
As a life-long Trekkers, when I saw the Section 31 trailer, I thought (to quote another sci-fi franchise): I have a bad feeling about this. I was hoping to be wrong. Sigh. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . ,.-‘”. . . . . . . . .
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Red Alert... 31 is a prime number, and you can’t break this movie up and find any good parts. OK, not many.
Hm... wish I could find the article but I swear I saw that even Yeoh said Star Tek people were gonna hate this film.
When asked about a particular cinematic floater in which he had appeared, Robert Mitchum replied,
"They pay you for the bad ones too!" Yeoh got 12 million. Jamie Lee Curtis' cameo. She is also an OSCAR winner. Two Oscar winning actresses couldn't save this film.
Hmm... I wonder who is spinning faster in their grave - Tolkien or Roddenberry?
Set Phasers to Shun -
So we watched it as soon as it was released at midnight my time. The intro backstory was good I thought, but the rest was 90% nails on a chalkboard. I fell asleep watching it about 2/3 of the way through and forced myself to watch the rest. But known for my fair and balanced reviews I decided to watch it again to see if I was being overly critical.
Nope. Being assimilated by the Borg would be more entertaining and less painful!
This story did not come together in a coherent manner. It was like a bad conglomeration of different ideas from old shows/movies ( the bar scenes; stranded in a strange galaxy; the wild & crazy adventures of a cast of misfits). My impression is that this is a Suicide Squad knockoff set in Trek. It appears to have translated all the characters from the first one. There's a black guy who is basically Col. Flagg, Michelle Yoh is a cross between Harlequin and Mae West and all rest of the team are quirky anti heroes with special powers who are all psychologically scared.
I dunno -- maybe the title should have been 'Suicide Trek: Kill the franchise'.
Here's the thing -- when inserting Easter Eggs into a thinly veiled Star Trek Project - it's important to remember that Easter Eggs on their own have a hollow center - and that is how Section 31 felt. All Fur Coat and No Knickers is another way to put it.
If I had pirated Section 31 off of torrent... I still would've felt like I had been ripped off.
The problem with Star Trek is much deeper then just repurposing a TV series. The values represented in Star Trek aren't with us anymore. Today's society is the antithesis of what Star Trek was. IMO.
But... I also see why some find it decent enough to be interested in it. And I'll also stipulate that many people could be thinking too narrow and expecting it to be Star Trek's starfleet, including myself.
In a parallel universe... If you are a Star Trek fan, I'd tell ya to skip it. But we're in this one so I'll defer to a passage Jim Harper writes in his book on slashers, Legacy of Blood,
"Watch it if you have to, but you'll probably wish you hadn't."
-A