Currently, Star Trek: Section 31 is among the worst offerings that Star Trek has ever done. We're not just talking about television series as a whole, specific episodes, or films. We're including books, video games, virtual reality offerings, websites, fan experiences, and every other thing you can imagine that Star Trek has thrown its official branding on.
It's truly terrible. The scores don't lie. Rotten Tomatoes' critics have it at 19%, while the audience score is even lower at 16%. It's so bad, that it continues to fall even on IDMB, where it is now now at a 3.8 out of 10. There's no saving this film's reputation.
The thing is, this was always going to happen. While some will point to the uneven humor and attempts to turn Star Trek into a cheap Guardians of the Galaxy clone, the fact is this was a niche concept directed at Star Trek fans. It's why it wasn't a theatrical release because they knew only a certain amount of people would want to watch it.
Yet, due to probably contractual obligations I'm sure, the decision was made to make the film. An idea that was doomed to fail, as Section 31 is a bad concept to build a story around. They're an organization that does purely awful things for the sake of doing so. A gimmick that doesn't really work in the utopian future of Star Trek. At least, not when they're presented as the heroes.
There was really only one show that nailed the outfit correctly and that was Deep Space Nine. They showcased just how vile and awful they were, and didn't try to pretend that a bunch of torturing, psychopaths', were to be trusted or respected. Deep Space Nine nailed that and due to it, helped make the group a far more effective villainous group.
The problem in trying to take such an overtly evil outfit like Section 31 and turning them into heroes, for any reason, means you have to seriously augment their entire purpose. Sometimes this can work, like the Paramount+ series, Dexter. In the original Dexter, he was a serial killer who doubted he could even feel; but throughout the show, he proved he does have feelings.
This was an important distinction from the books that the show was based on, as the literary version of Dexter had no emotions. Yet, if you tried to put that guy on a hit TV show as someone to like, it wouldn't work.
Likewise for Section 31. They're too awful of a group to root for, at any point in time in their history. So the minute someone suggested this terrible idea be made into a show or featured-length film, someone should've brought the entire conversation to an end with a resounding "no".
Except, they didn't and instead we got stuck with a film that failed to be a clone of a much better film, failed to properly depict the reasons why fans enjoy Section 31 as villains, and failed to honor the concept that is Star Trek.