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Fri, 06 Jul 2007

Transformers

Of course I went to see Transformers. Even if I wasn't a fan, even if I didn't play with them as a kid, I would probably still have seen it, since apparently everyone went to see it in the past 2 days. And brought their kids (but I'll talk about that later). So, after all the anticipation and hype, how was it?

Thank the Matrix, it doesn't suck.

It's actually a good movie. It's not immediately my favorite, but it's very good. Both me and one of my movie companions gave it an 8 out of 10. The other gave it a 9. It's not perfect, but it's a solid, entertaining movie, obviously with eye-popping special effects.

The Good: The Transformers. I initially was shocked that the Transformers didn't look like the anime-inspired versions I was used to, but I have to admit, they look real, and really good, on screen. They look more alien than their cartoon counterparts, but that serves to enhance the feel of reality. According to Wikipedia, it actually took the special effects house 38 hours to create each frame of animation (most film runs at 24 frames per second). But it was worth it: I've never seen special effects like these. Even now it's hard to remember that the characters we cared about in the movie weren't actually there. I also can't believe director Michael Bay's action style actually works in this movie. I hate all of his other movies (oh the travesty that was Pearl Harbor!), but the action scenes work well (even more-so when you realize the most important characters were as big as houses and not actually there!).

Have I mentioned the Transformers look great?

I have to say that two actors stood out in the movie. Shia LaBeouf, as much as I believed this Disney Channel-refugee wouldn't be able to act his way out of a paper bag, actually plays his part quite well. He is believable as Sam Witwicky, the dorky guy that just wants a cool car to help him get a girl. And ends up getting involved in a galactic alien war with the fate of Earth in balance.

I have to make special mention of one actor in particular though. You never see Peter Cullen on screen, because he is the voice of Optimus Prime, but as Prime, he makes the movie. This is the real Prime, the old Prime we all love. Cullen's characterization is superb and flawless. Prime is wise, heroic, and an action hero. Think John Wayne clad in metal armor. Even when he has to give a speech to his troops before the climatic battle, it's full of earnestness and deadly heroism. Not since James Earl Jones voiced Darth Vader in Star Wars has a voice actor been this important to a movie, and not since then has an actor delivered such stunning results. This truly is Optimus Prime, he's our hero, and we love him.

There were other human actors, too. Megan Fox is hot. I've forgotten the other actors and their characters, though I think at least one of them was well-known.

Have I mentioned how awesome the Transformers are in this movie?!

The Bad: There are too many humans, and they take up too much screen time. This is not just from a Transformers fan; both of my companions mentioned afterward that the movie seemed to really drag after the first Transformers appeared and movie started to focus on how the US government was responding to the threat. There's also the random secret government organization that gets in the way. Once the full Autobot force arrives, things start rolling again.

Another problem is a couple of odd inconsistencies surrounding the Matrix Underbase Allspark. I can't go into detail without spilling some major spoilage, but let's just say the Allspark's power seems to be inconsistent.

For Transfans: For an entirely new continuity in the Transformers universe, this movie stays within the lines of the previous stories for the most part. There are moments in almost every scene with the 'bots where the astute fan will see something taken from various previous storylines. In fact, I'm almost tempted to call this movie Transformers Universe, since it borrows so many pieces from stories that came before. There are several elements from the Generation One cartoon and Marvel and Dreamwave Comics. The idea of the Transformers crashing on a planet and reformatting into different alternate modes (rather than being "repaired" by their spaceship) is very similar to Beast Wars/Beast Machines. For the most part the Transformers' story and technology are woven together pretty well. And they do look great onscreen.

If you're a G1 Autobot fan, you'll probably be pleased with their characterizations in this movie, as they are mostly on track with the G1 characters. I've already mentioned the superiority that is Prime. Ironhide is old and a touch more trigger-happy. Rachet, as ever, is the doctor. Jazz, in shiny new Pontiac Solstice metal, is a 2000s version of old Jazz, and I loved the too short scene where he and Optimus discuss the value of protecting the humans who have just attacked them. Bumblebee is the major holdout; rather than a wimpy, whiny character, this Bumblebee successfully fights off a Decepticon by himself and can handle himself in battle. The G1 character was useless for anything but spying (and not very good at that); he needed to be rewritten, and this rewrite is good enough. And of course, the image of an old rusty Chevy Camaro beating up a brand new Ford Mustang will be priceless to GM loyalists.

If you like any of the Decepticon characters, you will be sadly disappointed. Megatron and Starscream are present and a quick scene shows they hate each other as always, and that's pretty much all the character development that happens for the lot of them. The movie's producers weren't even consistent on the characters they used; though the Autobots are all original Generation One Autobots, the Decepticon characters are a mishmash, most having few lines and some whose names are only mentioned in the movie's credits. It hardly matters; they're shown as evil, deadly, and nothing else. This actually works well in Megatron's case; we finally get to see in live-action the cruelty and brutality that are his signature traits, but could only be hinted at in the cartoons and comics. It's not a pretty sight. Don't bring your kids. The other characters are throw-away evil; the producers could have picked any Decepticons from any storyline and the results would have been the same.

For Parents: This is a PG-13 movie. DO NOT BRING YOUR 8-YEAR-OLD CHILD TO SEE THIS MOVIE! This movie (as it says in the rating description) is violent. People die. Not just machines, but live, flesh and blood people are stabbed, maimed, and giant robots squash them. I couldn't believe that one parent had brought a group of 4 little boys, one of which couldn't have been more than 6. KIDS ARE TOO YOUNG TO SEE THIS MOVIE, DON'T BRING THEM. Go buy them some DVDs of the umpteen number of Transformers cartoons.

Conclusion: For adults and teens, though, this is a good movie. If you don't know a thing about Transformers but want to see giant robots or just a good action movie, go see this movie. If you're a Transformers fan, go see the movie; it's probably not what you're used to, but you may just end up liking anyway.

The eternal war between heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons continues...

Posted at 07:34 [/movies] (0 comments) permalink

Sat, 23 Jun 2007

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

So I went to see Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer recently, partly because I was bored, partly because I was interested in seeing the Surfer and who he represents. See, the Silver Surfer, though he possesses great power, is actually only the herald for a much greater, more sinister being: Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds. The Silver Surfer searches the galaxy for planets for Galactus to consume. I was really interested to see how the movie makers would handle the idea of a giant being destroying and consuming Earth. (There are definitely parallels between the Marvel Universe Galactus and the Transformers Universe Unicron.)

Well, I was extremely disappointed because there was no Galactus. Rather than a planet-sized humanoid that interacts with the Surfer, we get what effectively is a dust cloud that says and does practically nothing. It just eventually floats into the solar system. Although the Surfer does speak to it once, it never actually responds. If someone had a large vaccuum cleaner, they could have ended this movie pretty quickly. I felt cheated. How can you have a Silver Surfer movie without Galactus?

The rest of the movie pretty much sucked. This review pretty much sums up my thoughts too, if I cared enough to write them down.

Transformers the Movie had better not suck like this.

Posted at 19:55 [/movies] (0 comments) permalink

Wed, 29 Nov 2006

Vodka Lemon

Vodka Lemon is an interesting, if hard to understand, movie about a small village in Armenia and the struggles the people face in their post-Communist world. Rent this DVD if you want to see a group of people on the unfortunate end of the Soviet breakup; look elsewhere if you want some feel good enterainment.

I thought perhaps this movie might be a comedy, at least a dark comedy. There are several funny situations and characters, but they are presented in such a deadpan way it underscores the despair the people face as they try to eke out a living in the cold mountains of Armenia. Armenia, being part of the Soviet Union for most of the 20th century, had things like gas, food, and electricity provided for them by the communist government. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Armenia become an independent country, but life for many people became much harder. The setting for Vodka Lemon is a remote Armenian village with few people and fewer jobs. The winter is very cold and, with little money, the people find things like heat and food are hard to come by. The people of the village try to live their lives as best they can, selling possessions when they can't find work, finding husbands for their daughters, etc. Though the situations are depressing, the people seem to carry on anyway; they seem to accept the depression as a fact of their lives. It sounds and looks very, well, Russian. It's no surprise that Russians dominated these people for nearly a century.

Rent Vodka Lemon if you want to see what happens to the little people when empires fall. Or you want to be depressed, or see how people can accept their lives as hopeless and somehow go on living anyway.

Posted at 15:59 [/movies] (0 comments) permalink

Wed, 22 Nov 2006

Casino Royale

Casino Royale, if you've been living under a rock for the past month, is the 21st movie based on the adventures of James Bond 007. This movie, unlike recent Bond films, is an adaptation of one of Ian Fleming's original James Bond novels (the first one, actually), and the producers have taken that opportunity to introduce a new Bond actor (Daniel Craig) and a more serious, darker tone.

It works. It all works. James Bond is an action hero again, not just a cartoon for grown-ups. The movie emphasizes development of Bond's character. Bond is an assassin working for HM's government, and the serious tone reflects that. No flamboyant playboy-acting in this movie, though Bond does get his share of beautiful women and fast cars. The gadgets are limited to the aforementioned cars (Aston-Martins), real-life Sony Ericsson smartphones and, of course, guns where appropriate. The cheeky quips are kept to a minimum and are well-placed. Even the caliber of the Bond girls has increased; the main Bond squeeze is complicated, intelligent, does not immediately fall into bed with Bond, and does not have a name involving seafood or the word "head." The only downside I can think of right now is that the ending dragged a little and maybe could have been shortened, but it was still a good ending to a good story.

Casino Royale is a good action movie. If you like action movies, go see it. If you don't like Bond movies or haven't seen much of them, ignore all the old stuff and see this one anyway.

Posted at 16:37 [/movies] (1 comments) permalink

Thu, 27 Jul 2006

Proof

Proof, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins et al. is a movie that surprised me. It was on one of the digital movie channels this weekend and the first bit of it I saw caused me to dismiss it out of hand as a typical angst-ridden bore-fest. But I actually sat down and watched it on Sunday (the movie channels never play anything just once), and I decided I really liked the movie. It is a character study of a very intellectual person who loses touch with other people and, ultimately, herself.

In the movie, Gwyneth Paltrow plays Catherine, the daughter of a prominent mathematician (Anthony Hopkins). A promising young mathematician herself, Catherine has to drop out of school to care for her father, who suffers from a mental illness. The movie actually starts a few days after he has died, and Catherine, who was already depressed, is having trouble dealing with his death. She is not helped by her sister Claire, who breezes into town, takes care of the funeral, and tries to convince Catherine to come with her back to New York. Claire eventually confesses she believes Catherine is also mentally ill, and wants her sister to come back with her so she can watch her. Catherine is also not helped by Hal, a former student of her father's who is searching through her father's notebooks of mathematical proofs trying to find anything valuable he may have done during the years he was ill.

Catherine is haunted by her father and "the work." Her father kept pushing her to continue her work in mathematics, even though she was depressed, fatigued, and too busy taking care of him. This work is not the typical 9-to-5 job stuff; Catherine and her father are searching for a proof that could change mathematics and contribute to man's understanding of the world. I confess I strongly identified with that aspect of both characters. I have often felt the need to create projects that contribute something to others, whether it be a website for friends or a larger work useful to people across the Internet. The power of that greater "work," that contribution to the world, can be very overwhelming. You can easily lose yourself in the passion needed to complete such works. Without other people to anchor you, it is very easy to become disconnected from the real world. Catherine has no one like that in her life, so it is no mystery how she becomes depressed and her sister believes she is crazy like their father.

I like Proof. Gwyneth Paltrow does an excellent job of portraying a woman who has become brittle, depressed, and disconnected because of multiple circumstances in her life. I can identify with her character and her need to use her talents to do something greater than herself. If you like character-driven stories, you may want to check this movie out sometime.

Posted at 12:18 [/movies] (0 comments) permalink

Tue, 02 May 2006

Brick

I saw Brick with some friends last night. It turned out to be great movie; I highly recommend it. It is a unique movie, and is surreal at times. It's basically a hard-boiled murder/detective story, but it takes place in and around a high school, and the characters are all adolescents. But this is not Ten Things I Hate About You; the plot involves drugs, murder, and very grown-up situations. The dialogue makes the movie, with lines reminiscent of Sam Spade or other noir mysteries. You could almost think of it as William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet for the Dashiell Hammett crowd (though that's probably not the best analogy). The performances of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Nora Zehetner are especially superb. Brick is unique; if you like detective stories or serious drama, go see it.

Posted at 03:15 [/movies] (0 comments) permalink