"One shall stand. One shall fall." When Prime said those immortal words from the animated movie, that was the first moment where my hair stood up and I got goosebumps of inspiration. Sadly, that was in the dying moments of the film. I enjoyed the movie thoroughly as the no-
thinking, fun action movie it was intended to be. However, I went in with only middle-of-the-road expectations, and came out with mediocre gratification. From a visual standpoint, it was amazing. Those were some very fluid and lifelike robots. The first third of the movie establishes all the human characters and I actually found the dialogue very humorous and entertaining. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was nearly a midnight showing and I was surrounded by teenagers with cell phones who felt compelled to text every scene of the movie... to
each other. I don't get it... but I'm 30 now, so I'm okay with that. The parent-teenager interaction was great, and the script knew it wasn't
Il Postino... it just kept it fun and tongue-in-cheek.
Shia LeBeouf made the corny dialogue seem brilliant and is easily the next John
Cusack, which is high praise from me!
The middle third of the film pretty much merged the human/Transformers worlds, and I found myself wanting either more dialogue, or more robots. I did appreciate that even robots can have a sense of humor. The final third of the film was all action and did a nice job of pulling off the sense of scale, but I'm actually more excited about getting the DVD than seeing it again in the theatres. There were just too many scenes with multiple robots flying around, and it was so large that you couldn't tell what happened and to whom. That's probably my only downside, and I can't wait to see the whole picture on DVD and slow-mo it a few thousand times. I was a so-so fan of the cartoon, but hold the animated movie as one of my tops ever because it was done so well, with a truly engaging storyline. I think this live-action version fails in comparison to the animated movie, but that's a pretty high bar. The music throughout the film was just so-so. There were some great action scenes with rock songs that got you pumped up, but the rest was a bit forgettable. Plus, with decades of past Transformers music to pull from, it was sad that no nostalgia tunes were thrown in. This is screaming for a sequel though, so I'm sure your favorites will be showing up sooner than later if they weren't in this film.
The toys were too expensive growing up, so I really only had Hot Rod. Maybe this further shows my bias for the Hot-Rod-heavy animated film... who knows! My grandmother did buy me
Perceptor, the microscope, but I had to tell all my friends growing up that he was a tank with a "magnifying cannon" in order for them to play with me. You've contented me yet again,
Starscream.
There are some graphic novels and comic books that translate well to the big screen, and there are some that fail miserably. Stardust doesn't really do either. If you're in the mood for whimsical adventure that gets overly cheesy while following witches, pirates and magical objects, this may be your movie. Sure, that all sounds great, but it doesn't translate quite as well. The high moments, like Robert De Niro's happy pirate, or Sienna Miller's too-briefly-shown frumpiness, are often lost in the long, drawn-out cross-country adventure treks and epic battle scenes. They reminded me of Lancelot running repeatedly up and over the hill in Monty Python's Holy Grail, except Stardust was taking itself seriously. Danes tries too hard to capture the otherworldly essence of a star and she's outshone by the rest of the cast.
"In a half shell, they're the heroes four, in this day and age who could ask for more?... T-U-R-T-L-E Power." If you got that reference, you are in for one heck of a movie. TMNT, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles if you've been living in the sewers the past 20 years, is brilliant candy for the eye, heart and mind. I went in with low expectations and was hoping for a fun action flick with a hint of nostalgia. The first 10 minutes of the film throws you a curve ball, as the TMNT aren't even a team. It answers the question of what these trans mutated fighting turtles would be doing if they weren't crime fighting... if they just had to live daily lives like the rest of us. The plot line was sophisticated enough to hold my interest throughout, but I think even the youngest fans will keep up with the storyline well enough to get it. You get really deep insight into the minds of Leonardo and Raphael, which interesting and action-packed enough to forgive the shortcomings on the other characters. The turtle vs. turtle arc is brilliantly executed and will satisfy both the fanboy and the average viewer. Some liberties are taken when it comes to pivotal characters, but it seems to capture the lighthearted fun of the cartoon series, the brotherly love of the live-action movie, and the gritty action of the Eastman and Laird comic book that started it all. I was amazed how well the stylistic animation and tear-inducing inspirational moments all blended together. I thought it missed the mark with the voice-casting of Splinter, their rat-turned-mentor, but the teasers they drop for a sequel and the return of their nemesis the Shredder made up for it.
I thought I would stay on the theme of movies with "Last" in the title. Wow... was that ever a mistake. I knew very little about this movie going into it, but expected some sort of fantastical family or kid-friendly film about magic and, supposedly, a talking bunny. The doll reminded me a lot of one my friends' kid has, so I already had a special connection to it. A lot had to go wrong to disappoint me because I'm great at suspending belief and enjoying this genre of movies.
We had our advance screening tickets in hand. We waited in a line for an hour and a half, the day before the movie was released. We paid $5 for our Pibb Xtra, which I proudly snuck past Mel's caffeine sensors. We watched the entire movie in awe, then I sat there feeling robbed. Don't get me wrong, I thought the movie was great and I'm one of the most-biased Harry Potter lovers around, but the movie just felt so... short, to me. It was over two hours long, but as the film version of one of the longest HP books, it just left so much out. I understand this is the case with all book-to-movie translations, but I just couldn't believe how much of the true meat was left out. There are so many huge plot points J.K. Rowling has set up for the final book, whether they are legit, or red herrings, which originated in this book... and none of them made their way to the screen. The prophecy is shortened nearly to the point of being spoiler. Snape is pretty much absent from the film, which is a travesty to one of the book's most complicated characters, and I think, maybe the most important and pivotal when all's said and done.
"One shall stand. One shall fall." When Prime said those immortal words from the animated movie, that was the first moment where my hair stood up and I got goosebumps of inspiration. Sadly, that was in the dying moments of the film. I enjoyed the movie thoroughly as the no-thinking, fun action movie it was intended to be. However, I went in with only middle-of-the-road expectations, and came out with mediocre gratification. From a visual standpoint, it was amazing. Those were some very fluid and lifelike robots. The first third of the movie establishes all the human characters and I actually found the dialogue very humorous and entertaining. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was nearly a midnight showing and I was surrounded by teenagers with cell phones who felt compelled to text every scene of the movie... to each other. I don't get it... but I'm 30 now, so I'm okay with that. The parent-teenager interaction was great, and the script knew it wasn't Il Postino... it just kept it fun and tongue-in-cheek. Shia LeBeouf made the corny dialogue seem brilliant and is easily the next John Cusack, which is high praise from me!