Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

When I got the tickets for Transformers 2 in IMAX, the only tickets I could get were for 8:45AM on a Saturday morning. Something clicked in me when that happened: I realized I was once again watching a Saturday morning cartoon. I immediately hit up the local 7-11 for a couple of mini-packs of “Lucky Charms” to sneak into the theater to complete the experience.

That was the attitude I had going in to see this film. I had seen the first Transformers movie and saw it for what it was. A big dumb action film. And that’s what I got. Big robots battling big robots on our world and causing big property-damaging explosions.

I’m actually trying to decide if the sequel raised the bar or if it was just more of the same. They blatantly return some things that changed in the original movie, from Bumblebee losing his voice and talking again in song samples, to Megatron coming back from the deep. All the original actors are. Megan Fox does her job very well, which is to look like Megan Fox. Shia LeBeouf plays his part well too which is a feat considering he has to play a kid who is somehow in a relationship with Megan Fox. For the rest of the cast, I actually found Julie White who plays Sam’s mother a bit of a comedic scene-stealer that had some pretty great bits at the beginning of the movie, putting her up there with John Turturro’s Agent Simmons and well beyond Rainn Wilson’s turn as an egotistical professor.

The voices of the Transformers are all excellent as well. The original Optimus Prime himself, Peter Cullen, returns and I can’t think of anyone else who could voice him. Hugo Weaving also returns as Megatron and he is quite good in this role, but the filmmakers correct the appalling error of leaving out the original Megatron, voiceover legend Frank Welker, by giving no less than three roles to play: Soundwave, Devastator and Reedman.

The action, being a Michael Bay film is well done. There’s some very cool robot fighting sequences (I hesitate to use the word small-scale. These are giant robots after all) These scenes were probably the scenes that took me back to a younger time and really fulfilled a dream of any kid who collected these toys. What kid didn’t take these robots and make them fight each other? Sure there’s big all-out battles with planes and weapons and gunfire, but those scenes with the robots just fighting and punching the hell out of each other were some of the most satisfying.

Plot? Easy enough to follow, but not intrusive enough to get in the way of the action. Ludicrous moments? For sure. There were some robot characters that were downright corny. Consistency? Probably the biggest inconsistency was that the IMAX showing had only some scenes filmed in full IMAX so that when it switches from those scenes to the letterboxed regular print, it’s a little jarring, but not a movie-killer.

I have really avoided reading any reviews on this movie in order to have a clean slate in my opinion, and the fact is, I really enjoyed watching this movie. It was fun. It took me back to Saturday morning watching cartoons. Totally worth seeing in IMAX. I’d pay to see it again, and I will definitely be looking the HD digital download when it’s released. This movie is firmly focused on what it is and does it well. If you have the same frame of mind, then this well worth watching. Just don’t forget the cereal.

The Taking of Pelham 123

Went to see The Taking of Pelham 123 this weekend, partly because it was showing in a theater I haven’t checked out yet and wanted to see what it was like.

The story, if you don’t know is about a subway train hijacking in New York that mostly focuses on the interactions between the lead hijacker Ryder (John Travolta) and train trafficer Garber (Denzel Washington). I found no real surprises in it. The most unique and original thing I noticed was how the ‘New York’ attitude prevailed over the whole movie. Sure, there’s the scene with the mayor (James Gandolfini) talking to the press to try and quell rumors and insipre confidene, but that doesn’t stop the reporters from grilling him about a rumored affair. While the story was predictable, the overall attitude made it slightly unique and a bit amusing to boot.

The only performance that stood out for me was Travolta. Although he’s a more well-rounded actor that many aren’t willing to admit, he can play very engaging antagonists and this one follows that trend. I almost ended up rooting for him as he shuts down all authority and bureaucracy that try to take control of Ryder and the situation.

Audio was really good. The biggest standout for me was the opening sequnce that was cut with a very extensive remix of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems”. It’s one of the few instances where using music in a movie went far beyond just licensing a track and sticking it in the background of a scene, and I’d love to see more uses like that in the future.

All in all, though, I can’t really say I was glad I saw this in the theater. The unique takes on the standard story were not enough to justify a movie ticket. It will most likely be a digital download.

Does It Play On a Mac? – Trackmania Nations Forever

Realizing I haven’t done any racing games since Carmageddon II, I not only try out an amazingly addictive arcade racer, but one that’s completely free to download and play! No disc required for this one!

WWDC 2009 Keynote Recap

Three thumbs up for Apple!
BOOO for AT&T!

Today was the highly anticipated WWDC (apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference) keynote.  Rumors have been focusing on the iPhone, but in just the first half of the keynote speech, they WOW’d us in true apple form with some interesting announcements.

Wow, I just got finished watching TWiT’s feed and commentary on the WWDC Keynote speech.  WOW.  A lot of very exciting things coming down the apple pipeline.  I took some notes while watching/listening to the cast.

The most anticipated announcement is that the new iPhone will be available on June 19th. It is known as the 3GS.  With the S for SPEED .  Some of the new features are 3 megapixel with video and autofocus, faster speed 7.2 megabit, and a compass.  WOW  32GB for $299 and 16GB for $199 and the old 3G at 8GB will be available for  $99.

The following is a bullet list of what was announced.

MacBook Pro’s
- all MacBook Pro’s have been refreshed
- battery life extended
- non-replaceable battery
- 13″ Unibody MacBook now a Pro
- – Firewire added to the 13″ unibody

Quicktime New
- iMovie like editing

OSX Snow Leopard
- Available in September
- 64 Bit
- 16 Billion Gigabyte Memory ceiling
- Multi core support more efficient
- $29 upgrade $49 family pack upgrade (not confirmed, but that would rock)
- $129 Standard buy (not the upgrade)
- Exchange support in ical, mail, address book, etc (great for business users)
- Snow Leopard will be available for all intel mac

iPhone
- 50,000 apps in the app store
- 40,000,000 iPhones and iPod touches sold
- in 9 months of the app store, 1 billion apps downloaded

iPhone OS 3.0
- more than 100 new features
- cut, copy and paste
- landscape keyboard in all applications
- mms added
- AT&T will support mms later this summer LOL
- message search
- spotlight – search across the phone

- iTunes rent and purchase movies and audiobooks from iPhone
- Parental control on apps and movies etc

- Tethering USB AND Bluetooth
- – AT&T not supported yet BOOO

- support for streaming video and audio HTTP
- autofill
- HTML 5

- robust language support (over 30 languages)

- Find my iphone (??) available to mobile me…
- – it will show you on a web browser where your iphone is  NICE
- – if completely lost you can erase all data on the phone

- support for peer to peer gaming over bluetooth

- hardware protocol support for external devices

- push notifications
- turn by turn using core location

- free for iPhone – $9.95 for iPod touch
- Available June 17 (devs get it today)

iPhone Hardware
- iPhone 3GS (S for Speed for the most powerful, fastest one ever)
- same design as 3G
- OpenGL|ES 2.0 support
- 7.2 megabit HSPDA
- 3 megapixel autofocus camera
- – tap to focus
- – low light sensitivity
- VIDEO
- – 30fps 640×480
- – autofocus
- voice control
- – control things like ipod (“play more songs like this”)
- digital compass
- hardware encryption
- improved battery
- Pricing: $199 16 GB and $299 32 GB plus $99 for the 8GB 3G (non-S)
- Availability: June 19th, 2009

Wow,  kudos APPLE!  The boo for AT&T is that the MMS and Tethering “is coming” LOL

Does It Play On a Mac? – Quake

This instance takes an attempt at a classic game that helped define the first-person shooter genre.

Up

I saw this with the whole clan at the El Capitan, complete with opening live show and full digital 3D presentation.

The thing is, with a the bells and whistles attached to the screening I attended, I felt it was all the kind of things that would be used by marketing to help hype the audience for a lesser flick. And I feel that speaks highly to the ability of Pixar’s “Up” to stand on it’s own, and hints at its ability to stand the test of time.

The story concerned grumpy old man Carl Fredrickson (Ed Asner) fulfilling the wish he shared with his late wife of traveling and making a home by a waterfall in South America. This path has him run across characters like annoying ‘Wilderness Explorer’ Russell (Jordan Nagai), ‘talking’ dog Dug (director/writer Bob Peterson) and a large bird named Kevin.

No doubt you’ve seen the trailers or billboards with the house being hoisted by about a million balloons. The start of the story deals actually deals with Carl’s life and times with his wife in a very touching and almost wordless sequence. Pixar did an amazing job with this sequence and took a risk, I believe. Some people had concerns with the wordless tale-telling at the beginning of Wall-E, but personally, I say it works. Why? Because it’s a MOVIE! A visual story medium. Many other studios would have simply stuck a voiceover describing Carl’s history, but in showing Carl’s life the way they did, it actually made you sympathetic to a supposedly ‘unmarketable’ old man, couple with the fact that you are more than willing to go along with the totally insane idea that someone can fly a house simply because they attached a bunch of helium balloons through their chimney and stuck curtains outside the house to steer.

As much as the characters of this story are well rounded and interesting, the humor of the film is excellent. I can actually say I laughed out loud at this film.

Pixar has shown once again that they are masters of the computer animated movie. All the visuals and animation are incredible. This was made in 3D and some of the visuals are quite impressive when seen in a digital-projection 3D theater, but again this movie could easily stand on its own without it.

That being said, I’d definitely recommend seeing it in the theater. In 3D. I’d see it again that way. This is a very well done film that I believe anyone can enjoy. Go see it.