Anyone worried that Star Trek: Section 31 would completely undermine the central ethos of Star Trek as a franchise has those fears confirmed within the first 10 minutes of the movie.Section 31 opens in the Mirror Universe, where we see a teenaged Phillipa Georgiou (portrayed here by Miku Martineau) give an arch, sub-Game of Thrones monologue before committing an atrocity, the final step in securing her role as Terran Emperor. The scenes of course lack any of the hope and optimism that define Trek, the belief in fundamental good of collaboration and understanding that the Mirror Universe (and Section 31 for that matter) was designed to underscore.But when Section 31 shifts to the movies present, something unexpected happens. Section 31 becomes so boring and ugly that it no longer can be seen as bad Star Trek. Heck, it cant even be called bad sci-fi or bad genre work. It seems to have no interest or understanding in doing any of them well.Section 31 catches up with Georgiou after she left the 32nd century in the fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery. As those who watched Discovery will recall, Georgiou was an evil double of Michael Burnhams beloved late Captain. Even though her vicious tendencies led to her joining Starfleets black ops division Section 31, she remained a regular visitor on the Discovery and even traveled with the ship into the far future, until she was forced to return to the past.Section 31 reveals that Georgiou has been living on the edges of Federation space, operating a disreputable bar under a pseudonym. Shes pulled back into service when a Section 31 team under the command of augment Alok (Omari Hardwick) needs her help to find an incredibly destructive weapon. Rounding out the team is Vulcan (sort of, but I wont give that away here) Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok), the shapeshifting Quasi (Sam Richardson), the Deltan Melle (Humberly Gonzalez), a mech-suited warrior called Zeph (Robert Kazinsky), and human and Starfleet true believer Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl).As that cast list shows, Section 31 is fond of making references to Trek lore. Garrett, of course, will become the Captain of the Enterprise-C and a major character in the beloved Next Generation episode Yesterdays Enterprise. Quasi is a Chameloid, a member of the alien race played by Iman in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Aloks augments tie him to the Eugenics War and Trek big bad Khan Noonien Singh.But these references only serve as surface level easter eggs, which makes Section 31 more like a game of Fortnite with Star Trek skins than a feature-length continuation of the beloved franchise. In fact, Section 31 seems to pull most of its visual inspiration from video games, with shiny graphics and ostentatious camera movements. After the Mirror Universe prologue, were treated to a mission summary delivered directly to the audience, as if were players getting ready for the next level.To those without much investment in Star Trek, the video game analogy may not sound so bad. After all, weve had some really great video game adaptations lately, with Fallout and The Last of Us. But Section 31 feels more like last years doomed Borderlands movie, done so much worse.Yes, you read that right. All of the ugly visuals and self-satisfied humor that marred Borderlands appears in Section 31, except gaudier and louder. The characters speak in lingo thats gone out of date in 2025, let alone the far future (Chaos is my friend with benefits, says Garrett as a way of expressing her growing acceptance of disorder). Section 31 presents its team as a band of outcasts who constantly squabble, a trope done best most recently by James Gunn in Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad.But instead of making the characters interesting or likable in any way, screenwriter Craig Sweeny writes everyone as a jerks who insult one another to prove their toughness. That doesnt prevent director Olatunde Osunsanmi (a Discovery veteran, like Sweeny) from treating each toothless one-liner as a Don Rickles-level burn, and cutting to a close-up of the roaster cackling at their own joke each and every time.Worse yet are the action sequences. No one expects the 62-year-old Yeoh to pull off the same fight sequences she did in Super Cop or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Yet, she still came up through the Hong Kong film industry and, as we saw in Everything Everywhere All at Once, knows how to fight on screen better than the average American performer.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!Whatever her skills at this point, Osunsanmi has no confidence in them. Not only does he shoot the fights with the same excessive cuts and shakiness found in most Western movies, but his camera seems actively disinterested in what Yeohs doing on screen. When Georgiou faces off against an assailant in an early scene, the fighters begin at the center of the frame. But as soon as they get close to each other, the camera pans to a singer pulling a microphone off the stage and running away.In fact, Osunsanmi shoots everything with that same level of distracting excess. Hes especially fond of snap zooms and sudden pullbacks, even when just showing two characters in conversation. Irritating as the tendency is, its also understandable, because neither the plot nor the character building in Section 31 deserve attention.Although its officially a movie, Section 31 feels more like the type of TV movies that could be a pilot we saw in the pre-streaming era. But its impossible to think that anyone would want enough of this to launch a sequel or another series. Instead, Section 31 is, at best, understood as proof that maybe Spocks Brain or Shades of Grey or, heck, all of Discovery season five arent so bad after all. At worst, it will be forgotten, never to have any influence on the future of Star Trek at all.Star Trek: Section 31 streams on Paramount+ on January 24.