Star Trek: Section 31

Tonight, on Paramount+, I saw “Star Trek: Section 31,” which came out five days ago, and I will let you know what I thought of this spin-off on a show that I never watched.

Dennis Harvey started his review by saying, “In the ever-expanding “Star Trek” universe — which next year enters its seventh earthly decade — there’s room for all kinds of celestial phenomena, including the occasional underwhelming dwarf star.” That status is claimed by “Star Trek: Section 31,” the franchise’s first film since “Beyond” nine years ago, and the first that was released to streaming. A spinoff for Michelle Yeoh’s character from “Star Trek: Discovery,” whose frequent director Olatunde Osunsanmi again is in the helm here, this rapidly distracting departure is too complicated and tonally shaky to leave a lasting feeling. Harvey said, “Given a fairly hostile initial fanbase reaction to the Jan. 24 release on Paramount+, it may also stray too far from hitherto-consistent core elements to warrant any follow-up.”

The still-agile former Hong Kong martial arts actress has definitely gained additional praise since her last Star Trek appearance, thanks to that Oscar for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” plus last year’s “Wicked.” Harvey said, “But despite her evident enthusiasm, Philippa Georgiou isn’t really an ideal primary focus — she’s a variable friend/foe/frenemy to the Federation whose slipperiness cedes the role of more standard heroic leader to charismatic Omari Hardwick’s Alok Sahar, though he never quite seizes the spotlight.”

Craig Sweeney’s screenplay hits a frequently cunning attitude to house this fraud protagonist, which weakens any deceit of seriousness elsewhere. What’s more, other characters so frequently end up having hidden identities, get pronounced dead early on and so forth that the nonstop twists feel silly, rather than clever or meaningful. While the story ends up with a face-off between lovers-turned-enemies – with life as we know it hanging on by a thread – that huge passion carries limited weight among too much narrative mess.

A prologue shows how as a young woman (Miku Martineau), Georgiou survived lethal competition to become the Terran Empire’s new empress, claiming that victory with evil acts toward loved ones including San (James Huang, later James Hiroyuki Liao). The story then jumps forward to a time after she lost that throne, and has already spent so much time as a jokey operative of covert Federation intelligence unit Section 31 on “Discovery.” (Harvey noted, “Never mind that this is only her “Mirror Universe” persona, as opposed to the same-named nice Star Fleet Captain killed off in that series’ 2017 pilot episode.”) Since then, she’s gone AWOL, having a new identity and judged of trafficking in illegal bio-weapons. With a new 31 crew under Alok’s command is sent to find her, then “neutralize the threat.”

Harvey noted, “She turns out to be currently occupied as hostess-owner to a sort of deluxe dive bar, her edge not so dulled that she can’t immediately recognize a half-dozen new guests as poorly disguised agents: Strongarm Zeph (Rob Kazinsky), whose bull-in-a-china-shop ways are heightened by a tank-like exoskeleton; Irish-accented Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok), who looks like a Vulcan but is really a Nanokin, or “intelligent microbe”; Quasi (Sam Richardson), who can morph into any physical form; initially blue-haired Garrett (Kacey Rohl), a humorless Star Fleet rules-enforcer; and chrome-domed Melle (Humberly Gonzalez), whose superpower is basically “hypnotic loveliness.” There’s also the eugenically “enhanced” human Alok, the sole member of this party who’s neither a middling one-joke idea or constantly bickering with the others.” Camaraderie has always been a big element in “Star Trek,” but it’s very absent from this capably played yet tiresome team.

Even when Georgiou decides to join the team rather than beat them, things go haywire in the Section’s attempt to grab a mysterious deadly weapon known as “the Godsend” from its visiting sales agent (Joe Pingue as Dad Noe). After a nightclub fight, it disappears. Everything comes as a surprise to Georgiou, who had originally ordered it made – and destroyed, she thought – back in her time as an unapologetic tyrant. Harvey said, “Now she’s just a semi-reformed “monster with regrets.””

Hoping to retrieve the deadly object (Harvey describes, “which resembles the “Hellraiser” puzzle box”) before someone activates it, she ends up stranded on a dead planet with the others in the film’s climax, which is mostly answering “Who’s the mole betraying our every move?” secrecy. Finally, they get a disabled garbage barge working and fly off into space, right behind them someone who not only has the Godsent, but a lifelong grudge to settle with Georgiou.

There’s a lot of action, mostly one-on-one, in the last third. However, it’s not particularly inspired, and the stakes feel more regularly forced than urgent. Harvey pointed out, “It’s also hard to grant climactic events the gravitas required when so much preceding progress has been snarky, occasionally smirky and comedic, minus real wit. There’s always been a healthy vein of humor to “Star Trek,” but here there’s no depth of character dynamics or anything else to ballast sheer flippancy. The whole drifts uneasily toward deliberate camp, all its story’s intended dramatic substance shunted toward flashbacks, explicatory dialogue and other clumsy devices that thwart any centering narrative impetus.”

Not that “Section 31” is tough to get through – it does have some moments here and there. The design contributions are up to standards, from visual effects to sets. Bartholomew Burcham contributes a huge editorial pace and Jeff Russo a satisfactorily inspiring score. Harvey mentioned, “But the big-deal factor that most “Trek” endeavors carry is missing amid characters we may not miss if they aren’t seen again, embroiled in adventures that feel at once over-complicated, one-dimensional and irrelevant.”

Harvey continued, “In the end, “Star Trek: Section 31” falls into an odd netherland between OK series episode and stand-alone feature, too big to pass as one thing, too frivolous to work as the other. It’s a watchable digression that floats off into viewer memory space, snapping its slender tether to anything else in this fabled sci-fi universe.” When Yeoh’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” co-star Jamie Lee Curtis makes a late cameo appearance in holograph form, giving the surviving characters their next assignment, you may think that they might set up future installments that may never come to fruition.

I say just give this film a pass. I didn’t really like it as there was way too much dialogue and slow moments for a “Star Trek” movie and not much action. I think that’s what the franchise is all about, but I don’t think anyone will really like this film. And this is coming from someone who never saw “Star Trek: Discovery.” Just wait for when JJ Abrams decide to make another one in his series or if they restart it again.

Thank you for joining in on this review tonight. Stay tuned this Friday for the finale of “Scorpion King Month.”