It turns out that when you make a Star Trek movie for everyone but Star Trek fans, it's going to fail. Gee, who would have thought that? Go ahead, be surprised. Let's all fake our shock that this poorly done attempt at a movie was going to be anything other than what it was; a shameless attempt to ride Michelle Yeoh's name, while putting as little effort and money into a project that was doomed from the start.
Everyone, it seems, hates this film.
Starting with TrekMovie.com. They are largely pretty accepting of Star Trek properties that are different. They speak glowingly about Star Trek's Discovery, Picard, and Lower Decks, the three most divisive shows of the Nu Trek Era. If they weren't going to like it, then what hope did Section 31 have?
Anthony Pascula of TrerkMovie.com said;
"The goal is to deliver a Guardians of the Galaxy for Star Trek, albeit on a TV-movie scale. The end result is a mixed bag, with varying levels of success on hitting the many targets in its sights."
While Laurie Ulster echoed her colleague's thoughts, saying;
"...Section 31 was created to ask some of the hard questions about the price of the Federation’s peace and prosperity. But those questions don’t get examined here, as moral contemplation has been swapped for action-adventure."
Our own Rachel Carrington went on to say;
"But the humor falls flat, especially when everyone is talking over one another. It's like a children's playground where everyone is trying to be the loudest. And, unfortunately, they were quite one-dimensional so no one was ever strong enough to stand out."
The two of our respective sites sit on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to Star Trek. The fact that both of us seem to think it's awful should tell you something.
The film further fails beyond the narrower Star Trek fandom, however. Rotten Tomatoes users and critics alike have buried the film. The fan reaction with almost 200 votes as of this write-up is at 23%. Easily one of the worst fan reactions the site has had for a Star Trek property. This is the metric I trust the most. They're fans, telling you why they did or didn't like something.
The critic score is often harder to take seriously, as usually, they aren't "fans" who are reviewing the product, but people who get paid to write reviews. So they're less attached to fandoms like Star Trek and more willing to accept things that are less than conventional.
Yet, even the critics hated this film, with 28 reviews submitted, the film has a pathetic 18% score on Rotten Tomatoes. IMDB is even worse. Of the 41 fan reviews, only nine were of a six-star review or higher. It'll end up being one of the most disappointing films in Star Trek's entire canon.
I'm unsure why iMDB doesn't have its usual star rating system for Section 31, I thought it would take a few days for it to go live, but had it gone live, the average grade of the reviewer is 3.95 out of 10. A pretty telling scorer.
One IMDB writer called it "The Acolyte Meets Rebel Moon Meets Spock's Brain". A damning description for the film and he gave it a 5/10, one of the higher reviews for the film. They're not the only outfit who hated the film, as IGN gave it a 2/10, saying the film will "...infuriate Star Trek fans and bore everyone else."
There will likely be some fans who like the films and maybe even a few critics. I myself adore Star Trek: Into Darkness, so it's very possible this is a film you will enjoy. Yet, should you watch it and find yourself hating every minute of it, just remember you were warned.