Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning is (roughly) the seventh film in a series of Star Trek / science fiction spoof films, following the adventures of the space ship CPP Potkustartti. Released more than ten years after the first Star Wreck film - which was nothing more than a few minutes of simple hand drawn computer animation plus some school boy humour dubbed on top of it - In the Pirkinning is the culmination of the series. More than a five year mission, this film has been "almost ready" since the end of the last millennium, and is now finally shown to a delighted audience.
And what a film it is! It really can be seen that this is a labour of love. While the acting is at time painfully amateurish, and while the plot is a bit too simplistic towards the end, the humour combined with references to Star Trek and Babylon 5 should keep any science fiction TV fan happy for the duration. And even acting can be forgiven when you consider that the actor budget has been a very round number with only one zero.
The English and Swedish subtitles are very well done, particularly the latter one which manages to transfer a significant amount of finer Finnish language nuances. However the Swedish subs were not particularly well timed: Many of the longer lines started too early and disappeared too quickly to read.
The only real gripe I have about this film is the constant swearing. Don't take me wrong, I don't mind a naughty word or even a few. Swearing at appropriate places can be unbelievably funny. But when you swear at an average speed of twice a minute or so, it stops being funny and becomes simply annoying. This has always bugged me in the series, but as the English and Swedish subtitles have been toned down, most of the viewers would neither know nor be bothered.
Why would you want to see In the Pirkinning? To begin with, it may be (and probably is) the most expensive-looking film that has been made without professional funding. However, that's not the point. The film is also funny, well-paced for the most part, and sometimes even witty. It also has good re-watching value. And did I tell you it's free? You can download it from the official Star Wreck web site.
I strongly encourage you to see this film.
