Galaxy Quest Movie Review

Galaxy Quest (1999)

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Written by: David Howard (story), David Howard and Robert Gordon (screenplay)
Directed by: Dean Parisot
Starring: Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Sam Rockwell, Tony Shaloub, Justin Long
Rated: PG
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Plot
Satirizing science fiction television and the fandom, the retired cast of a sci-fi television show must put their skills to the test when aliens need their help.

Verdict
Galaxy Quest is light and fun, but surprisingly deep. Fans want their television heroes to be real, and the actors want to be those same heroes. A fictional television series suddenly becomes real, recreated by an alien race. The movie is a big meta commentary on sci-fi, fans, and actors. Every scene is a joke or parody. It's incredibly clever. I can't criticize the scenes that lack logic, because those scenes are the same ones I've seen in numerous sci-fi programs.
Watch it.

Review
Galaxy Quest is so revered by Star Trek fans that the 2013 Star Trek convention voted it as the seventh best Star Trek film. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) was dead last at number thirteen. Stark Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982) was first. Patrick Stewart called the film "brilliant."

Sam Rockwell based his performance off of Bill Paxton in Aliens (1986). Kevin Spacey convinced Rockwell not to drop out of the film. The scene where Tim Allen is in the restroom and overhears people stating the cast are washed up and nobody likes him actually happened to William Shatner at a Star Trek convention.
Sigourney Weaver stated that whenever she put on the blonde wig for her character, she could feel her IQ drop.

I've seen this movie long ago. I liked it, but since then I've seen the original Star Trek movies and series. Alan Rickman's character is more prescient now after playing Snape.

Galaxy Quest - "Did you guys even watch the show?"

The movie blends drama and comedy, looking at both sides of what happens after a cult show goes off air. Fans want to rally around their heroes, turning the show into a hobby of devotion and obsession. The actors coast off their one time fame. Tim Allen as Jason Nesmith the captain, buys into the false reality just as hard as the fans. He thinks he's revered by fans and costars, but realizes his misconception when he overhears a conversation between two fans that regard him as a joke. Nesmith thought he was a rock star, but he's only revered by a very small portion of society, and his costars are tired of his narcissism.

Alan Rickman plays Alan Dane, a highly skilled stage actor relegated to donning prosthetics and appearing as an alien. Sigourney Weaver is Gwen DeMarco, stuck playing a ditzy female in a low cut top that just repeats whatever the ship's computer says.

Nesmith's biggest fans happen to be the alien race Thermians. Comically, they are robotic and simple, believing the television show to be a historical record. It's quite a jab at the super fans. Fans want to believe the character an actor plays actually is the actor, but that's simply not true. We want heroes and someone to look up to. Actors create conducive fantastical worlds for just that. Nobody thinks these types of shows are real, but it's fun to pretend and use it as escapism.

Nesmith wants to help the Thermians. He can finally be the captain he's pretended to be for so man years. He convinces his costars to join him, as they think it's a paid gig. They soon realize that this isn't a convention.
It's a great moment when the crew takes the bridge of a real spaceship that looks like the old set, the Thermians watching in admiration. That moment soon turns to comedy when the pilot steers the ship into the dock wall in a long ear piercing scrape. He's never actually flown a ship, and none of the crew want to tell the Thermians the truth.

After embracing their roles, with Gwen even repeating everything the computer says, the crew ends up in a parody episode of Star Trek when they first attempt peace negations with a violent reptilian alien race. Nesmith mistakenly leaves the standard Star Trek view screen on, calling the alien stupid.
The crew shuttles to a planet to acquire beryllium to power their ship. They find the beryllium and a cute alien race. Guy Fleegman, an extra in the original show that happens to tag along, reminds the crew that the cute aliens will somehow transform into monsters. Exasperated he asks, "Did you guys ever watch the show?" Nesmith loses his shirt a la Captain Kirk, but makes it back to the ship.

The real heroes aren't the crew that are still trying to fake it, but the super fans that studied the show. They direct Nesmith and crew through the ship to defeat the evil aliens.

The Omega 13 device that no one knows what it does, saves the day. There is no explanation as to how only Nesmith recalls what happened, though I can't call that a mistake as the movie could be making a joke about how often television shows do that same thing. The crew ends up crashing the ship into a convention center without major structural failings, injuries, or casualties. The crowd thinks it's part of a scripted entrance and loves it.