[Film Review] Galaxy Quest (1999) 6.5/10

Although homage to the original Star Trek series and movies are destined to be lost on this non-Trekkie reviewer, Dean Parisot's spoof movie GALAXY QUEST has enough ammo for lulz and diversion.

18 years after, the original cast (plus one new guy) of a defunct, long-run Sci-Fi TV show is unwittingly mustered by the guileless extraterrestrial Thermians (monotonous voiced, tentacular creatures), to command the NSEA Protector starship, incredibly and minutely created as specified by the show (mistaken by those aliens as historical documentaries), to defend themselves from the vicious aggressor Sarris and his arthropod army.

The initial expectation of hilarity is derived from the process of the disorientated cast trying to get a clue on their bearings and during which armchair viewers can also accordingly suspend their disbelief (including the beggar belief of how easy for a non-trainer to operate a mega space vehicle for the first time) to enjoy the sub-STAR WAR intergalactic journey, although save a sortie on a planet peopled with toddler-looking cannibals and a rock monster, the crew’s whole adventure is curtailed inside the starship, where captivity, physical torture, owning up the truth are interlaced with an inter-species romance, a throwaway curse to teleplay writers, an über-touchy-feely death, an expendable nonentity dreading over his impending perdition which never transpires, plus a time-travel gimmick to save the day.

The cast is also having their fun, Tim Allen innocuously mimics his Captain Kirk impressions with broad appeal, and Sigourney Weaver, under the spell of her blond wig, ebulliently plays against her heroine stature with her eye-catching cleavage and sentence-repeating onus in poker face. Alan Rickman, anticipates his unforgettable voice work in THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY (2005) as the dejected android Marvin, masterfully vents his character's grievance and under-appreciation with brilliant comic time, also a young Sam Rockwell is an excellent comic relief provider and thankfully, Tony Shalhoub doesn't overplay his “Chinese eyes” affront but a cucumber-cool blitheness.

Non-offensive fun is all the film can offer and one is inclined to gulf it down indiscriminately, just like the show's watchword “Never give up, never surrender”, there is a winsome puerility and self-abandon in this nerds-angling popcorn divertissement that one is disinclined to besmirch.

referential entries: Garth Jennings' THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY (2005, 6.4/10); J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (2013, 6,6/10).