Chapter 31 is a mediocre action movie and an even worse Star Trek One

There are already 14 Star Trek films over the past 50 years, and yet the franchise has always had a bit of a reputation for cinematic struggle on the big screen. From the movie sequels of the original show to the Kelvin Timeline reboot, Star Trek has always been dogged by the question of exactly how to adapt a TV series that prides itself on talky diplomacy and meetings of scientific minds into a blockbuster medium that guarantees the spectacle of sci-fi action. can Star Trek still be Star Trek in such an environment? This week with the arrival of Section 31 on Paramount+instead, another question is boldly asked: what if a Star Trek the film neither cared to be a Star Trek movie or even a particularly interesting action?

Section 31 has come a long way from being one of first tantalizing TV spinoffs on Star Trekstreaming era after Discoverythe first season of before fading into the shadows and reappearing years later as a film vehicle for now Oscar winner Michelle Yeoha bumpy ride that feels strong throughout its nearly two-hour running time. Starring Yeo as her Discovery hero Philippa Georgiou – the former emperor of Trekis an alternate mirror universerevisited and partially redeemed during her time on the show before being sent to unknown times to live a new life – the film follows Georgiou as she is forced to cross paths with agents of the titular spy organization black ops first introduced in Deep Space Nineand offered the site of a dangerous mission beyond the borders of Federation space with ties to its bloody past.

This team is made up of an eclectic mix of characters – led by the straightforward Alok (Omari Hardwick); his right-hand man and strong arm, the soft-suited Zeph (Rob Kazinsky); shape-shifting team genius Quasi (Sam Richardson); Deltan Operative Mele (Humberly Gonzalez); wild card Fuzz (Sven Ruigrok); and their Starfleet supervisor Rachel Garrett (Casey Rolle, playing a younger version of Tricia O’Neill’s captain Enterprise-C from Next generationof “Yesterday’s Enterprise”), who along with Yeoh spend the next few hours running, shooting and sneaking their way through a galaxy-threatening plot. And that’s really the mood of Section 31: it’s a little less James Bond and a little more Guardians of the Galaxy, if the latter series forgets to retain any sense of sincerity underlying its quirky humor. This might be fine if it wasn’t a Star Trek title movie Section 31— which it is, so it’s not good, and we’ll find out why later. But as a Star Trek title movie Section 31it trades in every curiosity about its world and about organization for which it is named instead to wrap itself in a slick but ultimately hollow sci-fi aesthetic.

Section 31 deeply wants to convey to its audience that its characters are cool, what they do is cool, and even that the way they’re all atypical of what we’d expect from Star Trek characters, they’re even cooler for being that way. Garrett, as the only official Starfleet officer among them, has to fight that team line in the mud – “Starfleet is here to make sure no one gets involved murder,” she gushes during her opening scene — while also being appropriately brave enough to be part of the gang that feels emblematic of one of the film’s fundamental failings. It’s so interested, even desperate, in conveying its quirky tone that it forgets to ask something a little interesting about its premise or the loaded intent behind its title as a Section 31 film and its place in Star Trekuniverse of.

Not once does the film engage with the controversial legacy from section 31 c Star Trek story, nor does it ever really show its characters following any moral line that would make them anything other than shameless heroes: the most that is presented to the audience to suggest that this is an unsanctioned entity by design is simply that the mission of the team is placed outside the borders of Federation space, as it were Star Trek hasn’t sent his regular characters across the border countless times before. Section 31 acts as if this is all bold and new for the franchise, while ignoring the reality of what might at least make it interesting: an exploration of what the people who live and breathe Section 31 actually think of the organization and her place in the Federation, and what price protecting a utopia from destruction might bring on someone eager to change those ideals.

If Star Trek is a series that prides itself on thinking big ideas and asking big questions, Section 31 is obsessed with the small because it’s easier to throw out a crude joke than to heed the complex ideas behind its namesake that the series has explored in the past. All of this may sound like a no-brainer Section 31 for being a film it isn’t and perhaps never was, but it reflects the lack of curiosity felt throughout the film. Its characters are hackneyed, aside from being presented as quirky and fun on a surface level – no matter how good the supporting cast is, anchored around a fun but equally sparse performance by Michelle Yeoh, as Georgiou gets most of the work on the characters in the film. It subverts a number of spy fiction genre tropes, from betrayals to goofs and interrogations, but in a way that doesn’t mean you’re actually playing with those tropes in Star Trekthe setting of and more to simply direct them as it ticks them. Its pacing is awkward and jarring, moving from one moment to the next quickly enough not to allow the film to stick with its characters or plot stakes to have something meaningful to convey.

This lack of curiosity might be at least a little more forgivable if Section 31 was a good action movie to say the least, but unfortunately it falters there too. A few action sequences throughout have some interesting ideas, and yes, Yeo enjoys all of these sequences – high kicks abound, even if some of them drag on a bit longer than necessary. But these interesting ideas are often undermined by poor cinematography and editing, which often mask the impact of this action, leaving them hollow.

All this means that this is not a case of Section 31 be different from what is expected Star Trekand therefore bad because of it. Instead, it’s just a film that struggles to convey any sort of meaningful identity for itself while ignoring one it could establish with the wider Star Trek franchising, whether it ends up being in contrast or likeness to it. Coming in at just under two hours, a film probably shouldn’t feel like a failure, but Section 31 does, neither with the spectacle to dazzle audiences away from his anemic heroic work, nor the thematic meat on his bones for them to sit and chew on. Instead, beneath its deep weirdness, the only thing lurking in the shadows here isn’t a secretive, morally compromised spy ring: it’s just a pretty boring movie going around there.

Star Trek: Episode 31 begins streaming on Paramount+ this Friday, January 24.

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