’s a real flop — a cornball pantomime of something bigger and better. Insurrection proves the reverse is true. Making a TV episode with TV production values as a movie just doesn’t work. It’s not what moviegoers want to see. And tacking on a space battle at the end doesn’t make it any better.
I’ve seen every movie, and Insurrection was by far the absolute worst… it felt like an extended episode.
Ebert points out in his review of it something interesting: Hardcore trek fans understand the point of the prime directive, but even in this situation is seems like it is being stretched to an absurd breaking point; shouldn’t the Baku have been the bad guys here?…. by denying the “fountain of youth” to the entire rest of the galaxy? I mean, we gave up immortality so a small village could “evolve naturally?” That’s just stupid.
Finally, I’ll put a hypo out there; I strangeley feel like if it was Kirk and not Picard captaining the Enterprise-E, he would have been first in line to break the prime directive and find some creative way to get these people off the planet.
I don’t care what anyone says, I loved this movie along with Generations. I’m just a guy who goes against the grain obviously. Nemesis sucked though so not totally against the grain I guess.
I agree… I couldn’t invest myself in this movie at all. Weren’t the planet people just being wildly selfish? I mean, they had this metaphysicalhoosiewhatsit that let them live forever, but they weren’t willing to share? It just didn’t make any sense and came off preachy.
Im one of those weird Trekkies that really liked this movie, then again, I liked ST:V to. I guess I just look for different qualities in star trek, and yes, same with first contact, things could have done better, but I thought it was solid, still far better than generations. Always seems like TNG era stuff gets held to such a higher standard than TOS stuff.
With “Insurrection,” the Trek films started going where no cheese had gone before.
With “Nemesis,” they finally got there.
(”STV” and “Generations” were just stinking creatures unto themselves.)
The real issue with this movie was that it takes place at the same time Voyager is lost in the Delta Quadrant fighting the Borg and the freaking Dominion War is raging on in the Alpha Quadrant…yet they come up with something completely unrelated to both
I like Frakes too much to trash this film. I though F. Murray Abraham’s make-up removed his ability to express emotion and connect with the audience. Plus the aging theme was so masterfully covered in TWOK-TSFS.
Heh, I was actually glad that this movie didn’t get involved in the rampant silliness that was the Dominion war.
106. Eli1477 –
“The real issue with this movie was that it takes place at the same time Voyager is lost in the Delta Quadrant fighting the Borg and the freaking Dominion War is raging on in the Alpha Quadrant…yet they come up with something completely unrelated to both”
Right. And Worf’s wife Jadzia had just been killed in DS9’s season 6 finale and “Insurrection” is the very next place we see Worf. No mention is made and Worf essentially goes on vacation here (very Klingon!) away from the blistering Dominion War and his typical Klingon revenge mode. One feeble attempt is made at acknowledging the war (the fact that the Sona — somehow — make Ketralcel White for the Dominion) but the reference clearly shows the scriptwriter (DS9 creator Michael Piller!) knows very little about what’s going on on DS9.
Correction, this wasn’t the very next place we saw Worf. Forgot this was a Thanksgiving movie, not a summer movie.
The less said about this movie the better. So I will be kind.
However to behind the scenes stuff:
Rumour had it that Piller wrote a very dark movie which dealt with Picard having to terminate Data, and that Patrick Stewart was so dead against it, (now having Producer credit) that he forced a script and story change. Piller was supposed to have written a book about it, but I don’t think it saw the light of day. Does anyone know if I’m remembering correctly and can detail this further?
I also heard a rumour that Rick Berman was embarrassed by the movie, which has to be a sure sign that it was beyond terrible!
I thought this was not a bad movie. not a great one by any means, but if i fancy watching some trek, i’m likely to stick this one in the player.
I’m another (in the obvious minority) who likes Insurrection. True, the story wavers and never really catches hold, but the essence of it is pure, unadulterated Star Trek, closer to Roddenberry’s vision than we’d seen in a long time.
The problems some have brought up are valid. This movie feels like a two-hour series episode rather than a big screen film, and the attempts at humor (actually, campiness) are way too forced…though I still find the jokes about Worf’s “gortch” extremely funny. Also, the connection between the Ba’Ku and the Son’a is far too contrived, failing the logic test.
On the positive side, though, there are wonderful character moments in this film, and the location cinematography is absolutely stunning. Jonathan Frakes really is a very good director, and I think he takes an unfair amount of flak about this film. It may not have been the best hoped for folow-up to First Contact, but it really isn’t a bad film at all.
Count me in the minority of those who like the movie. I agree, Frakes did a good job, and while the movie’s lighter than I’d have liked (I still wish we’d gotten Piller’s original story) it’s a fun, entertaining romp, and I’m glad to have it in my DVD collection.
Personally, I think it’s just becoming fashionable to bash TNG these days, but oh well, whatever floats your boat.
Not a bad flick at all really. Not sure why they thought a Prime Directive story would fill up theatres though.
I too liked this movie. Its not my favorite one by any means but its OK. I liked the photography and direction and really loved Jerry Goldsmith’s score. The film does feel like an expanded TV episode. Piller’s original story was better but would have cost more to film.
I go back and forth on this one. Sometimes I’m not a big fan, yet I periodically get the urge to watch it and end up enjoying the experience.
Well I’ve always liked it.
Frakes got lucky with FC, but he was really bland here.The entire cast TNG cast is hit and miss – it feels like they’re phoning it in.
I am obviously in the minority here but I rather enjoyed this movie. I think it was probably the most “Star Trek” of all the movies. It centered around a moral dilemma and I think that’s when Star Trek is at its best. Obviously this wasn’t a movie your average movie patron would enjoy but as a trekkie I loved it. It really made me miss the TV series.
Horrible horrible movie. 2nd worse after Nemesis. Main reason it failed was the concept & juvenille aciting which would have even made for a bad TV episode.
History repeated itself as before ST4 was successful then ST5 gets a budget slash.
After the success of ST8 the studio were unwilling to increase the budget to allow for another exciting story so they had to do a budget restricted piece as the actors all got pay rises (Stewart & Spiner got the most).
Frakes even said in interviews at the time that ILM were not used for FX purely to save money on the budget even though they were his first choice Berman told him too expensive. If you look closely some of the FX with the Enterprise have major rendering errors like shadows which are not correct in the nebular so you can see a trail of empty whenever the Enterprise is flying through it instead of the nebula background. They even used one of these shots as a publicity piece and around the main hull you can easily see a massive trail of rendering error!!
Bypassed it in theatres then gave my DVD away as could not stand watching it more than once and even then had to see it over 2 days as this movie is so boring,slow & uninteresting. Around this time more & more fans started to realise that Berman & Co were outstaying their welcome…
I really felt for diehard TNG fans as this was their bigscreen letdown and the start of the end.
I thought Insurrection was a good two part episode of the show, not as a 100 minute movie. Especially following First Contact, which I think should have followed Wrath of Khan’s example of being part one of a trilogy, picking up right after FC, instead what did we get- “Two years later, on the other side of the galaxy”.
@121 Paul:
Well, it seems you care mostly about the visual FX anyway so I understand why you missed the point…
#120, I loved the movie too, I never understood the hate for this film and all of the TNG films to be honest. This movie really has a TNG feel to it and I really don’t understand why people think it’s a let down.
Very racist movie! How could you use an african word, “Baku” and give it a very, very european appearance? Why didn’t they just use:
Dunfert
Ceridon
Hopenwort
Friobert
Kristas
Monicans
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
125. DATA KILLED SPOT! –
“Very racist movie! How could you use an african word, “Baku” and give it a very, very european appearance? Why didn’t they just use:
Dunfert
Ceridon
Hopenwort
Friobert
Kristas
Monicans”
Obviously they couldn’t because we all know the Dunferts, Hopenworts and Monicans live in the Delta Quadrant!
People have different taste in movies. It amuses me that so many are ready to criticize others and say how they “missed the point” or some such goofiness. I also enjoyed “The Postman”. Who wants a piece of me…
and trying again to dip into the worlds of catch phrases, with Data’s “saddle up…lock and load”
What about that line ‘buckle up’ from some new prequel movie?
“But, in the end, the trailer doesn’t really sell the film”
Reminds me of the teaser from a new prequel movie that was to come out Christmas day but was moved to May.
“Can you get more clichéd the starting off a trailer with the gravelly-voice guy saying “there is a world…”?”
Yes, you can have lines from JFK playing in the backround!
well beyond saying “there’s a new Star Trek movie coming with Picard, the gang and that guy from Amadeus.” But hey, Riker shaved his beard, that alone should be worth the price of admission right?”
Yes lets all keep bashing TNG because now we should be all gung ho for the Prequel or re-write or whatever it is called. So, far what I have seen of the new movie, I am not even as excited as I was to see Insurrection or Nemesis. At least in TNG and DS9 there were quality actors, the only ones worth their weight in this Prequel are Nimoy (stunt casting), Quinto, Bana and the guy playing Pike (forgot his name off hand). You know, this movie was good not great but, good, very watchable, more watchable than most of Voy., ENT. and some of DS9.
As much as it will irrate others on this board, I rather enjoyed this film. It was filled with some great character moments. I totally enjoyed the Baku story and felt connected to their plight. Jerry Goldsmith delivered another great score and I walked out of the hteater thinking someone got it right.
Generations was rushed and badly paced… First Contact was entertaining but I’m so sick and tired of the Borg that if they ever appear again it will be too soon. A threatening race that showed much promise in being a threat to the federation quickly turned into a race that in spit of the technological advances over the Federation were too easily beaten at every turn.
And as for Nemesis and the major cop-out death of Data and the lackluster direction of Stewart Baird, it was time to put the TNG cast to rest and move on to other things. The Romulans were no longer the mysterious threat that they had appeared to be in most of the Trek timeline. They were shadows, charactures of their former selves and they were executed badly.
For me Insurrection wa a breath of fresh air compred to these other outings. We got some of the tried and true Federation morals that Roddenberry embraced in the original series and the cast in Insurrection was probably much closer to what we had come to expect during the majority of the run of the TNG series. For me, the film was a high mark in the TNG series.
I’m sure there will be lots of people who disagree with these statements but that’s why life is full of choices. If everyone liked the same thing for the same reasons we’d all be pretty dull as a group.
Insurrection never bugged me like most people, however, there is no doubt it’s a letdown after First Contact. The big mistake they made with this one and Nemesis was, they should have gotten Q on board for the 9th or 10th. It was about the only thing that would hold a candle to the Borg. But, they didn’t, and, they failed (especially 10).
I like the movie, but always felt it was more like a straight to video movie rather than something for the big screen. (Well…the production quality was very good, but the story wasn’t epic enough for a huge movie…do they really really care about 600 people…?
#123
If you enjoyed this movie as is I applaud you.
When I see an sci-fi movie and the VFX are not up to scratch that takes me out of the story. With this it did not matter much anyway as it woke me up from the boredom!!
For me this is right down on the list as far as Star Trek movies go. It;s not a bad movie and has a pretty good story but feels more like it would better fit into a tv series than a movie.
@132 Paul:
“When I see an sci-fi movie and the VFX are not up to scratch that takes me out of the story.”
Well, I guess that should pretty much disqualify all three seasons of TOS and most of their movies then…
I enjoyed this movie as a big TNG episode, and I appreciated the moral conundra that this film represented. After having watched it a few times (Believe it or not, the first Trek DVD I ever owned! I can already hear the comments, “Get your money back”….) I don’t think that the gravity of the situation was played out as much as it could have been at the expense of action scenes. A showdown/post mortem of some kind at the Federation Council would have been very effective in bringing that point home. The action bits/FX were pretty good, but perhaps there were a few too many attempts at humor – although I still smirk at some (not all!) of the funny one-liners. Ru’afo never felt like a true match for Picard so the outcome of the film was written on the wall; maybe that is why it did not deliver on its premise.
What is the music from the first 30 seconds of the teaser trailer? I feel like it’s from Generations or First Contact, but I’m not sure.
22 Phil- Yes!
The closest to the series. No one out of character, as with FC.
NOT depressing, like GEN. Did not blow, like NEM.
In the words of Frakes- wonderful film.
Above all, it was entertaining, not irritating, with and ending that’s actually positive. Kudos to Michael Piller.
Very underrated, IMO.
A surprising, thoughtful, wonderful film. There are so many moments of sheer beauty, very rare in modern Trek. The best TNG film by far.
Well at least we know the actors weren’t exactly that inspired by the movie either. Marina dislikes this even more than Nemesis and said she nearly fell asleep at the premiere and Frakes was apparently unhappy with the script and story for obvious reasonns, I’m not surprised he wasn’t very enthusiastic about directing it.
I remember at the end of the movie when Rick Berman’s name came up on the screen. I gave it the finger. I never do that, but in that case it was highly warranted. After the promise of First Contact we got this drivel? You have to care about these people in order to care what happens to them. I remember thinking, “Thanks Rick, you just killed Star Trek.” It was all downhill from there.
Bad villain
Bad acting
Bad story
Bad movie