Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Filled with numerous references to the original Star Trek series, packing sufficient dose of action-laden moments, and making brilliant use of its blockbuster ingredients, the third instalment in the rebooted Star Trek series is no memorable entry but it does enough to qualify as one of the most enjoyable, amusing & satisfactory blockbusters to surface on the big screen, this year.

The story of Star Trek Beyond finds Captain James T. Kirk & his crew aboard the USS Enterprise in the middle of its 5-year mission as they continue to explore the uncharted realms of space. Things are set in motion when they encounter a new ruthless enemy who destroys their ship, strands them on a remote planet with no means of communication, and is in possession of an ancient bioweapon.

Directed by Justin Lin, Star Trek Beyond is the first in the rebooted series to be not helmed by J.J. Abrams but his absence isn’t strongly felt as Lin brings all his experience from The Fast & the Furious franchise to give this sequel a full-throttled push that keeps the plot running at swift pace & is consistent in its delivery of action segments. The story follows a darker route yet for the most part, it is a risk-free journey.

Lin’s kinetic direction makes sure that boredom never sets in, its sense of adventure is never lost, and there’s a welcome attempt to balance its different genre elements, at which it succeeds. The set pieces are grand & eye-popping, the dynamic camerawork & vivid use of colour palette gives its images a vibrant look n feel, Editing is finely carried out, while Michael Giacchino’s lively score infuses a flavour of its own.

Coming to the performances, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho & Zoe Saldana exhibit better comfort in their reprising roles and chip in with fine inputs. The new additions include Idris Elba & Sofia Boutella, with former managing to give an intimidating vibe to his character on few occasions while the latter is an absolute show-stealer. Urban, Yelchin, Cho & Pegg get a major upgrade in their screen time and all of them utilise it brilliantly.

On an overall scale, Star Trek Beyond is guilty of travelling a predictable road without risking much but the positives clearly outweighs the negatives here as this second sequel is darker, bigger & surprisingly more engaging than its predecessors and has plenty in store for both Trekkies as well as casual filmgoers. It doesn’t add much to the revitalised series but it doesn’t take away anything either and keeps alive the momentum that was generated by the last two entries. A well-rounded blockbuster, this sci-fi adventure is a perfectly fine addition to the ever-expanding universe of Star Trek.

Green Room (2015)

From the writer-director of Murder Party & Blue Ruin, Green Room is a neatly envisioned, extremely effective & unabashedly violent horror thriller that’s absolutely remorseless with its content, brims with charged tension & makes excellent use of its foreboding ambience to finish as a bone-chilling, machete-sharp cinema that offers no respite from the slaughter that ensues once things go south, and will effortlessly manage to keep its viewers on the edge of their seats throughout its runtime.

Set in a remote club in the backwoods, the story of Green Room follows members of a punk rock band who have a gig in the area filled with neo-nazi skinheads. After infuriating the audience with their opening song but managing to win them afterwards, the band members inadvertently stumble on an incident they weren’t meant to witness and are ultimately forced to rely on their instincts in order to survive & alter their sealed fate once they figure out that the club owner wants to sweep everything under the rugs.

Written & directed by Jeremy Saulnier in what is only his third feature film, Green Room marks yet another win for the indie filmmaker and is one more quality addition to his short but impressive film career. Just like his previous work, Saulnier relies on the incredibly tense, thoroughly unyielding & steadily elevated atmosphere to deliver the chills and his confident direction plus expert handling of the available resources clearly indicate what a bold, daring & assured talent he is. The script could’ve used a bit more refinement but it nonetheless gets the job done.

The remote location where all the action unfolds quietly brings the element of claustrophobia into the picture while the inhospitable look of the club adds a layer of bleakness to it. Cinematography exhibits clever use of camera, green tint & low lighting to further enhance its grim aura while tight editing ensures that it remains a nail-biting ride for the entirety of 95 minutes by trimming out the fat & leaving behind nothing but a lean story. The background score has a muted presence in the final print, but it’s the effective use of silence that uplifts its tense mood to an unbearable level.

Coming to the performances, Green Room packs a committed cast in Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawcat, Joe Cole, Callum Turner & Patrick Stewart, with all of them chipping in with sincere inputs. The punk band members aren’t a very likeable troupe yet their predicament feels both real & relatable. Yelchin & Poots only get better in their given roles as the plot progresses, Stewart is in top form from the get-go, Macon Blair also has a supporting role, at which he does a very convincing job, and last but not the least, there is a pit bull in the movie that pretty much steals every scene it is in.

On an overall scale, Green Room is a skilfully directed, finely scripted, deftly photographed, tightly edited, methodically paced, ably performed & calmly scored cinema that doesn’t even try to do anything different with its genre(s) yet what turns it into a relentlessly thrilling experience is the way all its elements come together to work in near-perfect harmony. A delicious slice of violent, unapologetic filmmaking that’s armed with knives, guns, machetes, box cutters & some good old-fashioned dog mauling, Green Room is definitely one of the best films to surface on the silver screen this year. Highly recommended.