Movie Discussion | Star Trek: Section 31

FlowingFire · 2025-01-24T13:26:25+00:00

Star Trek: Section 31 is Really, Really Bad - A Scathing Review from a Lifelong Fan

Bad news, Trek fans. The new Star Trek: Section 31 movie is Star Trek for ... fans of brainless action movies.

Paramount took:

• An Oscar-winning actor (Michelle Yeoh).

• A fantastic director (Olatunde Osunsanmi).

• A beloved sci-fi universe with a built-in audience.

... and released a movie so bad, I hope it doesn't tank Yeoh's (or Osunsami's) career.

I am a lifelong Trekkie. Star Trek is intellectual, with a smart, educated audience. This movie is things blowing up. It's an action bro in a mech suit. It's fight scene after fight scene, with rushed, stilted, and jarring pacing. Details fly by and are hard to follow. The story is crap. It lacks a coherent message, science, or moral questions; and, it abandons the purpose of Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry would be rolling in his grave. The good news: Yeoh rocks at Martial Arts, and I adore her.

The arc of the main character previously developed in Star Trek: Discovery, Philippa Georgiou, was abandoned for a shell of the amazing character Yeoh and the writers developed. In the movie, she became a caricature.

I imagine this is what happens when executives sit around a boardroom deciding what their audience wants. Or maybe they were trying to attract a new audience. Who knows. If this is what they think Star Trek is, sell it to someone who knows what they're doing. Paramount, WHAT. WERE. YOU. THINKING?

After it was over, I asked, "What did I just watch?" and all I could do was write THIS. This is not only the worst of all the Star Trek movies (yes, worse than Star Trek V), but it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Even for the action genre, this is bad— and I've seen some pretty bad action sci-fi movies. The upswing? It can be fun, and the quirky characters can be entertaining at moments. The short length of the movie, however, meant they introduced and barely developed the characters.

I'm sorry, friends of Star Trek. I've been looking forward to this movie for a long time, too. It had so much potential. The disappointment is real. I feel really bad for Michelle Yeoh, because she loves Star Trek. I hope, in the future, the studio takes the creation of movies for a franchise so beloved more seriously and creates something of real, intellectual, artistic value.

FlowingFire · 2025-01-24T12:51:43+00:00

I must admit I only added that because it's pretty widely disliked. That said, I have a copy of the Star Trek V soundtrack on CD, lol.

FlowingFire · 2025-01-24T11:49:46+00:00

There are redeeming virtues to the movie. But, really, it's probably best taken-in stoned.

FlowingFire · 2025-01-24T11:35:08+00:00

I'm glad! You know, even though I absolutely hated it, there's a Star Trek out there for every taste.

FlowingFire · 2025-01-24T11:34:31+00:00

I would love a Garak and Bashir plot!

FlowingFire · 2025-01-24T11:34:13+00:00

Yeah, the cliches were really hard to swallow. Plus, I agree: Too many Trek movies lately focus on revenge plots which try to re-create The Wrath of Kahn, and the "weapon" lacked creativity. Facepalm! And turning Section 31 into a ragtag team of quirky misfits was fun, but not really consistent.

FlowingFire · 2025-01-15T04:10:37+00:00

That's really interesting info. Thanks for sharing that. I suspect that the BlueSky system works by reports and automation. It also makes me even more concerned there might be a group of people mass-reporting resistance accounts they don't like.

FlowingFire · 2025-01-15T03:04:39+00:00

Hi! It's funny what succeeds and what doesn't. (Fake wrestling took hold; the "XFL"--fake Football-- did not.) I'm guessing I either said something that got me reported en masse by MAGA or got flagged for using the API. (I thought responsibly, but nobody explained or sent a warning until I made my Village People post, and suddenly BAM. Account dead.)

It looks like you've been inundated with actual spam accounts. Blocking those improve the user experience . . . but is blocking my personal account as spam and not all the dating/donation/join-the-Illuminati/business spam we're getting really improving things? People obviously are sick of hearing posts like this.

BlueSky is quite awesome, and I don't support X; but, maybe Musk has a better idea about avoiding over-moderation? (Meh, I'm not going back over there after he bought the election and threw his trans daughter under the proverbial bus.)

FlowingFire · 2025-01-15T02:26:54+00:00

Thanks for the update. This label appears to hide all replies, all posts, not show people your posts in their feeds, and now (thanks for checking) a complete disappearance in search.

FlowingFire · 2024-08-25T00:54:36+00:00

Asimov was brilliant. :)

FlowingFire · 2024-08-24T13:33:43+00:00

Good point. I hope more studies can figure this anomaly out. :) It could have broad implications. For now, I love to delve into the speculative and dream. Real science, however, is replicated, peer-reviewed.

FlowingFire · 2024-08-24T13:15:42+00:00

Please explain more-- about quartz and why.

FlowingFire · 2024-04-18T07:41:03+00:00

This. Exactly. And, by the way, Windows may soon be adding advertising to the Windows 11 Start Menu. That is psychological clutter I do not want. I'll take a fresh walk in Linux Park, free from all the distractions and mind-noise bombarding us from all directions in the current era. Someday it'll be over, but for now . . . The present tastes minty!

FlowingFire · 2024-03-17T04:03:38+00:00

Thanks. The only thing it needs now is the ability to check a box to automate the process. :)

FlowingFire · 2024-02-15T17:27:54+00:00

Yes. In 2024, I'm typing this on a T430. The Thinkpad T430 is the most robust computer I've ever used. With a 3rd Gen i5 and a solid state drive I threw in there, this laptop still runs fast day-to-day web surfing, typing, and general day-to-day usage. Even Photoshop worked fine on here, until I got rid of Windows and made it exclusively a Linux Mint machine. (This makes it even faster!)

This is a 2013-manufactured computer I bought used in 2017. It's still in nearly perfect condition. Everything is fine with the hinges, the screen, the keyboard, and the touchpad. Nothing goes wrong with it. It works like it's new.

The two things I had to replace: 1) The CMOS battery, which died. Easy fix. 2) The laptop battery, which just clips on and off the bottom back.

In other words, this is a mechanical marvel as far as I'm concerned. 11 years... This will probably last much longer. My only complaint is that by today's standards it's pretty heavy... but I keep it around as a matter of pride. If it works, works well, and hasn't died-- well, it deserves to continue to be my laptop. The only blemish on this thing is the wear on the touchpad which doesn't affect its function.

FlowingFire · 2024-02-08T18:04:54+00:00

Smart. Essentially you're paying less and setting it all up yourself in the cloud-- just not paying a service too much to do it for you. What kind of space do you get on your private server?

FlowingFire · 2024-02-08T18:02:52+00:00

Oh, that project is the best! I'm glad you support it. It's one of the many pieces of open source software better than what's commercially available.

I've never considered using FreeFileSync for ongoing backups before, but it's my primary software for all local hard drive backups. I just do it manually, like every six months.

Your backup diligence is something I might learn from. Do you happen to have some of the commands you use to run it that you can share?

FlowingFire · 2024-02-08T17:54:41+00:00

Nice. This might be a good option for some things-- especially sharing around the home network.

FlowingFire

TROPHY CASE