Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning |
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Finland • 2005 • 103m •
   • Directed by: Timo Vuorensola. • Starring: Antti Satama, Tiina Routamaa, Samuli Torssonen, Timo Vuorensola, Karoliina Blackburn, Seppo Honkanen, Sonja Sjöblom, Santeri Humina, Ville Vuorensola, Rudi Airisto, Niklas Vainio, Esa Jaatinen, Pasi Rantala. • Music by: Tapani Siirtola.    The future looks bleak for Captain Pirk. Originally from the far future, he traveled back to save the world, but was shipwrecked on the 21st century. The world of the past is a dangerous place and he is finding it difficult to convince the ladies he is, in fact, an intergalactic space hero from the future. To make things right Pirk comes up with a questionable plan to save mankind's future...
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Review:
First of all, the special effects are really, really good easily on par with just about any Hollywood production for the small screen. There are some rough spots in there (it's a hobbyist movie after all) but the overall quality is very high, indeed. You're not likely to have seen these kind of massive space battles in any of the major sci-fi shows, and considering the budget (or lack of thereof), the virtual sets and the CGI-enhanced locations are nothing short of amazing. Torssonen has indisputably proved that a dedicated hobbyist can single-handedly do Hollywood-quality CGI and special effects for a feature-length sci-fi movie in the corner of his bedroom. I think most of the visual effects "pros", at least in Finland, will have some explaining to do after having seen this.
Acting in SW:ItP is, for the most part, predictably amateurish (just like in the previous movies), but hey that's a part of the charm of the whole series.
There are some notable exceptions, though: Jari Ahola really stands out with his excellent portrayal of B-13's Chief of Security Mihail Karigrandi ("Mikhail Garybrandy" in the English subtitles) and Satu Heliö as Commander Ivanovitsa does not come too far behind there's nice chemistry going on between her character and Sherrypie on the B-13's bridge. (Ahola is, of course, a professional stage actor, and I'll be surprised if we don't soon get to see him in "real" TV and movie productions.) Other memorable performances are given by Janos Honkola (in the double role of FukovFesterbester), and Atte Joutsen (as Sherrypie.) For some reason, Kari Väänänen who was the only other professional actor in the whole movie seemed a bit bland and weary, not really standing out the way you could have expected. That must have been a problem with the direction and how his character was written in the story, as he is a talented actor and has given great performances before.
The musical score (by Tapani Siirtola) fits in very nicely. Obviously lots of thought has been put in making the incidental music. A special mention should be given to the song composed for the end credits; it was a nice touch.
Editing and pacing are mostly quite good.
What about the plot, then? SW:ItP has a very different feel to it when compared to the previous SW movies. Gone is, for the most part, the light-hearted snappy dialog between the main characters. Now the undertones are much darker, and somehow regrettably things seem to come out immensely more hopeless and tragical than before.
Pirk wasn't exactly a great leader even in the previous movies, but this time there's _nothing_ great about his character at all. Previously, he might have killed innocent people accidentally, or simply by his monumental incompetence, but not on purpose. In SW:ItP, however, Pirk actually gets people executed, wages wars, etc. Things get even worse in the parallel universe where he does not seem to have any moral barriers at all. Overall, Pirk comes out as being more as a dangerous, despicable character than ever before, and these characteristics seem to get in the way of writing off his actions as merely comical. (Dictators have been parodied before, but I don't know... in ItP, it feels like Pirk is almost unstoppable when on his killing spree.) Also, I found the use of the imagery of war-torn people (some of the clips in the "propaganda film" seemed to be actual Second World War footage of starving people walking in lines) a bit distasteful.
Overall, the plot is mainly a device for Pirk to have his P-fleet at his disposal again, and to let us see the Big Space Fight and the crossover thing with B5. If not counting the actual fight, some the greatest moments of the movie the deception, the chase, Garybrandy's final solution take place on the B-13 space station, but as noted above, "great moments" in this movie can have quite dark undertones in them.
I didn't much care for the Russian thing in the first part of the film. Finns like to make light-hearted fun of their Russian neighbors but it's done to death already. Another thing that bothered me with the "Russians" was the weak, semi-alcoholic president. Perhaps that was an allusion to Mr. Yeltsin, but it didn't still feel quite right in this day and age the current Russian president seems to be a quite different character altogether. The president's conversion to Pirk's supporter also seemed to happen all too fast and easily.
I liked the security guard gags: especially the conversation in the sled and the mishap with the gun. What I would have liked to see was much more of the kind of witty dialog Info and Dwarf were having at one point Dwarf complaining about there still being "no chair in Tactical", and Info commenting about his thigh muscles. Unfortunately, that was not the direction this movie was going.
Despite whatever shortcomings there may have been, "In the Pirkinning" is a must see for anyone who's interested in sci-fi parodies, special effects, fan fiction, or the ST and B5 universes at all. It's a great deal of fun to watch, and an absolutely stunning technical achievement from a bunch of amateurs. I can only hope that there's more to come, but I'm afraid these kind of things are really only done once. Make sure to see the previous SW movies as well.
Review by Jukka Aho from the Internet Movie Database.
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