being forced to sit down and watch what looks like a new Star Trek film, only to realize it is cheap streaming crap, is like finding a cloaking device in your partner’s underwear drawer. have you been lied to this whole time? What level of deception has transpired in order for this egregious offense to occur? It just leaves you with this lingering question of “WTF?” After all the wait, this supposed deep dive into the intelligence gathering arm of Star Fleet is lacking in intelligence on the page. After all the whispers, this look into the clandestine is more of a deep dive into quicksand. but, probably really poorly rendered quicksand.

Section 31 seems like a great idea on the surface. it is a morally questionable organization that operates on the fringe, like some kind of Impossible Mission Force, but for Star Trek, and the opportunities for having a cast full of devious and complex characters who are constantly at odds with the task at hand seems like a no brainer. But, it also has to focus in some ways as the Star Trek: Discovery film we never got, and it seems to not really understand what genre it is supposed to be, or its target demographic.

the acting is bad, the characters are flat, and the film feels oddly campy. It has horror elements, and these overly complex science fiction gadgets that seem to need a lot of explanation, yet also seem interchangeable in any situation as needed. Want to walk through walls? You can!

The anchor protagonist (Michelle Yeoh) is a Discovery character best used in small doses, as Sonequa Martin Green was always the more relatable lead of discovery. here, she seems to be given a second chance, but at what? to be morally questionable again? The film struggles to balance her self interest with her pragmatism, and makes her feel less like a complex and compelling anti-hero, and more like the only actress who didn’t say No. Her supporting cast is interchangeable, exposition driven, and barely competent. They are given painful dialogue, and a convoluted plot, in a film that feels like it was being stripped of funding as the dailies were coming in.

I actually have not seen every Star Trek film. I’ve seen most. This is easily the worst. Previously, I would have tagged Nemesis, but this is on another level. it is a dead end of a film, that goes boldly where no one wanted to go before, for a good reason.

Rotten: Final Grade: D, Audio description: B