The drubbing of the Michelle Yeoh-led streaming film now holds a dubious title—one that reflects something much more interesting than simple schadenfreude.
It’s a bad movie.
It would be a bad movie even if it weren’t Star Trek.
As Star Trek, it seems like an even worse movie.
Stop making slop. If you don’t want to put the time in to give established IP the attention it deserves, get new IP.
That’s probably because it’s a mediocre movie overall and a horrible star trek movie.
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate it. It had some good bits and pieces, some interesting ideas. But they were cobbled together into a script with the worst dialogue of any trek effort I’ve ever seen. And the fucking accents? Absurdity. Yeoh’s character had this weird one that made the character feel stilted and the “nanokin” accents were just insulting to their respective real world versions.
The action was meh for the most part, though one of the bits with the special gear over the box was kinda fun until the end where a plot point made it turn into nonsense. I avoid spoilers where possible despite thinking spoilers don’t advisor actually spoil anything, so that’s vague as hell, but when you see the movie (if), you’ll get what I mean as soon as you see the bit I’m talking about.
I watched it with my wife and kid because my kid is slowly delving into trek, and this is the newest thing. I said afterward that, as a sci-fi action movie it was okay, I’ve seen a lot worse. But it wasn’t a star trek movie. It was a trek themed movie where they used catchwords from trek canon to make you think of trek, without delivering on the actual feel of any of it.
It definitely deserves to be the lowest rated trek project, and I hate the whole Kelvin thing.
But, again, I didn’t actually hate Section 31. I hated sections of it lol.
Thinking about it as I’m writing this, what it most reminded me of is fan fiction. It was just bad fan fiction. At moments, it also felt like they were going for a ttrpg feel akin to what the d&d honor among thieves movie did. Only in this case, it wasn’t done well.
I dunno, I’m rambling a bit. I think what I’m getting at is that if you’re forced to watch it, there are some decent bits, but you’ll likely be angry at whoever forced you to watch it despite that
Well it was slated as a series, then the main actress became expensive so they shoehorned it into a movie
Yeah. It shows. I think it would have been a shitty series, if that’s the vibe and characters they were going for.
They have to stop thinking that getting rid of Roddenberry’s rules is the way forward, the only way its going to feel like Star Trek is that they accept the positive optimistic version of the future where there is a stronger moral basis to human action. You can do a lot within those rules but you can’t do this type of movie and there are enough generic space movies like this and its just not Star Trek.
They also have to stop being Kurtzman for literally anything related to Star Trek .
That’s essentially where I am.
I don’t mind experimenting with trek, there’s room for it. A lot of ds9 was a divergence. But it was still trek. It was still hopeful and uplifting even at its darkest. It delivered great drama without ignoring the culture of the federation.
Even the TNG movies pushed the boundaries of being trek and doing action without breaking the spirit of the universe.
So it isn’t like you have to throw away all the great parts of trek to put out a great story.
I’ll paraphrase you because you’re so damn right; if we wanted a generic sci-fi/space movie, we could get that anywhere, but you can’t get star trek without playing within that universe and abiding by what makes it carry a sustained “vibe” for over a half century.
They have to stop thinking that getting rid of Roddenberry’s rules is the way forward
There are definitely a few you can fudge on. “Enough Already With the Klingons” was more a rule in the jump from the original series to TNG. Lower Decks proved you can do a good show and still have a little Klingon, as a treat.
But there are so many good notes in the Bible. Liberal use of the Holodeck gets you outside your own genre. Focus on the sociological and psychological consequences of long-term space travel make your protagonists sympathetic and relatable. Exploration as a guiding theme of the franchise means you’re always free to write a novel adventure for your characters to engage in. Some of my favorite “Strange New Worlds” episodes were simply “Crew finds something weird in space” vignettes. And doing the A/B plot divide between the away team and the bridge crew allows for a bit of action-adventure and a bit of high political drama in the same episode.
There’s a reason Roddenberry was the GOAT of Sci-Fi for so long. And why so many subsequent authors pulled generously from his received wisdom. If you’ve got a good playbook, run with it. The fact that ST:TNG and DS9 reruns are still fan favorites decades later should tell you something about how strong a formula he was working with.
About your point about exploring space: The Orville by Seth McFarlane is a very good example of that in a space show like Star Trek. That’s literally their whole mission for the show, and it provides some interesting stories. Like one where they make first contact with a planet similar to ours, but steeped in religious superstition. Or one where they make accidental contact with a planet that only appears in our universe for like 24 hours once every few months, where in its home universe time progresses at an exponential rate, so you see a microcosm of the impact someone could have on an entire civilization.
Also I just genuinely think it’s a good show.
Season 3 was fantastic. The whole shifting alliances arc, with the way their moral principle functioned as a guiding light through the turbulence, felt exactly like the old school utopianism that makes Star Trek uplifting.
Also, really enjoy your they’re not afraid to get weird with the aliens. RIP Norm McDonald. Yaphit was such a fun idea for a character.
The cinematography and directing were also all over the place. The first half of the movie was jarring cuts between close ups of people, and the action scenes - especially the final chase - looked awful.
And why would a spy choose a laughing Vulcan to be inconspicuous? It’s just weird.
Exactly! The entire laughing vulcan with a fake irish accent was dumb. It was just jarring and absurd in a bad way (I generally enjoy absurdist humor).
Sounds to me like it’s the TROS for Star Trek
Somehow… the fans… never returned.
I stopped watching Discovery after a season and a half, I found it grating and unwatchable, it was just simply awful. I’ve enjoyed Strange New Worlds, except the singing episode, that one I didn’t making it through the first 10 minutes. I’d like to think the failure of Section 31 will teach them something, but it probably won’t, I mean the other brain trust is about to force another Daisy Ridley Star Wars on us. le sigh.
Stargate is pretty good. If you watch enough Stargate, Trek actors start filtering over quite a bit.
You need to try The Lower Decks. The only nu-trek show that actually does Star Trek right.
loud, shrill and annoying, made it 4 or 5 eps. liked the crossover with snw though
You’d have to make it past season 1. They tone down the “Adult animated comedy” Schtick quite a bit and just becomes actual Star Trek.
except the singing episode, that one I didn’t making it through the first 10 minutes
I remember when Buffy: The Vampire Slayer did a singing episode and everyone went nuts for it. Probably helps that the Buffy cast was already a bunch of shameless drama nerds itching for exactly this chance to shine. Then it just became a trope within the Sci-Fi / Teen Fantasy genre that kept getting well received because of course a bunch of Hollywood B/C-list actors are going to ham it up the first chance they get.
But I did not get the sense that the SNW cast actually knew how to sing. Like, did they rehearse this beforehand? It felt so amateurish by comparison. The lyrics were also just so flat. It feels like you shouldn’t need to work that hard to do a Star Trek musical number. But that episode was painfully phoned in, particularly given how hard they went in others.
the other brain trust is about to force another Daisy Ridley Star Wars on us
Daisy Ridley was the best thing to come out of The Sequels. She and Adam Driver carried that mess for three movies as it collapsed around them. If you got rid of everything but Daisy Ridley, I’d be happy to see her get another bite at the apple. She’s still got to feed slop to that fucking Mouse, though.
I also stopped watching Discovery (but I think I’ll go back specifically for Tig Notaro). I was thinking I’d found a kindred spirit. However, the musical episode of Strange New Worlds is amazing and you’re depriving yourself from enjoying good things.
What was wrong with Daisy Ridley? Aside from the weird swerve at the end where they made her boring instead of cool.
I wouldn’t put it below Nemesis. It wasn’t great but it also wasn’t bad. It felt rushed and more like a heist movie than a star trek movie.
I have a theory that this movie was cobbled together out of what they could before covid stopped production and before Michelle Yeoh won the Oscar. when it was still a series that’s why it’s effect and adr riddled. They had to build their story out of what they had. I bet they couldn’t afford for her to come back. I could be wrong did she do any marketing for the movie. I only saw kurtzman and the director. When he made that statement that basically undermined the whole premise of star trek.
Haaaaam girl!
I got the impression that it was more meant to be a backdoor pilot for a potential series, which they knew probably wouldn’t fly.
Not a fan of Yeoh.
I thought it was pretty bad but not quite as bad as Discovery.
Yikes
Maybe the brand has lost some of its dedicated fanbase
ive queued this up into my library but im really having to force myself to watch it. even the description sounds tedious.
People are so sexist!
Don’t they know that an Asian woman was the director of the project? Looking at the standard thought-process from the big studios nowadays, that alone should have brought the project success.
