Review - Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek Beyond

Director: Justin Lin

Staring:  Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Sofia Boutella, Idris Elba and many more.

Writers: Simon Pegg and Doug Jung.

Rating: 9/10

Plot: The Enterprise is in its third year of its five year mission, to explore, fly about and find stuff. Captain Kirk is frustrated by the endless shifting circumstances surrounding the ship and is considering moving on while Spock is having to deal with a difficult time personally. They are tasked with responding to a distress call from a captain who has lost her own ship in a dangerous nebula. The Enterprise goes in to assist, but danger lurks within…  

     That is the basic outline and with all reviews here there will be no spoliers or indepth plot breakdowns, why? Because you want to see the film. Hell, even if you don’t I still don’t want to tell you. I think the joy of film is in the experience of seeing it, not being told about it.

 

     To start with I have to tell you that I love the Original Series, Next Generation and Deep Space nine. I was a huge fan of the even films in the first wave (for the most part) and I loved the reboot. Yes, Star Trek Into Darkness pissed off a few people, me included, but I still really enjoyed it for the most part.

     Star Trek Beyond has a new director – Justin Lin, and he has a wonderful history of delivering great action with large casts, so I thought we’d get something a bit special and I wasn’t wrong. Star Trek Beyond is awesome! The cast have chemistry in bucket loads, the laughs are right there to be swallowed down and the action is great!

     The thing that really makes the new Trek films really work is the cast. They deliver the characters that we know from the original series and yet they have updated and rounded out each officer so they live and breathe. I love Sulu and Chekov, they have a wonderful connection and it will be sad to see Cho without Yelchin when the next one comes along. Pine, Quinto and Urban are great together and I can’t help but love them just a little bit more with each outing, though this time Urban really does stand out as the man with the one liners. He’s brilliant! The new comer, Boutella, is fabulous! She has a great look, really strong and is great with Pegg and Pine. She was exactly what the film needed. Oh, and the opening sequence? Brilliant too.

     The action is gripping, the plot tight and easy to follow, the sets and set pieces are fantastic (the starbase is jaw dropping) and the pace is perfect. There’s danger, excitement, adventure, laughs, tragedy, some super cool effects and I loved the soundtrack. In short, Star Trek Beyond knocked it right out of the park.

     Looking at the villain I think Elba had presence, chemistry with the other actors and he was intense as the advisory. He did a great job at making the heroes sweat.

     Star Trek Beyond is the best of the new films. It feels like a Star Trek film through and through but it has a greater emphasis on action and it has a faster pace than the films of the past. Justin Lin is clearly the man to take this ship, and this glorious crew, forward.

     The one thing I’m going to moan about is the trailer. Yeah, I know, that’s something that seems to be happening a lot – the overcooked trailer, but I’m going to do it. Star Trek Beyond has many of it’s stronger action sequences spoiled by shots of them in the trailer showing the outcomes. That’s stupid. It’s annoying. It’s completely unnecessary.

     Other than that, I loved it

Review - Jason Bourne

Jason Bourne

Director: Paul Greengrass

Staring: Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, Riz Ahmed and many more.

Writers: Paul Greengrass and Christopher Rouse.

Rating: 8/10

Plot: A contact from Jason Bourne’s past goes digging and finds something he needs to see. A piece from his Treadstone days, a lie that he needs to know about. The agency doesn’t want Bourne back in play though, and as they try to contain the situation they yet again find themselves head to head in a deadly game…

     That is the basic outline and with all reviews here there will be no spoliers or indepth plot breakdowns, why? Because you want to see the film. Hell, even if you don’t I still don’t want to tell you. I think the joy of film is in the experience of seeing it, not being told about it.

     When the Bourne films first came along they offered us something different from Bond and the other hard drinking, co-star shagging, male spies that always won and had all the kit. It was a bleached, stripped back animal that had a tough edge and an explosive violence that hit hard. The first one really impressed, the second built on that and the third finished the loop. It was glorious, but when it was over it felt like a good ending. They had delivered something that would stand as a truly great trilogy.

     Bourne Legacy didn’t hit the high mark that was set by the original films and so Renner was out and Damon was back in. Jason Bourne delivers the same level of fights, car chases and street chases as the original three. It is in places brutal and dark and captivating and the spies and their inability to keep their word, to anyone, ever, make for a great film, but I have to say, this should be the last one.

     I think Jason Bourne is a really good film with, as I said, all the right elements from the previous films, but there isn’t a sense that we haven’t seen it all before in some way shape or form. There isn’t anything new, or a pressure to Bourne that we haven’t already felt previously. And though I think they could have opened a new book with the ending of this one and given themselves a new direction, sadly they don’t.

     I liked Jason Bourne, but I don’t think I can muster excitement at the prospect of another one. Still, this is all that the other ones were, and so worth seeing.

     As to the cast, Tommy Lee Jones isn’t given much to do other than be dastardly, though Vikander, Cassel and Ahmed are excellent and bring the depth that was needed to make the film really work. Always a joy to see Julia Stiles and, of course, Damon owns the deadly super spy Bourne, but the weight of the plot doesn’t match previous outings so even he had to work pretty hard to make it work.  

Review: Ghostbusters (2016)

Ghostbusters (2016)

Director: Paul Feig

Staring: Kristen Wigg, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Charles Dance, Chris Hemsworth and many more.

Writers: Katie Dippold and Paul Feig (based on original work by Ivan Reitman, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis)

Rating: 8/10

Plot: Someone is moving around New York city and where they go paranormal activity follows. Four women gather together, experts in science and the paranormal, to investigate the events and to subsequently catch the ghost being awakened….

     That is the basic outline and with all reviews here there will be no spoliers or indepth plot breakdowns, why? Because you want to see the film. Hell, even if you don’t I still don’t want to tell you. I think the joy of film is in the experience of seeing it, not being told about it.

     Right, Ghostbusters. There are a few things here to consider, things that are vital for a film like this to flourish – chemistry between the cast, laughs, pacing and quotability. Without these things the film will be dead in the water. Happily, Ghostbusters has all these things going for it and more.

     The cast play well with each other. I particularly loved Wigg and McCarthy and their interplay, though McCarthy and Hemsworth also hit the spot. Leslie Jones was great with the whole team and she really rounded out the foursome making them live and breathe. Hemsworth understood his role in the film and did an excellent job and all in all the cast made the film really fly.

     The plot? Pretty simple and let’s face it, if you expected something out of Breaking Bad, twists and dark corners that evolved into horrifying shocks, then you went to the wrong film and were looking to be upset, not because the film was bad but because you didn’t want the film to be good. It was always going to be silly and simple and that’s what made the original work. It’s what makes this one work. It works. Live with it.

     Ghostbusters works because the effects are great, the cast are great, the gags are easy and the point is that it needed to be different from the original yet recognizable and that’s what those clever people have produced. On top of that the film makes some clever points about the state of Hollywood’s treatment of women. It kicks the internet trolls whenever possible and points and laughs at them and it does it all with an effortless smile. Plus, the cameos are incredibly satisfying, there is just one original Ghostbuster missing, and we will always miss you Egon.
   
     Egon, but not forgotten. 

     I loved it. CAN WE HAVE ANOTHER PLEASE?!