Tonights movie: Star Trek Insurrection - Post movie analysis!

Ok - so this is a bit later than planned. I ended up watching a programme about asteroids afterwards! :-)

Well, memory is a funny thing. Sometimes you remember something as being better than it actually is, other times you remember something as being worse.

I was surprised by how much I'd forgotten about Insurrection. I actually quite enjoyed watching it and remembering various things as it went along. I was surprised at how much action there was in it - I remembered it as not having much at all!

So how much do I agree with what I wrote earlier?

Well, I stand by my remark about it feeling like an extended episode. The storyline feels very much like something that could have been done on the TV show. Don't get me wrong - I love the Trek TV shows so an extended episode feeling is no bad thing but at the same time you expect a Trek movie to perhaps do what wasn't achievable in the TV series. Going back to what I said in my last post, the extended episode accusation was made at Generations when it was released but I couldn't really have seen them pulling off the Enterprise saucer crash sequence in the TV series - certainly not as convincingly as they did in the movie. Also, I guess Captain Kirk could theoretically have appeared in the TV show and been killed off in that... but a meeting of two captains (and subsequent death of the great Captain Kirk himself) like that really needed a more epic canvas and a movie certainly provided that.

Anyway, enough about Generations - we're talking about Insurrection here!

There's little in this movie that couldn't have been achieved in the TV show. Yes, the movie budget allows for a lush location - and the scenery for the on-planet stuff is truly gorgeous, particularly in HD! The effects sequences are also above what would have been achievable on a weekly TV show budget (in the 90s at least), particularly in terms of scale.

The real area that the movie scores in is the character side of things. Everyone gets a decent amount of screentime. Often in Trek movies select characters get the bulk of the time and the others are reduced to minor roles. Insurrection seems to get the balance right here - perhaps a lot better than any of the other movies.

I'd forgotten about the humour in this movie too - just about everyone gets a laugh at some point! Worf's Gilbert and Sullivan remark still makes me laugh!

Which seems to sum up the tone of the movie nicely. I was right that the movie is definitely a lot lighter in tone than First Contact. I guess that one was always going to be difficult to top and I suspect that those in charge of the decision making on these things realised this and decided to go the opposite direction.

I certainly enjoyed watching this movie a lot more than I remembered enjoying it before. It's a fun Trek outing with a moral message about forcibly relocating a group of people - even if there is the best of intentions behind it.

I have to admit that I like just about everything Star Trek so I was never going to be come back and say anything overwhelmingly negative about this anyway, but re-watching this was a pleasant hour and forty odd minutes. It may not have the depth or darkness of some of the best Trek movies (First Contact and, of course, Wrath Of Khan) but it's still a fun Trek outing!

So... the next Trek movie is the final Next Gen one... it's also one which seems to bring out mixed reactions from a lot of Star Trek fans. I'll save my opinion on it until I plan to watch it, which I'm hoping to do next Friday. Yes, the next one I shall be watching will be Nemesis.

Tonight's movie: Star Trek Insurrection

Way back at Christmas (which actually doesn't feel as long ago as perhaps it should - this year just seems to be flying by!) I got the Star Trek movies on blu ray. I watched most of them up to Insurrection. I've been meaning to finish watching the last two Next Gen Trek movies but I have to admit that, of all the Trek movies, Insurrection is probably my least favourite followed by Nemesis.

I saw Insurrection back when it was released at the cinema and have watched it once again on VHS and then once again when I got it on DVD. It's not a terrible movie but I've always felt it wasn't as good as the other Trek movies.

So I'm posting my thoughts and opinions on it BEFORE I watch it. Let's see whether I feel any different afterwards!

I think part of the problem for me was that Insurrection came after one of my favourite (if not my favourite, full stop) Star Trek movies - First Contact.

First Contact is brilliant - it has everything, action, adventure, a great storyline in which the whole of Star Trek itself is under threat as The Borg travel back in time to stop first contact with extra terrestrials (I won't spoil it for you but if you know Star Trek then chances are you know who it is anyway).

The problem with Insurrection is that it tries to be different. That's not a bad thing but I remember it feeling a bit light after its more intense predecessor. The criticism 'extended episode of Next Gen' was levelled at Generations (which I like and felt was perhaps a little bit unfair) but I remember feeling that Insurrection felt a LOT like it could have been a two part Next Gen episode.

Don't get me wrong - I didn't hate it. I guess I was hoping for more of what First Contact gave us rather than the more gentle storyline that Insurrection had.

Anyway, let's see whether I agree with my past self after I watch the movie. Then I'll come back here and post my thoughts. Ack! Time travel and interacting with my past self - now my blog is getting a bit Brannon Braga! ;-)

See you in a couple of hours!

Back to the 80s - Part 1: Dragonslayer

Well, if you're a child of the 80s like me, then chances are that occasionally you get nostlagic for that time when you were growing up and you like to listen to 80s music, or maybe watch 80s TV shows or movies.

Seeing as I seem to get like that more often these days - I've decided to post up whenever I take a trip back in time to then!

Yesterday, I watched my DVD of Dragonslayer. If you don't know, Dragonslayer is a fantasy movie made in 1981. The title pretty much sums up what the movie is all about - with a young wizard's apprentice having to slay a dragon that has been terrorising a village.

The movie flopped upon it's release - it cost $18 million to make but failed to make that back in box office. This, unfortunately, was the fate of many fantasy movies in the 80s. Star Wars had been such a massive hit that studios were willing to take a gamble on these things and most of them just didn't perform.

It's on VHS, laserdisc, DVD, etc. that a lot of these movies have gained cult followings and it has been realised that actually they were pretty good (or at the very least entertaining!). Dragonslayer is one such movie.

I first saw it on TV when I was a kid and I remember particulalry enjoying the scenes with the dragon (Vermithrax) in it. I then bought it on DVD a few years ago and remembered enjoyign it then. So I came to watch it again last night - having forgotten most of the story.

It certainly has an 80s fantasy movie feel to it (hard to explain but you'll probably know what I mean if you've seen a few of these things) and it tries to shun a lot of the cliches - there's no knights trying to slay the dragon or rescue the maiden, etc. in fact, when the hero tries to rescue the princess (who isn;t the romantic interest, by the way) she ends up dead. D'oh!

This doesn't mean that the movie isn't cliched in other ways though. The hero ends up with a special weapon that can slay the dragon (and a fire-proof shield) and the wizard played by Ralph Richardson deliberately allows himself to killed, only to return towards the end of the movie... so the Star Wars influence isn't exactly hidden.

Another criticism is things that simply aren't explained. Why does the blacksmith have a lance stashed in a waterfall, for example? There are a few moments like this which make me wonder if scenes were cut from the movie. Whilst I can't really find any info on this, a quick read of the Wikipedia entry for the movie reveals that the novelisation of the movie does try and explain a few points not really covered in the movie. Whether this was the author taking it upon theirself to try and plug the holes or if it was in the original script and then removed for some reason, isn't explained.

That aside, the movie is quite fun and there are some nice touches - the politics played by the King and his servants is a nice touch - particularly at the end of the movie. Of course, the real star of the movie is the dragon. Aside from the inevitable matte lines in places, the dragon looks great. The scenes in the dragon's lair when the dragon chases the hero look particularly good and the Go-Motion technique used for animating it certainly works very well indeed, giving the dragon a very smooth and realistic movement.

If you're looking for something with a deep and meaningful plot then this is not the movie for you but this is an entertaining movie and worth looking at if you've enjoyed other 80s fantasy stuff like Dark Crystal, etc.

There's no danger of it being my favourite movie but I enjoyed it nevertheless! :-)