Transformers 2: A Review

Not as bad as they say.

Oh, you want more? Ok, here goes.

I liked the first one as a good action movie, not as an Oscar contender or anything, but the effects were great, the story had many problems, the acting was so-so, but the action was spectacular and the explosions rocked. It satisfied my need for an adrenaline filled movie, one where I could just watch and enjoy. So, knowing that I had the same feelings about the second movie.

Then the reviews started flowing in. The response to the movie was less than stellar. Everyone was taking shots at the movie, from the acting, to the "racial" issues of two of the robots, to the Jar-Jar-ifying to the movie. But one thing remained constant in almost all the reviews, the robots looked good and there were a ton of them.

Then a funny thing happened, people I knew were going to see this movie. And they were saying it was not as bad as the critics were making this movie to be. Then the receipts were being pulled in. It made a ton of money in the first week. Positive word of mouth, high sales, negative critcs - I have to see this movie for myself.

And, it was not as bad as they say. The thing about the critics on this one is that they seemed to blow a lot of the issues with the movie way out of proportion. The Jar-Jar bots were not as bad as they made them see. They were actually funny in some parts. Also, the two Jar-Jar bots were pointed at for being "racial caricatures" which they were kinda trying to be ghetto, but I don't think it was meant to offend or poke fun at anyone in particular. The story was ok, and yes there is a story, even though some critics say it was really bad and hard to follow. Again, this is not an Oscar contender needing deep emotional character driven story points. It is blow up, blow up and blow up some more. Action. Action. And freakin more action. That is what this movie is intended to be. 

Now there are the purists, the holders of the sacred childhood books of the Transformers that have littered the internet with loads of plot holes, inaccuracies and whatnot. But you know what...WHO CARES!?! This movie is not trying to be the 80s cartoon. It is something different. Get it out of your head that the this movie went back and destroyed your childhood. This 80s cartoon in no way would ever make a good movie. And I feel that Bay and Co. have done what they can to translate the spirit of the cartoon and the essence of the cartoon into these movies.

I find this movie funny in the regard that I feel the critics are getting what they deserve. People are seeing this movie, turning over the money hand over fist, telling there friends, cycle and repeat. And all the bad mouthing of the critics has done zero, zip, nada. And I love that. About time. People are finally realizing that critics are no better than us when it comes to judging movies. And in this case, they are about $300 million wrong. 

Buyer beware...

Sometimes when you see something that is at a great price, you really should step back and look to see why. I should have done this last night on a trip to Target. Whenever I go to Target, or any store really, I like to check out the DVDs and the video games. Target also has a discount area, where older games that are not selling anymore, so I went over to peruse the area once my real shopping was done. I have picked up some good deals before.

Here in the our story I need to remind you that I am a huge DC fan, particularly Batman. So, when a game comes out that has Batman in it I will generally give it a go and then sell it back to GameStop for a discount. So, looking through the games, I see that Mortal Kombat vs. DC is discounted. I can clearly see the tags and that this game has been discounted not once, but 3 other times. That should have been the red flag. But I was excited about the price and that I could play as Batman.

With my fresh purchase in hand, I descended into the new game area and popped the disc in. Now, the graphics in the cut scenes are pretty good. I thought they detailed the heroes and villains good. They looked buff, like they came from the pages of the comics. The women, like Catwoman and Wonder Woman seemed to have gotten an upgrade, if you know what I mean. But like many books the cover can be deceiving. This good looking cut scene would only lead to badness of epic proportions.

The voice acting is horrible. Absolutely the worst I have heard in a game in a long time. All the heroes sound terrible. And in that awesome cut scene from earlier, yeah there is a part where Superman sees a car being thrown his way, and he puts his hands up AFTER the car goes by. Now that is bad. Well, the fighting must be good, right? This is a Mortal Kombat game after all. Nope. The fighting is awful. Not inspired. The moves that the heroes get are not just bad, but they are not done in a convenient way that you can pull them off consistently. I was so disappointed that I took the game out and put it immediately in the pile to be sold off. Ugh.

The morale of the story I guess is look how many times something has been knocked down in price before buying. So buyer beware when picking up this game. It is not as fun as you would think. Luckily I also picked up Prototype to keep me busy. But that is a review for another day.

E3

For all the gaming geeks out there, such as myself, this is the week of E3. This is the big convention they have out in LA to show off all the new games that will be coming out over the next year. And there are some really good games being shown. Games just keep looking better and better each year.

Here is a list of games I am looking to consider getting:

Nintendo - Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Wii Sports Resort, Professor Layton and Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

PS3 - Uncharted 2 (the first was a great game), God of War III - next-gen Kratos, need I say more, and FFXIII or Final Fantasy Thirteen to those not in the know.

360 - This had the most games I am looking at; Mass Effect 2, Brutal Legend (Jack Black in a video game about rocking out!), Modern Warfare 2, Forza 3, Halo ODST (a prequel of sorts to Halo 3), Alan Wake and the game with the best intro, The Beatles Rock Band.

The game that I am not sure what platform I am getting it on is Assassin's Creed II. I will get this game, no need to worry, but just not sure which I will go with.

Other games that are intriguing right now, Just Cause 2, Section 8, The Saboteur, Alpha Protcol, Lego Harry Potter, Crackdown 2, Splinter Cell, Rogue Warrior and Heavy Rain.

A lot of games, but that is what this is all about. I did not forget about other games being shown like Batman or Prototype. It is just they have been talked about or shown for a while. Batman is a no brainer for me.

Here is too another year of great gaming.

The "Don't tell me" factor

I like my TV and I like my movies. So, when I set out to watch them I like to control the level of how much previewing I do before I see. Consider the recent Star Trek movie. I had done a little investigating before I saw the movie and I stopped. I then made sure I did not hear another thing or go and seek information since I wanted it to be fresh and new. Now, when you hear something that is not your fault, you almost want to destroy who told you. Or never listen to that radio station or visit that web site again. This happened once with Harry Potter and the book where Dumbledore bit it. I was reading a sports site and the posts and in the middle of the posts was Snape kills Dumbledore. I was like WTF!!! Really?

Now, I am a huge fan of Lost and had DVR'd the episode so that I could watch it when I had time to sit for two hours and be totally focused. Most Lost episodes are mind blowers and I figured this was no exception. And wouldn't you know, I am listening to the radio the next morning and they blew the big secret. I was so pissed. I could not believe it. I felt like the guy on the radio reached through as slapped me in the face and said na na na na na. I am going to watch the episode tonight and I hope that there is still some revelation, but I fear that I will be let down since I know the secret.

So, to you kind reader. When is it appropriate to spill the beans? The day after? Two days? In this world of DVR we have to take in to consideration that the episode may not be watched that night it is broadcast. I leave you with that.

ebay is an interesting thing

I have been going through my old comic collection, yeah that's right I have a comic collection, with the purpose of getting rid of some of it. I have been using ebay to sell off ones that I think people want and that I no longer want. But I find it is such a stressful practice, at least for me. I put something up and I end up looking at the post too much seeing who bid, how many people are looking at it, do I need to change anything. I feel like I am dating for the first time and wondering, does she like me, am I dressed ok, should I kiss her now? But it is great when you finally get that email your item sold and quite depressing when it doesn't. Not so depressing to get back in there and start dating er I mean posting again.

Invisible Car

This is really cool. As an artist, I find this truly fascinating. http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/04/art-student-creates.html

It only took the artist 3 weeks to make a car disappear. I wonder how long it would take me?

Wolverine!

I went to see Wolverine today, and for what its worth, I did enjoy the movie. It is your typical summer popcorn flick. There was some good and some bad. But I would say in the pantheon of X-men movies, it fits somewhere below the original X-men and well above X-men 3.

The good:

Hugh Jackman. He is Wolverine. He captures his animalistic nature and pulls off another great performance.

Supporting Cast. They are all well in their rolls. Liev Schriber as Sabertooth is an unusual choice, but I think it works and he does a great job. Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson. We needed more of the Merc with a Mouth. His onscreen presence is fleeting and we needed more. The only supporting cast member I did not like was the guy who plays Striker. He didn't have the same presence as Brian Cox did in X-2.

Special Effects. This is a double edged sword as some of them were really good, but others were just plain bad. However, the de-aging of Patrick Stewart while not great is not as bad as people say.

Story. Call it what you will, but the overall story was not bad. It wasn't great, but it did its job to move things along.

The bad:

Special Effects. In some cases it looks as though they mailed it in. I mean, it is that bad. There were instances where they used green screen and should have just used a set or something.

Sets. I mean they looked like sets in this movie, not locations. I want to believe you are there, not in the backlot of some location.

Changes. I mean we are talking about some of the best known characters in the Marvel collection. Don't change things. There is no need. Changing Deadpool to be Weapon XI, just plain dumb. Killing all the team members, dumb. Emma Frost, dumb. I mean they needed to stick to the source on this one and they could not go wrong.

All in all, I give it a B for what it was and what it tried to be. Had they stuck to the story and did it that way, I bet they get an A across the board.