Transformers 2 - see or not to see?

Man, that was some waiting. After 2 years of expectation, I went to check out the results for Transfotmers 2. And it ain't that good. Spoilers ahead.
I could say that there are reasons to watch it, and reasons not to watch it, depending on many things: your age, your gender and your mood.
Your age: the story is thin for grown-ups, and confusing for kids. Much of the joking is based on sex, and kids, at least, shouldn't get them.
Your gender: if you are a male, you'll love watching Mikaela and the Decept-chick walking around Sam, with their short outfits and nice curves. If you are a female, you'll hate for the same reason.
Your mood: bad tempered people will find the movie boring, with lots of fire and lack of structure, with long no-reasoned scenes. People in a good mood will laugh a lot, and may think that the movie is a comedy, not an action one.
To point out the good and bad points:
Good:

• Nice working with the bots graphics.
• Nice battle scenes, with a lot of close fighting by the bots.
• Energon, the reason for all the war, has been mentioned, although not deeply used.
• A lot more of Decepticon bots, in many unusual forms (a hot chick!!).
• Devastator!!!

Bad:

• Cold Sam and Mikaela scenes.
• Less Autobots presence on the screen (how many times can you hear the name Ratchet?); that was my bad... they added 2 freaking useless joking twin Autobots.
  
• Less Megatron (he wouldn't even say "I AM MEGATRON!").
• Decepticon eggs and hatchlings (??? - where did that come from?).
• Too much Americas Army - there was no need of so much human presence in the battles, seemed like Uncle Sam's "I want you" propaganda.
• Poor story.
• Poor edition (sequences jumped from university to woods in no time, you couldn't even reconstruct the evolution of the story in your head).
  

In the middle: humor. Good jokes and awful sexual jokes. I'm not radical against sex humor, I just don't like the way Americans do their joking of it.

And I guess i recognised Bulkhead, from the cartoon, but fighting on the Decepticons side. I kept myself thinking: he's not on the Autobots side, can't you see?

Finally, some second episodes will remain as legend (Empire Strikes Back, Terminator 2, and many more), and others won't (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). Will choose where would you place Transformers 2.

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Terminator 4 (or should I say the true 3rd?)

Terminator : Salvation fulfilled it's role - saved one of the most interesting movie series ever made. Good action, good acting, strong connection to the other movies, and even humor.
What can I say? I'm an electronic engineer, and watching nice robotic movies is almost an obligation, as it's also a pleasure (at least in the last movies I've seen are paying my time). The animations and robotic graphics are fabulous, as the sound effects. I usually go to a THX exibition room, and the room shaked and trembled as shots, explosions and bots moved on the screen. Awesome.

Once again the story revolves around the Terminator, not John Connor, as some would predict. Although Cristian Bale played a convincing Connor, most of the action sequencies and most interesting dialogs are left for the Terminator, who was a convicted murderer which sold his body to a bunch of cientists, later recognised as members of old Dynatech. Interesting thing is that he only wakes up 15 years later (2018) to find himself in a wasted land, in a weird future, and he doesn't have a clue about what happened.
The movie is interesting for many reasons, but I really liked the amount of bots developed by Skynet to take down human kind in land, air and water. Bikes, Juggernauts, Aircrafts and so on, made me feel like watching a Transformers sequence (lol). And they performed beautifully: non-stopping annoing killing machines.
The funniest of the machines was a version of a T800 that had its full skin evolved... it resembled... Arnold Schwarzenegger!! A nice CG version of the governor made its appearance and many spectators travelled back to T2, or even the first movie.
I don't know if I should say more, because I really think it's a movie you should see, at least if you like time-travelling or machine or war or action movies...

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Wall-E - at last!

Yes, I know... Wall-E has been released ages ago, but only now I had time, and real interest, in watching it. I just don't know exactly how to describe it, cause animation has become such a high level production as any other film.
It brings an amazing story of a lonely trash-collecting robot left on Earth to clean our mess and, with no warning, receives a visitor probe from some technologically evolved civilization.

Warning: spoilers ahead...

That's when the story turns to be really interesting... the probe, known as Eve, appears just when Wall-E found a little plant growing beneath a pile of garbage, and start scanning everywhere for you-know-what. She can't find any vegetation, but then Wall-E realises what she's after and offer her the plant. She enters an dorment state, beaconning for her return to wherever she came from.

It's than that we discover that she is probing Earth for the last Earth survivors, that are living in a kind of American-consumer paradise starship, the Axiom. But, when we come to think, just for a second, we see that it wouldn't be necessary 700 years of sloth to turn us into fat-boneless creatures... we are already in route. It is a direct exposition of the lifestyle that's being imposed to us by the market, TV, and so on. No life, only consuming.

When they are going to deliver the plant to the captain, the ship Auto(matic) control try to stop the return of the ship to Earth, as the plant is a sign of Earth's recovery from all our aggressions, which is prepared for a new colonization.

You know what comes next: people and bots join forces to bring the Auto pilot down and return to Earth, in a sequence of funny and dramatic events. But the point is not that. The messages are crystal clear: let's think about what we are doing to our planet and our own lives.

What I enjoyed the most was the stunning graphics quality, sound and humor. The bots have designs that are related to their "directives" and the "scars" and dirt on Wall-E's metal cover are just perfect, as well as the reflective and bright white cover of Eve. Just impressive piece of art.

Go and take a look, it's worth your time ;)

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The same story again

I like going to the movies everytime some visual impacting work is released. Next ones I guess will be Terminator 4 and Transformers 2. But I keep asking myself: will it be the same thing all over again?

The cool good guy, that faces difficult decisions, the sexy and not helpful girl, the funny useless best friend, the villain that fails by stepping on his own shoelashes...

I guess we have plenty of character stereotypes to describe, as well as stories and backgrounds, and it starts to repeat itself over the time. Their new escape is using old characters from books or movie remakes, and (for my pleasure) comic characters. I guess Hollywood writers are running out of fuel, and so they turn to the old and well known heroes of our childhood, almost making it an obligation to check the result of their work. I just wonder what will happen when all the "main" heroes are used, and titles like Watchmen have all been visited... eventually they will turn to the books...

But new best-selling books are all about magical or evil creatures seen as tormented souls in search of redemption. They come in all flavours, but new vampires were upgraded: they can even walk in the sun! To be creative is one thing, destroying mythology is another.

Where are the new Agatha Christie's, Arthur C. Clark's, and so on? Don't tell me that all stories have been written, as someone, in the last century boldly sated that "Everything that could be invented had been already", and so came cell phones, LCD displays, the Internet, and so on. "Only when we are in the brink of extinction we have the will to change." (The only thing the remained from "The day that earth stopped")

Come think with me ;)

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Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Trailer

It may sound like raining in the ocean, but everytime I watch anything related to the Transformers movies I bite my tongue.
I almost cried as I heard they would be making the films, and thought "Garbage incoming...", and surprise came, and you know the rest of it.
Just take a look at what's coming next...

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The "New" Star Trek

Yesterday I went to the movies to check out the new Star Trek movie version, by J.J. Abrahms.
I can't tell you I was surprised, but it sure kept me stuck in the chair. Instead of the thoughtful and investigative theme of the series, the new Enterprise is packed with action, funny sequencies and explosions... lots of them.
I used to watch the original series and imagine how things would seen to be "where no man has ever gone", which was mind opening. I also tried to follow the political and technological conflicts presented in the Next Generation, which bests represents my Trekker generation, but never got to the very end of it. And as time went by, and new ships began to appear, I just saw myself disconnected from that universe.
It was fun and quite nostalgic, but for newcomers the movie will sure be good entertainment, with a "bis" flavour.
Sulu, take us out if here ;)

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