Now there are 14 Star Trek movies over the past 50 years and yet the franchise has always had a reputation for cinematic struggle on the big screen. From the filming of the premiere to the launch of Kelvin’s timeline, Star Trek the question of how to adapt a TV series that prides itself on talk shows and scientific brainstorming sessions into a blockbuster sci-fi action spectacle has always been vexed. He can Star Trek it’s still like that Star Trek in such a place? This week with the arrival of Section 31 at Paramount+, another question is boldly asked instead: what if a Star Trek the movie had no interest in being a Star Trek the movie or being the most engaging action?
Section 31 has come a long way from being one of the first TV spinoffs to be teased Star Trekbroadcast period after AdoptionThe first season, before disappearing into the shadows and re-emerging years later as Michelle Yeoh’s now-Oscar-winning film vehicle, is an epic journey that resonates throughout its nearly two-hour running time. Yeoh plays as him Adoption character Philipa Georgio-former Governor of A journeyAnother space mirror, he was re-examined and partially rescued during his time on the show before being sent to unknown times to live a new life—the film follows Georgiou as he is forced to cut off the titular black ops agents. a spy agency is introduced for the first time Deep Space Nineand gave way to a dangerous journey beyond the edge of Federation space with ties to his bloody past.
That group is made up of an eclectic mix of characters—led by the straight-laced Alok (Omari Hardwick); his right hand man with a strong arm, Zeph (Rob Kazinsky) wearing a mechsuit); the master of the shapeshifting group Quasi (Sam Richardson); Delta operative Melle (Humberly Gonzalez); wild card Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok); and their Starfleet overseer Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl, who plays a younger version of Tricia O’Neill’s team captain. Business-C from The Next Generation‘s “Yesterday’s Enterprise”) who, alongside Yeoh, spend the next few hours running, shooting, and navigating their way around the galaxy. And that’s really the vibe of Section 31: it’s a little James Bond, and a little more Guardians of the Galaxy, if the latter series forgets to retain any sense of sincerity that underpins its outlandish humor. This would be great, if it wasn’t Star Trek movie with the title Section 31-which it is, so it’s wrong, and we’ll consider why later. But since a Star Trek movie with the title Section 31it trades any questioning about its world and the organization it’s named after to instead cloak itself in a smooth, but empty, sci-fi aesthetic.
Section 31 it desperately wants to wake up its audience that its heroes are cool, that what they do is good, and that the way they all represent what we can expect. Star Trek heroes, they are all cool for being so. Garrett, as the only legitimate Starfleet officer among them, has to cut through this sticky gang list in the mud—”Starfleet is here to make sure no one commits. to kill,” he snarls in his introductory scene—while fittingly repeating himself as one of the gang, which feels symptomatic of one of the film’s fundamental flaws. It’s so interested, so eager to even speak its strange tone that it forgets to question anything remotely interesting about its premise, or the loaded intent behind its title as a film about Section 31 and its location. Star Trekthe atmosphere.
The film never met the controversial legacy of Section 31 in between Star Trek history, and it never shows its heroes treading some kind of moral line that would make them anything but shameless heroes: the main thing presented to the audience is to suggest that this is an unauthorized organization by design that the mission of the group is placed outside the borders of the Federation space, as if Star Trek it has never sent its regular heroes to the board many times before. Section 31 it pretends that this is all bold and new for the franchise, while at the same time ignoring the reality of what would at least make it interesting: exploring what the living and breathing people of Section 31 actually think about the organization and its place within. the Federation, and that the cost of protecting a utopia from destruction may apply to someone willing to bend those ideals.
If Star Trek a series that prides itself on thinking about big ideas and asking big questions, Section 31 it’s obsessed with the small, because it’s easier to crack a joke than to think about the complex ideas behind its name that the series has explored in the past. All of this may sound depressing Section 31 being a film that isn’t, and probably never will be, but it shows the lack of curiosity felt throughout the film. Its characters are sad beyond being presented as strange and highly entertaining—no matter how good the supporting cast is, they focus on entertaining, but the same performance of Michelle Yeoh, as Georgiou gets the bulk of the film’s character work. . It ticks off a range of spy-fi tropes, from deception to discovery and investigation, but in a way that’s less about playing with those tropes. Star TrekThe setting and the rest I just point out as it hinders them The pacing is erratic and awkward, moving from one moment to the next quickly enough to never allow the film to settle with its characters or plot stakes to have anything meaningful. to transfer.
This lack of curiosity can at least be justified if Section 31 at least it was a good action movie, but unfortunately it’s also there. Several of the action sequences have interesting ideas, and yes, Yeoh gets to enjoy all of that plot—there’s a high kick, as some drag on longer than they should. But those exciting ideas are often undermined by poorly lit cinematography and editing that often obscures the impact of the action, leaving it empty.
All this means that this is not a crime Section 31 deviation from what is expected Star Trekand therefore bad. Instead, it’s just a film that struggles to convey any kind of significant identity in its own right, while ignoring the one it might establish in a broader sense. Star Trek franchise, regardless of whether it ultimately stands opposite or similar to it. A movie that clocks in at under two hours probably shouldn’t feel like a slog, though Section 31 it doesn’t have the spectacle to lure the audience away from its powerless character work, or the titular meat on its bones to sit and chew on. Instead, beneath its skin-deep glamour, the only thing lurking in the shadows here isn’t a secretive, morally sleazy spy ring: it’s just a dull-looking movie grinding away.
Star Trek: Episode 31 premieres on Paramount+ this Friday, January 24.
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