Star Trek: Insurrection

Directed by Jonathan Frakes, Star Trek: Insurrection follows Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) as he and the rest of the Enterprise crew find themselves caught up in a battle over a planet with fountain of youth-like properties. It’s clear almost immediately that filmmaker Frakes is looking to cultivate a far more easygoing and lighthearted vibe than the series’ previous entry, 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact, as Star Trek: Insurrection progresses at an overtly lackadaisical pace that does, particularly in its first half, place a welcome emphasis on small, character-based moments – which ensures that the movie is overflowing with appealingly small-scale interludes and subplots. (Frakes’ Riker and Marina Sirtis’ Troi’s reignited romance is certainly the most enjoyable example of this.) There’s little doubt, as well, that the picture benefits from Frakes’ solid handling of the narrative’s expected action-oriented beats, although it’s equally apparent that a somewhat incongruous proliferation of such moments during the larger-than-life climax is disappointing (to put it mildly). This is ultimately a fairly minor complaint for a film that’s otherwise a pleasure to sit through, as filmmaker Frakes generally captures the feel and tone of the mostly captivating television show. (And this is to say nothing of F. Murray Abraham’s enjoyably broad turn as the movie’s mustache-twirling villain.)

*** out of ****