My Favorite movie... FOR NOW!

In light of the fact that I leveled up yesterday, I figured that I would take an opportunity to really indulge myself for this week’s post. That’s also why this one is a day late. I do apologize. Anyway, I figured that I would go ahead and review my favorite movie, not in one genre, or under any other general criteria, but my overall favorite movie.

I toiled for days trying to figure out exactly which movie fits that bill. There are a TON of REALLY good movies out there, spanning numerous genres and from various eras of cinematic history so choosing just one turned out to be a pretty difficult task. As usually happens, the idea sparked a line of thought that I hadn’t expected, which was, upon what criteria do I rely in order to decide what my favorite film is? It’s an extremely subjective thought exercise, but a fascinating one all the same. Everyone has a favorite movie. Perhaps they’ve never thought enough about it to vocalize which film it is, but given some time and thought, every person could come up with that one. I’d be willing to bet that in more cases than not, the person would say something to the effect, “I know it’s not that great, but I just like it.”

Why is that exactly? Even I, who have a pretty high standard for good cinema, like a film that most write off as mediocre at best. So what drives us to learn to love these less-than-brilliant films so much that their very existence trumps that of other, superior films? I can’t speak for everyone out there, but I am always willing to use myself as a guinea pig in the pursuit of the human condition so let’s see what my favorite film has to offer and maybe that will give us a glimpse into the phenomenon.

Obviously, from the picture, the move that I decided was my all time favorite movie is Star Trek: Insurrection. It’s no secret by now that I’m a HUGE Star Trek fan. If there’s any doubt, reference some of my older posts now. Go ahead. I can wait… Done? Okay. So even by Star Trek movie standards, Insurrection is considered pretty weak, that holds true with most fans as well. So here’s the start of the analysis, the background. The film was released in 1998. I was in high school at the time and I didn’t have cable. This was before everyone lived on the Internet too so I didn’t even know that the movie had been released in theaters until it had already left them.. This was also my pretentious phase where I claimed that my favorite movie of all time was Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Go ahead a laugh. No, really, get it all out of your system now. I got nothing, but time here. Anyway, I had some pretty sound reasoning behind this opinion. For one, I thought the concept of exploring our spiritual origins and the questioning the existence of a supreme being were pretty ballsy concepts. Two, for all of its faults, Final Frontier had some excellent and really memorable character moments. Lastly, I’m a contrarian! If that hasn’t already been established, perhaps you should go back and catch up on a few things.

My tastes have evolved a great deal since I was in high school and the advent of blu-ray really made Frontier show its age in all the wrong ways. However, even at that time, and once I got Insurrection on VHS, it always ranked among my favorite movies ever. As I said, it was generally panned by critics and audiences were left feeling underwhelmed after watching it, but I always get a kick out of this movie. I promise, I’m not crazy, my psychologist cleared me. There are just a number of things going on with Insurrection that hit on my particular sensibilities.

For starters, I grew up on Next Generation. Hence, I got used to Star Trek being a vehicle for ideas. I had seen many of the other Star Trek films at that age and, indeed, I had seen a lot of movies in general at that age, but I was doomed from the start with my Trekdom and Star Trek just resonates with me more than movies from other genres or franchises. Back to the point, I liked shows that used their storytelling and analogy to open my own mind to different ways of looking at the world. Insurrection in my opinion, uses the mechanics of Star Trek storytelling better than any other Star Trek movie ever. If you watch the original series, the shows weren’t always very action packed.. They used great story elements and good ideas to entertain. It was smart and while I really enjoy most of the Trek films, a lot of them rely heavily on action. I’m not saying that a Star Trek movie should be completely devoid of action. I’m simply saying that when it comes to Star Trek there needs to be a balance between action and ideas, and Trek is at its best when the action serves the ideas. Insurrection does this extremely well. It’s not completely devoid of action, but the action that does exist serves the ideas upon which the plot is build. In this way, Insurrection is one of the most Trek-y entries in the Star Trek cinematic universe.

Much like my previously stated high school favorite, Insurrection has some phenomenal character moments. Generations introduced us to a Data that could feel emotions, but in First Contact, he was too busy being a badass for audiences to really explore with him what that really meant, but Insurrection gave us fantastic opportunities to explore this new facet of Data’s existence. And what’s more, it used an actual child to frame that exploration through the innocent eyes of a childlike Data. Sure, it’s kind of blatant, but it works. As Data is trying to reconcile where his emotions fit with the life he already knows, he starts with the basics and learns from someone who, by default of youth, is going through the same things. Picard also gets a breath of fresh air in this movie, which is good. First Contact introduced us to a Picard that would stop at nothing to avenge himself against the Borg. It was heavy stuff. Insurrection gives us a Picard that hearkens back to his roots. We get to see him smile, laugh, and even crack wise. It’s pretty refreshing when coming off the previous film and its dark tones and themes. My favorite moment from the film has to be the scene where Geordi gets to watch a sunrise without the use of his prosthetics. I just felt like Levar Burton nailed every aspect of that scene. He seems to be feeling a genuine joy as he gazes out on the majestic scene.

The last aspect of this movie that really puts it on top of my favorites list is the theme. Insurrection explores the idea of aging and death. It looks at some of the extremes that we go to in order to preserve our youth. This resonates a little more poignantly with me now that when I was in high school as I think we all tend to think a little more about our own mortality as we age. But the film explores this theme in a thoughtful and sometimes hard hitting way. To understand that, you need a little premise. There’s a group of aliens living on the literal fountain of youth. There’s another group who are so decrepit that they need the fountain in order to survive as a species. Caught in the middle is a hapless bureaucrat who sees an opportunity to leave a lasting mark on history with a new scientific discovery. Picard and crew step in to thwart the efforts of the guys who want to rip the aliens living on the planet away from their fountain. That’s the nutshell. The metaphor being used is that of the forced relocation of the fountain of youth guys. The question is asked, how far can we go to accomplish a thing before we consider it to be wrong? It’s a pertinent question to ask even today. We see pockets of oppressed people vocalizing and politicking their agendas and we have to ask ourselves, just how far are people allowed to go until we consider it to be wrong? It’s a solid theme and an interesting look at the human condition, which really ties well to the original philosophy that Roddenberry held when he first envisioned his show.

There are a number of other things to love about this movie.. The special effects are really amazing, for the most part. That’s saying quite a bit considering when it came out and the extensive use of CGI. There are some great humorous moments in the film that never fail to bust my gut. Worf goes through puberty. That could be its own show and I’d watch it every week! Of course, I’m a music guy and there is some out of this world music in Insurrection. Jerry Goldsmith composed the music for the film and he did a fantastic job! Every note is a joy to listen to.

Critics all said that the movie plodded along too slowly and that it was a snooze fest. I actually kind enjoy that it takes its time to build the plot slowly and deliberately. It doesn’t rush to just get things done. They said that it lacked too much on the action front. I would retort that Voyage Home had next to no traditional action sequences whatsoever. I could do this for a while, but you probably get the point.

So what did we learn? Well, you’ve just gotten an extensive insight into how I view cinema. But we’ve also learned that when it comes to movies, we all have drastically different and unique sensibilities. Everyone is going to have a different approach to movies and for that reason, we’re all going to have that favorite that makes no logical sense to anyone else, but that speaks to us in a way that captures our imagination. That’s all I’ve got, but I’d love to hear your thoughts and find out what some of your favorite movies are. Who knows? Perhaps I’ll review one! Kidding, but feel free to comment so that we can add a few more data points to this discussion!