The year started out great with Deadpool, and two of the best films of the year (Captain America: Civil War and The Jungle Book) both came out in April, then apart from that there's just been Finding Dory last month, and... nothing else that great. Star Trek Beyond has come out and you can always go in to a Star Trek movie expecting an enjoyable time, but it's never anything amazing. Jason Bourne and Suicide Squad are also coming out soon, and while I'm pretty keen for them, I'm also very hesitant about them. I'm afraid they won't live up to the hype.
So yes, there have been a handful of good films out, and a couple of interesting films to look forward to, but all these films I have just mentioned are franchise films. There doesn't seem to be any good films this year that can stand up on their own without an established series or brand to fall back on.
I know The Nice Guys has gotten pretty good reviews, and I haven't gotten around to seeing that yet unfortunately, but also the fact that there hasn't been much talk surrounding the film (despite the good reviews) I guess may mean it may not be that amazing.
I'm also pretty keen for The Girl on the Train (coming in October) because I love Emily Blunt and the trailer looked really interesting. I'm not too sure how it will turn out, but it looks reminiscent of Gone Girl. I did want to read the novel, but I haven't looked at it yet and to be perfectly honest, probably won't ever.
The Magnificent Seven looks like an enjoyable film too. I was just thinking the other day how there hasn't been a good Western film recently (I don't count The Hateful Eight because it's not really like a true Western), and this has a good cast, but I'm not expecting anything spectacular from it.
Sausage Party and The Founder, both coming out in August, look like they could be good. There's also War Dogs (August), Pete's Dragon (September) and Snowden (September) that may or may not be interesting too.
Then at the end of the year there's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to look forward to in November, and in December we have Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Disney's latest film, Moana. I'm really worried for Rogue One, the first trailer I saw did not hype me up at all, it was way too cringey ("This is the Rebellion. I rebel." ... like no thanks please don't edit that out fromt he movie), but they also announced they had to re-shoot 40% of the movie, so I'm pretty worried that they'll either rush post-production, or that it just won't be good overall. (Whoops I have since heard that these were just rumours now.)
So in the end, this year looks like a pretty disappointing year in movies. Hopefully there are more goodies towards the end of the year when Oscar season looms ahead.
83% on Rotten Tomatoes
Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed and recommended by Chloe; Watch it in cinemas
Watch it if you: Like action, sci-fi, or Star Trek in general; Just want to have a great and enjoyable time watching a movie
A couple of years after the events of Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013), the crew of the USS Enterprise continue to explore the far reaches of space as they are attacked by a mysterious enemy force that leaves them stranded on an uninhabitable planet. Now the crew has to not only find a way to destroy this enemy, who seems to have a strange vendetta against the Federation, but also to leave this planet and return home to safety.
J.J. Abrams has stepped down to concentrate his efforts on the new Star Wars trilogy, so now we have Justin Lin, the director of a few Fast and Furious movies, stepping in to direct this film. So from that you can see that this is going to be one action-packed film, and it's actually quite noticeably different from the first two films in that sense. It's two hours long and there are hardly any breaks or moments where things slow down; the film goes from action sequence to exciting suspense to riveting plot development, and it gets more and more exciting until the very end, where all the guns come out to play and you get a very cool-looking action sequence for the last half hour.
I also really loved Sofia Boutella joining the main cast. She's the actress from Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) (the villain's sidekick with blades instead of legs), and she is great in this, especially in her action scenes. She's a dancer so she does a great job with her choreography.
Apart from that, the main cast is great as per usual. Scotty's scottish accent, still very hard to understand, Bones and Spocks' rivalry, Kirk's handsome devillery, Uhura's bad-assery, and Chekov's adorableness, especially with his accent. It's pretty sad that we won't see Anton Yelchin return, as he unfortunately passed awa quite recently.
Also, Simon Pegg looks way way older in this film; he looks super tired and looks like he needs a good rest. Of course, the fact that he was a writer on this film could not have helped his stress levels, but he did a fantastic job. Great storytelling, great plot, everything seemed to tie in together from the start, and apparently this story is more like the original Star Trek storylines than the first two movies.
There was also controversy surrounding the decision to make Sulu's character gay, as a nod to George Takei, the original actor to portray Sulu, and a prominent LGBTQ activist. While Star Trek has been very groundbreaking in its cast and characters (with a Japanese man and African-American woman being in the main cast of the original series), George Takei himself did not like the idea of it because it was not in keeping with the original vision for the Star Trek. I think they did a good job at it though, it wasn't hammered into your head; it was just a brief moment in the film.
There's not too much to say about this film, but in the end, it is highly enjoyable. It's fun, light-hearted, has some cool action sequences and had cool sci-fi, and the plot held up pretty well. The visuals and the action certainly make for a great time if you were watching it in cinemas, and you would definitely enjoy it if you were a fan of the previous Star Trek films, but you don't need to watch them to understand this.
