Random As Rhyme

It should be of no secret to anyone that I am basically the definition of a Transformers fan boy. I know my Generation 1 facts inside and out, and basically grew up with the series via syndication.

I love Transformers and I will share that fact with anyone who will listen. Therefore I think its pretty amazing how many people give both of the movies poor reviews about story, plot, character development etc.

Going into any Transformers movie you must realize a few things:

Its directed by Michael Bay – You either like his style or you don’t
Alien Robots come to earth take vehicle forms and shoot a lot – Basic premise, accept it, there is not much more too it
It is and always was a way to sell something – In the past it was toys, now its movie tickets, cars, and more toys

The movie was not meant to leave you with any sort of profound message it was just meant to entertain, deafen, and overload your senses while paying homage to its roots.  This second movie does all of  this Soundwave is in it with his original voice, wheelie is in it in a similar role as the first film, and their is a toss back  to the matrix of leadership, time was spent trying to  please us, the original fans.

The battle scenes in Transformers 2 are much easier to follow than  those of  the first revamp which allows the audience to see just how much ass their favorite character is kicking.  However where the  action scenes have been  improved the character development has suffered.

Sam and Mikaela’s characters advance a little bit but not too much, where as Sam’s Parents play a similar humorous role as they did in the first film although with one gag  running a little too long.  The rest of the human characters from the previous film return with one of them being much more useful in this film than the previous, but his previous useless self is replaced with another heel who gets tazed, twice.

The Autobots do not really have their characters expanded on much in this film, with a whole slew of new ones being introduced with barley any back story, introduction, or speaking roles. A few get killed off shortly after uttering their first lines. The Decepticons also get quite a few new minions that are about has hard to kill as the Puddies from Power Rangers but do get more back story and the relationship between Megatron and Starscream is more reminiscent of the old series which is nice.

However the big guns, Bumble Bee, Megatron, Starscream, and Jetfire all kick ass and the best part of the movie for me was the fact that Optimus Prime kicks ass for a SIGNIFICANT amount of time twice!

It brought back the exact same feelings I had while watching this scene as a child:

At the end of the day Revenge of the Fallen was an amusing action movie with little plot and character development that happened to go on a little bit too long. This movie is no where near as bad as it could of been (or GI Joe is going to be) people just need to accept it for what it is and take it at face value and not try to go any deeper because there is still nothing there.

People also need to stop putting Skids and Mudflap under a microscope they are not nearly as offensive to me as a black person as people are making it out to seem, Devestators balls offended me much more.

The old robot obsession is kicking in again. My problem now, since this comes out in September, is should I read the book first or wait for the movie? The last time I read the book first I didn’t like the movie.

Suggestions?

There are far too many movies coming out in May that I want to see with tickets being 13 bucks a pop if I see every single one of these movies I am out $65. Damn, I need some coupons… anyone? Bueller?

Wolverine

Star Trek

Angels & Demons

Terminator Salvation

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I have been interested in this movie ever since I saw the first trailer and had no idea what was going in. Once I did a little research I discovered it was based on a graphic novel and I snatched it up quickly. Upon reading it I was eagerly anticipating the release date. All the legal drama around the release date, and the fact it almost didn’t get released at all, had me worried but thankfully it opened this weekend and I had a chance to go see it.

If you don’t know the story or anything about the movie here are a few key things to know before you see it

-It’s a superhero movie but there is only one ’superhero’ in it
-It’s not a kids movie, don’t bring them it’s got full frontal male  nudity
-It’s set in an alternate 1985 where Richard Nixon is president and has been for awhile
-It’s long, almost 3 hours, if you have a small bladder skip the extra large drink
-If you have not yet, read the graphic novel, its great
-For those of you that have, ya some things were changed, deal with it

Now that that’s all out of the way lets get to my thoughts on the movie. Anyone who as read the book understands why previous directors have deemed it unfilmable, there is a lot of content to cover, and lots of scenes to portray.

However all of my doubts that the film would be faithful to the book were cast aside after the opening sequence. The opener nicely goes through a lot of the back story from the novel that took awhile to read without boring new viewers.

It also looks  plain bad ass. It was online, but it’s already been taken down, sorry, you will have to go see it.

Now moving past the initial fight scene, and opening sequence, the movie follows along the graphic novel basically panel for panel. The amount of accuracy and research done by the production crew behind this movie is amazing. The graphic novel was basically their storyboard and if anything was changed it was just for the better.

The fight scenes are well choreographed and extremely graphic (no surprise to those of you who have seen 300), and the slow motion is used just enough. The acting is pretty much on point for every character (the actor  that plays Big Figure I have not seen in long time) and Jackie Earle Haley did a great job in portraying Rorschach. I particularly like the scenes when Rorschach was in jail, those are some of my favorite from the book so I am glad they were done well.

All those great things aside, I felt that the movie did have some pacing problems. It moved a long in a somewhat slow methodical matter.

Two people I have talked to fell asleep briefly.

A few or the transitions from scene to scene were fairly evident that it was from book to book. I am not sure how this would have been avoidable and still faithful to the novel, so it’s just something to consider when you go and see it.

Personally I enjoyed the movie and I plan to purhcase the DVD so I can watch the extended version (and the tales of the black freighter). However I am aware that my opinion is biased having read and enjoyed the novel, so for those of you that saw it and have not read it what do you think?

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This weekend I had a chance to take in the movie  Notorious. This movie is probably the first ‘hip hop’ movie seen in theaters (skipped hustle & flow can’t remember any others). It’s also the first biopic I have seen at the cineplex.

Going in to the movie I was fairly neutral, I hoped for the best but was prepared for the worst.

The theater was packed, which is generally a good sign, one that meant good or bad this movie was going to make money (opened 4th in the box office at $24,000,000).

The movie itself obviously follows a straight forward story arc: Biggie goes to school where he is a good student, grows up sells drugs and starts rapping, does a bid, has adult relationships with his baby Mamma, Lil Kim and Faith, meets Puff, sells a lot of records, becomes friends with Tupac, then enimies with Tupac, gets in a car accident, makes moves to spend more time with his family and friends and work on a new album,  gets shot in LA. The end.

If you are going into this movie expecting more information than what’s already out on the internet about the life and times of Christopher Wallace, don’t.

Most things are where they should be (although a few people are absent) and the ending is wrapped up into a nice little package.

Most of the movie is spent on his love triangle (Faith, Kim Biggie) and build up and break down of the relationship with Tupac which lead to the rise of the West coast East coast rivalry. Outside of musical relationships the movie also does a good job of establishing the solid relationship Big had with his mother, and his friend D-Nice.

The actors playing the big roles in this movie did their homework and the portrayal of Little Kim and Puff being pretty well bang on.

Angela Bassett and Jamal Woolard also do a great job of being a believable mother and son.

The set crew for this movie also did a great job in making it period correct. The cars, clothes, gear and music were all period correct. (I had completely forgot about Mecca Clothing! There was also an e30 in the movie which is always good.)

My only gripe with the movie would be the clean gloss over one Sean Combs. Puffy comes off as someone who could do no wrong and was a guiding light in Biggies life.

A person who helped him turn it around for the better. Maybe this was indeed the case but I find it hard to believe that in their time together they didn’t have one rift in the relationship or not see eye to eye on an issue. A lot of people have been saying Diddy used Big, and that he is career poision so with Diddy having a heavy hand in this movie I suppose I should have known he would come out glistening.

All in all the move was enjoyable and I do recommend it to Biggie fans and non Biggie fans alike.

I didn’t feel it was a waste of time or money and it was great to get a little bit more insight into the life of Biggie Smalls.

Slightly more emceeing couldn’t have hurt though.

If you have not yet, find this, its dope:

I have been on nostalgia kick lately, well more than usual, and I got to thinking about how back in the glory days of cartoons (80s and early 90s) cartoons didn’t have music. They had anthems, anthems that got kids kool aid filled blood pumping and ready for the show.

So with this in mind I figured a run down of ten I deem ‘great’ are in order.

10. Jace and the Wheeled Warriors

Let’s kick this off with Jace and the Wheeled Warriors. This one takes a bit to get going, but be patient and you will be rewarded by some decent 80s rock and inspirational lyrics. Reach for the light.

9. Megaman

What this song lacks in overall creativity (it’s two lines in total) it makes up for the basic tempo being faster than most intro songs of the time, which is really saying something.

8. Jem and the Holograms

Had to include this one since from what I can tell it was about an accurate representation of what I have been led to believe 80s MTV was. I would actually rather listen to this than anything by Britney Spears, cause the music is contagious and their songs are better.

7. M.A.S.K.

The green and black grid shots and electrically synthesized voices (Ma Ma Ma Mask) in this intro mean it probably could have doubled for a music video in the early 90s. The lyrics are not to bad either, I wouldn’t mind working overtime if I was fighting crime.

7. Thundercats

Thunder cats HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. The guitar work in this intro makes it a fairly powerful rocker. I wonder who performed these songs was it all one amazing cartoon cover band?

6. He-Man

I don’t really think this intro song is all that epic. But green lantern sampled it for a Ludacris song so it can’t be all that bad.

5. Alvin and The Chipmunks

Dave realized early that he had the first child hit performers living in his house and put them to work. The chipmunks basically set the ground for real people like Miley Cirrus/Hanna Montana.

Did they ever explain how he got those chipmunks anyway?

3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The drums don’t stop hitting through this whole song, the lyrics are fairly well rounded, and it starts out loud, and ends with a triumphant “Turtle Power”.

2. Wild Cats

Starts out hard rock, little rap interlude (sort of) then back to hard rock. This intro is pretty well flawless.

1. Transformers Movie Theme

I maybe should not include this one, seeing as how it has an unfair advantage being the only one that is a full length song from a full length movie and credited to some band (LION). However as I have stated before my blog my rules. This just screams 80s hair metal, their is a killer guitar solo that starts at 2:07 seconds in.