Star Trek: Section 31

Its clear they just don't want to make good stuff, Terry Matalas gave it to them on a silver platter and the powers in charge of Star Trek still let him go.

Part of me wonders if kurtzman was jealous that Matalas done what he couldn't with apparently a lot less money and the scraps left from the end of Picard season 2.
 
XPE said:
Its clear they just don't want to make good stuff, Terry Matalas gave it to them on a silver platter and the powers in charge of Star Trek still let him go.

Part of me wonders if kurtzman was jealous that Matalas done what he couldn't with apparently a lot less money and the scraps left from the end of Picard season 2.
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I'm not...positive that's entirely the case. Look here's the thing - I'm 48, there are fans older than me and my friend, we're not going to be around making questionable purchases on memorabilia forever, and they have to cultivate a new audience, and unfortunately that new audience has probably never picked up a book and has the attention span of a springer spaniel on walkies. Getting these people to read a book, let alone science fiction is a non starter so they needed to jazz it up - and for that reason they were sold on the idea of making star trek more like star wars which was always going to be a bad idea.

Discovery...Actually had solid bones. It did, it's just unfortunate that it was boring, preachy and had no real appreciation for legacy and completely underused the few compelling protagonists that it had. Strange New Worlds? Mostly solid. I think in terms of Section 31 we're probably seeing Paramount under the skydance/Ellison flag walk back the Kurtzman/Abrams era in favour of attempting to find some degree of solvency.
 
If that was the case, they are making the same mistakes over and over again and expecting a different result.

Discovery is a good example, Netflix basically paid for the 1st series and it got massive attention for that season but they squandered the opportunity and by the end, was on a streaming service I've never heard of. Then got a leading man with charisma in Anson Mount for Strange New worlds and manage to produce something that was the definition of Okay. Then after that the Terry Matalas showed them how to make a good show.

But now we get a Section 31 with a trailer that is pure cringe, they have had opportunities to get this "new audience" and it needs to start with a good show, How many opportunities can they throw away?
 
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IGN's take on the film.

Oof. "100 minutes of generic schlock containing only trace elements of Star Trek." Don't reckon we'll be seeing that used as the tagline, somehow...

IGN said:
If you were to scrub the tricorder sound effects from the mix, brush out an occasional Delta shield, and cut out its titular black-ops organization’s connection to Starfleet, you’d just think, gee, this chintzy Syfy movie sure knows to copy from The Hunger Games and Guardians of the Galaxy (and X-Men and The Fifth Element) but doesn’t know a damn thing about being original. Or engaging.

Though it would still be boring, Section 31 might actually be better if you come to it with no knowledge of Star Trek lore. This way, at least, you won’t end up wondering how writer Craig Sweeny and director Olatunde Osunsanmi completely bungled the entire Trek ethos – its admittedly corny core tenants of exploration, optimism, and the pursuit of righteous achievement. (There’s a reason we Star Trek dorks got bullied a lot in junior high.) Section 31 is nothing but a lousy, uninteresting caper picture with middling special effects, bad acting (yes, even Yeoh), cringeworthy dialogue, and characters you don’t care about.
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IGN said:
The weirdest thing is that this little cul-du-sac in the Star Trek universe – which I predict almost no one will remember in a year – exists when Lower Decks just ended and Strange New Worlds is readying for its next season. These are two shows that understand, on a molecular level, the joy and specificity of Star Trek. The franchise is still alive.

As such, it’s best to just consider Section 31 an aberration and move on. If I’ve learned anything from Starfleet, it’s to keep positive. I’m simply dispatching a warning buoy to all other ships to avoid this area of space and warping out of here.
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Question is...do I subject myself to all one hundred minutes of this in order to have my own opinion on it, or do I just 'nooope' out of the way?
 
Stu999 said:
If even IGN says it’s trash that’s a pretty big red flag.
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I mean...IGN somehow thought Nemesis was worth 3/10. For this film to be down at 2/10 (and I suspect that they'd have given it one or zero without Sam Richardson trying his best with the material) is pretty telling.

Kainz said:
Film is getting absolutely obliterated.
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Yeah. Trek Core hated it, Hollywood Reporter called it subpar, Gizmodo reckoned it was mediocre as an action movie and worse as a Trek one...but hey, /Film were okay with it. That's something for the Paramount suits that greenlit it, I guess?

Can't help but think that the money spaffed on this (rumoured to be $80m, of which $20m was Yeoh's pay-or-play contract for the S31 series that morphed into the film) would have paid for a lot of better Trek. Like another couple of seasons of Lower Decks, or a Picard movie that was literally just 90 minutes of the old crew taking the Enterprise-D for a joyride and playing poker.

BeelzebubUK said:
Yeah I'm not sure I should even try to watch this. I have enjoyed Strange New Worlds though so maybe just wait for that to come out.
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Seems from a read-around like if anyone liked Discovery's early seasons then they'll like this. Which doesn't bode well for me, because I thought Discovery was hot trash right from the opening episode...
 
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I can't recall when I stopped watching Discoballs but it was around the time that some red alien kept appearing to the crew. At that stage I was already tiring of it. When I first heard of S31 and saw that one trailer it seemed to be more of the same fast talking out of a situation (whilst something hangs in the balance) sort of film, with lots of quick cuts and action pew pew pews...which just wasn't trek to me.
 
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Horror isn't usually my thing but I'll still watch it so I can be traumatised and have a factual opinion on the product instead of relying on reviews. I shall compare this to finding the chicken in my fridge is a week out of date and still opting to cook with it.
 
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