Movie Review: Star Trek: Section 31

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Originally planned as a streaming series before morphing into a streaming film, terrible pacing, over-the-top characters, weak production values, questionable directing choices, and twists that can be seen a mile away completely crush the kernel of a good idea that this film was based around. The basic premise of the story is not bad, but the execution is terrible. It takes too long to get into the main plot and once it gets going, it feels so uneventful that it takes a minute to realize what’s been happening is the actual story and not just some setup for the real plot that will be revealed down the road. (It doesn’t help that the directing attempts to be stylized in some kind of “Guardians of the Galaxy/Suicide Squad” mashup that falls completely flat.) Not only that, the big bad’s identity is blatantly obvious immediately…even though they feel more like a henchman that the main baddie. While there is a surprise or two in the story, the next biggest twist is also pretty obvious, but at least it feels somewhat clever. The action is mediocre, with the fight scenes being shot in the least interesting ways. The effects and sets look like a TV series trying its best to look like a movie and coming up way short, and they jettison just about anything that visually clues the audience in on the fact that this takes place in the Star Trek universe. The characters are all pretty grating and only become just barely tolerable by the end. (And the movie’s attempt to add some heart is so too underdeveloped to make any impact. This plotline might have benefited the most if it was a series and not a movie.)

*1/2 out of *****

TV Review: Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (Season 1)

**This review may contain minor SPOILERS**

Watch the SPOILER review on YouTube

Merging elements of classic kid-focused films like “The Goonies” with the lore of Star Wars, “Skeleton Crew” manages to create just a unique enough story of its own to present a fun adventure.

The trailers for the show pretty accurately tell you the basic plot of the series: Four young kids accidentally takeoff in an old starship and find themselves lost somewhere in space looking for help to find their way home. While this portion of the story ends up being fairly straightforward, it’s the mysteries that make things interesting as we quickly find out that their idyllic home world is much more than they realize. As they travel the galaxy, they encounter much of what we would expect in a galaxy far, far away, but the kids bring a sense of charm to the story. Although they’re very naive, they’re not stupid, so most their decisions make total sense. (The show also does a good job of having the kids figuring things out about the same time as the audience, so you’re not thinking less of them because you figured something out and they didn’t yet.) Each of the kids bring something different to the adventure, and the acting is solid for the roles they’re given. While Winn and Neel are open books throughout the series, Fern and KB both seem to have a lot more to their stories that never get brought to light.

As likable as the children and the actors playing them are, it’s Jude Law who steps up with a great performance. Using all his charisma, he nails the role of the sketchy mentor agreeing to get the kids home. And despite the fact that the audience and most of the kids knowing not to trust him, he still makes you want to trust him. Unfortunately, he come dangerously close to cliché territory but manages to evoke enough sympathy to keep you conflicted about him. And the cranky pirate droid SM-33 is an instant classic from the moment he starts to speak. As far as supporting characters, the kids’ parents are in the show just enough to feel important to the main story, while most of the pirates look pretty cool but don’t get to do a lot else.

Overall, the show looks really good. The CG isn’t the best at times, but it usually looks solid and is complimented by models, stop-motion and matte painting to mix things up and capture the look of classic Star Wars. The suburbs of that start the show off are jarring at first. It looks like they took the look of classic 80’s films like “Poltergeist” and recreated that vibe while tweaking everything you would normally see there and making it look alien. (Like they just put Star Wars “skins” over all of it.) Once things get into space, we get more of what we would expect, including some fun looks at the pirate corner of the galaxy.

Overall, “Skeleton Crew” is a fun adventure featuring kids but not necessarily for kids. While Jude Law often steals the show, the kids are charming enough that you’re invested in spending time with them too. The plot is fairly simple, but there are some fun mysteries that keep things interesting, and the reveals are spread out almost perfectly. Despite the twists and turns taking things to a satisfactory finale, the somewhat abrupt ending is kind of disappointing.

***1/2 out of *****