STAR TREK: SECTION 31 (2025) – Michelle Yeoh Ventures into the Absurd
Rating: ⭐
It’s only February, and we already have a frontrunner for the year’s worst movie. This doesn’t set a promising tone for the cinematic offerings ahead. Our very own Academy Award-winning Tan Sri Datuk Michelle Yeoh returns, leading the charge in this sci-fi misadventure set in the Star Trek universe. Regrettably, it appears she may have left her discerning taste for scripts back at home.
“Section 31” is the epitome of fluff—completely unworthy of a Best Actress Academy Award winner’s talents. It could have been marginally less damning for her if the film had been at least cleverly witty or if Michelle had taken a cue from her fellow Everything Everywhere All At Once Academy Award winning co-star Jamie Lee Curtis who opted for a brief but more effective and amusing cameo appearance instead.
Michelle plays Georgiou, a sort of female quintessential bad-ass space scoundrel made famous by Harrison Ford as Han Solo in Star Wars. The film starts off with a young Georgiou committing a heinous act that will haunt her forever. This prologue is decently done, but the movie quickly devolves into a one-dimensional cartoon when an adult Georgiou is recruited by a secret Starfleet division to recover some kind of weapon of mass destruction from an arms deal.
The plot is nonsensical, and the team is filled with cartoonish characters devoid of any personality. The script is cringe-worthy, as if it were penned by a poorly programmed AI, and the special effects are cheesier than a fondue. Michelle, ever the professional, strikes poses in colorful, overly dramatic outfits and even indulges in some fighting to remind us of her kung fu prowess. However, she’s stuck in a project that offers no opportunity to transcend the one-dimensional caricature she portrays.
The movie also feels like a pilot for a TV series. What a frightening thought. Fortunately, it appears to be quite the opposite situation. The original plan was to develop a spin-off Star Trek series called “Discovery” with Michelle Yeoh heading the cast way back in 2019. Then COVID came, production was delayed, and a one-off film was developed instead. At least something good came out of the COVID epidemic.
