Movie:
Disc:
Star
Wreck is a 105 minute long Star Trek spoof made by some Finnish fans.
Don’t worry: it isn’t anywhere as bad as it sounds . . .
Actually Star Wreck is one of those movies which
you appreciate more the more you learn about how it was actually made. It
shows you what can be accomplished with the right amount of cultish
dedication and clever ingenuity.
The movie took about seven years to complete. For an
amateur film it boasts some impressive major movie special effects.
Surprisingly the CGI effects were rendered using standard home computers.
IMDb.com tells that “in some scenes a single frame could take over ten hours
to render and in one second of footage there are 25 frames. Overall, the CGI
seen in the movie took five years to render.” Scary.
The end results are however worth it. Star Wreck
may be a mixed bag – it never can decide whether it is a Naked Gun
parody or straight-ahead action flick (the action finale might as well come
out of any Trek film). It also makes
the mistake of going for groan-worthy “funny” names. (Note to screenwriters:
“funny” names should be confined to the pages of MAD magazine.)
Star fleet captain James B. Pirk (Samuli Torssonen),
Commander Info (Antti Satama) and Plingon Commander Dwarf (Timo Vuorensola)
are stuck in early 21st century Finland for some reason.
When the timeline doesn’t pan out the way the way they
expected it to, they take matters into their own hands and supply the
Russians with some future technology to conquer the planet. Pirk becomes
Emperor of Earth in the process. Then one day their new star fleet
encounters an alien ship and then they discover a new universe in which . .
.
But we wouldn’t want to give away too much here. Star
Wreck works best when it pokes fun at sci-fi TV show conventions and
clichés. Fans will have a blast. There are creative missteps though: some
attempts at slapstick comedy fall embarrassingly flat and the acting is a
bit rough around the edges.
Still, the mind boggles as to what the creative
team behind Star Wreck can accomplish with the right screenplay and a
proper budget. (Actually they are trying to get financing together for their
Nazi invaders from the moon flick Iron Sky – we sincerely hope they
get the project off the ground. It looks like great fun. Check out the
trailer here.)
WORTH IT? Trek and
Babylon 5 fans with a sense of humor
will appreciate Star Wreck the most. If you’re willing to forgive the
movie’s faults then you’re in for a good time.
RECOMMENDATION: Check it out.
