We get treated to a pretty cool prologue scene of Cybertron in war, and a ship escaping from that planet, carrying technology that could decide the outcome of the war, but not before taking major damage. The Ark, as it is called, crashed onto our moon, and basically sparked the entire moonlanding race of the 60s.
[Oooo, history!]
Fastforward to the present, everyone who's anyone discovers the Ark, and inside, the previous Autobot leader Sentinel Prime, who is brought to Earth and revived by Optimus using the Matrix of Leadership from the last movie. The good guys also discover the Pillars, an invention by Sentinel that, when placed in strategic locations on Earth, would create a space bridge large enough for teleportation.
What exactly, those of you who have not seen Transformers 3 yet, may ask?
Cybertron itself.
When that little bit comes to light, all hell breaks loose, and that is when the fun proper totally begins.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is definitely darker than its predecessors, and despite 10 minutes of Ken Jeong, the storyline is definitely better and much more interesting than the earlier movies. It's more expansive, in that the Decepticons pretty much take over downtown Chicago the world (humans get obliterated this time!), and it also touches on an aspect of the human-robot relationship that hasn't been explored before: humans colluding with Decepticons, which apparently goes back waaay before the Autobots made an appearance.
I don't think I need to go into detail on the robots, they look awesome as usual, though I still can't really tell one Decepticon from the other (except for Megatron, since he's taken on that whole nomad look). That one scene in the second half of the movie where our human heroes are in the building (it looks ridiculous in the trailer, but it's explained), and Shockwave is just destroying the crap out of it, is absolutely fantastic. But my favorite scene would have to be the part when Bumblebee transforms into robot-mode to defeat some Decepticons (with Sam still inside him, car-mode), and grabs Sam before turning back into a car, with Sam inside, all in slow-mo. Even without Sam screaming like a little girl, it's still an amazingly-enjoyable sequence.
T:DotM is bigger, more violent, with so much damage and robot-on-robot action, and we get to see what Cybertron looks like. It has a tone of epic finality, since all the major Decepticon players get wiped out. It should be awesome, but it doesn't really reach the mark.
Why?
With the exception of the first one, final fights in the Transformers movies have always been disappointingly short, but this one takes the cake. And the reason behind it is even more ridiculous.
During the final fight between Sentinel and Optimus, Megatron backstabs Sentinel, because Sam's new girlfriend, Carly, manages to convince Megatron that he wouldn't be the leader anymore if Sentinel wins the fight.
Yes, new girl Rosie Huntington-Whitely is the deus ex bloody machina.
With Sentinel badly injured (because he didn't count on Megatron was that big a moron) and out of the way, Optimus takes out Megatron, and subsequently ends Sentinel for his betrayal. All in all, final fight took roughly 10 minutes.
[It's a very convenient and quick ending, and affirms this article that Megatron is a bloody idiot that also takes the advice of humans he doesn't know.]
Huntington-Whitely was generally not awful until the end, when she starts staring above-camera with a look of wonderment for 10 whole minutes, and only in the next scene do we realise that she was looking at Megatron and processing her idea at the same time.
I wish Megan Fox was in this. If Mikaela was still around and had thought of something like this, we would have appreciated it even more, because she knows Megatron, and what he's like and stuff. Instead, we have the new girl doing this, and it's like, "What the eff, man?!"
Mikaela would've shown more expression on her face.
T:DotM is a worthy third movie, but would've been so, so much better if Megan Fox was still around.
[Plus, I kinda miss Ramon Rodriguez :)]
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
Saturday, July 30, 2011
I have seen Captain America!
And the end-credits scene is the best and worse I've seen ever!
More on this, but not so soon.
#writer'sblock
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Right, general update:
I've gotten re-addicted to my old LucasArts computer games, and have been replaying the lot like mad.
This means that I haven't been able to work on my reviews for Transformers 3 and Harry Potter 7.2, and why my Green Lantern review took so long to get posted.
My damn writer's block is also back, which means hammering out a bloody review would take an even longer time than usual. Ugh.
Anyway, cliffsnotes, Transformers 3 is less enjoyable than the second, HP7.2 was fairly awesome, though they did away with some minute details from the book and forgot about Wormtail. Will try to bang one out in the next few days.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Green Lantern (2011)
[I know what you're thinking: ASAP, my tush.]
I'd looked up Rotten Tomatoes before I went to see this movie, and I was shocked at the very low rating. Since I don't agree with the RT aggregator on some of movies that I like (e.g. The Skeleton Key, Dead Silence, etc.), I was still optimistic that I would enjoy Green Lantern as much as any other superhero movie.
Sadly, no.
The thing about the GL comics is that our hero Hal Jordan is part of the bigger picture, being that the Green Lantern Corps is an intergalactic police force that maintains order in the respective Sectors they're assigned to. The occasional threat-to-the-universe is what makes GL so interesting, because back-up involves all manner of living beings coming and working together to defeat the bad guy.
Plus, most of it happens in space / other planets / galaxies, so that's pretty cool too.
Being the first movie, it rightfully focuses on developing Hal and his relationship with everyone else; unfortunately, for source material with such a wide scope, I found the movie boring. It was a bit slow at the beginning, and though the airplane bit was quite cool to watch, the 15-20 minutes spent to show that Hal was irresponsible could've been used elsewhere.
Like on other characters. As in, those not of this Earth.
[I always thought Kilowog was looked more like a hippo...]
The storyline itself also didn't make much sense.
The main villain is Parallax, a fallen Guardian who tried to master the power of fear and failed, falling to its corrupt yellow light. And yet, the Guardians themselves agree too easily to Sinestro's suggestion that to defeat Parallax (who is heading for Oa to seek revenge), they need to forge a ring that draws on the yellow power of fear. I get that they need to ease a transition to Sinestro's eventual defection from the GL Corp (he sets up his own Corp, where members wear yellow rings and harness fear), but it's a bit disjointed the way they went about it. Not one instance in the movie ever showed that Sinestro had a darker side to him, and the scene where he puts on the yellow ring seems only as fanservice.
[Not that it didn't work.]
The Guardians in the comics, though fallible, are definitely not gullible, and the movie inevitably uses the usual people-in-high-places-make-stupid-mistakes-until-the-hero-talks-sense-into-them formula, which kinda blows. And also brings us to Hal's big speech to the Guardians, shortly before he goes to fight Parallax. What is the friggin' point of having Hal implore the Guardians to not fight fire with fire and help him save his planet, and then having the Guardians say 'no'? There, another 15 minutes down the drain.
Also, two many villains spoileth the movie. Pun intended.
Multiple villains generally don't work unless they are working together, with one leader, or the faceless goons / thugs / redshirts plus the one villain that really matters. Same goes for this movie. Hector Hammond was perfectly capable of being a major villain, seeing that he has a fair amount of screentime and knows the good guys. They're not close friends, but it was implied that they grew up together, and emotional connections between good and evil are always interesting. Instead we have Parallax, who is reduced to a massive intergalactic smoke monster with yellow tinges.
[The real Parallax is the embodiment of fear, and can never be destroyed, only contained.]
Ryan Reynolds can do absolutely no wrong in the Charm and Hero department (or in general), though I felt that he was a bit restrained in this one. Cast was splendid, and Peter Sarsgaard is effectively creepy and tortured as Hammond. The special effects were amazing, and once again I kick myself for not watching yet another movie set on a different plane in 3D. We got to see Oa, the Guardians (basically what I was hoping for), the Green Central Power Battery, and even the Yellow(!), for some reason. It was a bit odd that the power source for fear was within proximity of Oa, but hey, looks awesome.
Unfortunately, all those things didn't save the movie from being just plain 'meh'.
Maybe the movie would've worked if the script wasn't complete in the first place and everyone ad-libbed their way through the film.
Or Robert Downey, Jr.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
In brightest day, in blackest night...
No evil shall escape my sight,
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!
The trailer doesn't look much, but the individual promo clips on YouTube actually look promising, though CG-heavy.
[Hope it's not because they're minute-long clips :P]
What I know is pretty much what I gleaned from Blackest Night (so glad I finally finished it!), so seeing Oa and Sinestro and Green Lanterns from all walks of life got me a bit fan-girly. Looks like they're expanding on the universe, which should be the way to go if they're really serious about making that Justice League film.
[And if they do make that JL movie, they might just make that BN movie. I'd be the happiest fangirl alive.]
What I'm worried about, though, is the villainS. Yes, plural.
From the casting news early on, Peter Sarsgaard is playing Hector Hammond, whose head eventually swells up to huge proportions to account for the additional brainpower/matter. I'd like to elaborate further, but I can't, because Wikipedia isn't working for me at the moment. But anyway, Hammond probably has the usual telekinesis / psychic abilities / hatred for the hero.
Then we have Parallax, which is revealed in the YT promo clips.
Parallax is the Fear entity, and at one point in GL lore, takes possession of Hal Jordan and proceeds to rampage and murder and destroy everything and everyone (if I'm not mistaken, that storyline was a major part of a universe-wide event). I really don't think they'd risk cramming Parallax into Jordan ('cuz it's really too much to digest in an origin movie), but it's still interesting to see whether Parallax does try to possess Jordan.
Wonder whether Parallax would be written to have a hand in Sinestro's transition to the yellowdark side. It's too much of a coincidence.
Anyway, I'm still pretty psyched about the movie, and I've got my tickets already! Will try to get my review up ASAP once I see it next Saturday.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
KFP 2 is suprisingly awesome.
'Surprising', because it's rare you get a Dreamworks animated flick that actually has substance, seeing that their usual formula is to cram in as many famous people and pop culture references in a one-and-a-half hour film.
Far from my usual reviews, which has a crapload of words in them, this one will be short.
Why? 'Cuz this review has been overdue for two weeks now, and I want to get it out of the way before I start on Green Lantern.
Anyway, my consensus is, do watch it, if you can. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll go 'awww'; the usual barrage of emotions that comes with watching a Pixar movie. Yes, it is that good.
I leave you with the awesome end credits sequence, where we get to see how Po travels all the way to Mr Ping's noodle shop.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Ebert didn't like Thor :(
I generally look forward to reading what Roger Ebert thinks about movies, especially ones that I like.
Not only because he's a very experienced and well-respected film critic (and thus, his opinions do hold water in the film community), and apart from his tending to like the kind of movies I like, he writes with wit and clarity about what he doesn't like about a film.
The more scathing the review, the more fun to read, so to speak.
[Except for Transformers 2, of which I seem to be the only person who enjoyed it.]
Also, he was the only one that had given Spider-man 2 a (deservedly!) higher rating than Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in a time where everyone else were praising Harry Potter 3 for its dark and more sombre turn, as compared to the lighter mood of the first two movies.
HP3 was a mess. But I digress.
So I was decidedly bummed when I read that Ebert didn't like Thor, because I absolutely loved Thor. And since we're on the subject of 'mood-dampeners', my office has gone with the majority and will be watching Fast 5 on Movie Night this Wednesday.
So much for watching Thor a second time for free :(
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