Watchmen is awesome.
That is all.
Tuesday 21 July 2009
Wednesday 1 July 2009
Humans: Revenge of Michael Bay
I saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on Monday and ... WOW. I'm not going to spoil anything for anyone (Despite the fact that only three people will ever read this, and they probably don't care) but, I have to say, nothing's changed. Michael Bay (I hate to place the blame solely on him, but, as far as I can tell he's in charge of the whole thing) has made exactly the same mistakes as he did in the original film. What ARE these mistakes, I rhetorically hear you cry? Well, allow me to explain ...
At it's core, what is the plot of the Transformers cartoons?
The heroic Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, attempt to stop the villainous Decepticons and their monstrous warlord, Megatron, from taking over the world/galaxy/universe/planet cybertron. They disguise themselves as vehicles and wage a war on earth, befriending humans and getting into all kinds of trouble and intrigue. They normally end up fighting over some series-specific artifact or Energon source, but, generally speaking it all goes in a similar direction.
Now, in contrast, what is the plot of the first Transformers film?
Sam Witwicky buys a car in an attempt to meet girls, which steals itself, while an air force base in Afganistan is attacked by a mysterious helicopter-transformer. Some hackers do some things, some soldiers get attacked by a scorpion, and, after being attacked by a police-car Transformer, Sam's car takes him to meet some other robots who tell him the plot of the Transformers cartoon.
Instantly, you can see the shift in focus from Autobots to humans, and did you see how long it took us to get to the robots? There is far too much focus on the fleshlings. All we need is a human protagonist, like Sam, to introduce us to the Autobot/Decepticon war, and maybe a supporting character to get a second opinion on everything. Sam and Mikeala ... or however you spell that ...
You can pretty much copy and paste that last paragraph, and you'll have a fair review of the new movie.
A lot of critics have been complaining about mindless CGI-flaunting and and racial stereotyping, but, as someone who understands that showing off CGI is what you should expect from a CGI-film, and who doesn't really know what a black-stereotype is (I thought they were hillbillies. o.o) I'm not really all that bothered. But, what I AM bother by is the fact that movie-makers seem incapable of learning from their mistakes. The universal feeling among Transformers-fans was that, frighteningly, we needed more from the Transformers. Bay had a chance to reconcile himself with the fandom, but, instead, he wiped their hopes on his arse while saying "Arcee has one line! What more do you people want!?" (What does he mean "You People?")
Basically, this film isn't what it should be; a film about the Transformers. You're still going to go out and watch it, I know you are. It's a movie where shit blows up and giant robots kick the capacitors out of one another! That's awesome!
But ... it's not as awesome as it could be ... not by a long shot ...
This has been Rude Rabbit ... eternally disappointed.
At it's core, what is the plot of the Transformers cartoons?
The heroic Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, attempt to stop the villainous Decepticons and their monstrous warlord, Megatron, from taking over the world/galaxy/universe/planet cybertron. They disguise themselves as vehicles and wage a war on earth, befriending humans and getting into all kinds of trouble and intrigue. They normally end up fighting over some series-specific artifact or Energon source, but, generally speaking it all goes in a similar direction.
Now, in contrast, what is the plot of the first Transformers film?
Sam Witwicky buys a car in an attempt to meet girls, which steals itself, while an air force base in Afganistan is attacked by a mysterious helicopter-transformer. Some hackers do some things, some soldiers get attacked by a scorpion, and, after being attacked by a police-car Transformer, Sam's car takes him to meet some other robots who tell him the plot of the Transformers cartoon.
Instantly, you can see the shift in focus from Autobots to humans, and did you see how long it took us to get to the robots? There is far too much focus on the fleshlings. All we need is a human protagonist, like Sam, to introduce us to the Autobot/Decepticon war, and maybe a supporting character to get a second opinion on everything. Sam and Mikeala ... or however you spell that ...
You can pretty much copy and paste that last paragraph, and you'll have a fair review of the new movie.
A lot of critics have been complaining about mindless CGI-flaunting and and racial stereotyping, but, as someone who understands that showing off CGI is what you should expect from a CGI-film, and who doesn't really know what a black-stereotype is (I thought they were hillbillies. o.o) I'm not really all that bothered. But, what I AM bother by is the fact that movie-makers seem incapable of learning from their mistakes. The universal feeling among Transformers-fans was that, frighteningly, we needed more from the Transformers. Bay had a chance to reconcile himself with the fandom, but, instead, he wiped their hopes on his arse while saying "Arcee has one line! What more do you people want!?" (What does he mean "You People?")
Basically, this film isn't what it should be; a film about the Transformers. You're still going to go out and watch it, I know you are. It's a movie where shit blows up and giant robots kick the capacitors out of one another! That's awesome!
But ... it's not as awesome as it could be ... not by a long shot ...
This has been Rude Rabbit ... eternally disappointed.
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