Texas Chainsaw Massacre - We saw this just a little while ago at the Alamo Drafthouse. It was my first time seeing it ever and I'm honestly not sure what I think about it right now. It had some great moments in it. It was far different than the remake. However, I don't really feel like I was able to connect with any of the characters as they were just there to die. I appreciate what the movie did for those to follow, but I'm not sure I understand where all of the amazing love for this movie comes from. Now to be fair, I felt the same way with the original Halloween when I first saw it two years ago and now I absolutely love that movie, so it might just be that I need to think on it over time. As of right now though, I cannot say I was blown away. I am glad to have finally seen it, and there were some really good moments of suspense, but I feel like I missed something. Overall, I give it a 6.5/10 stars.

The thing about Texas Chainsaw Massacre is less the film and more how the film came to be. I know that that shouldn't impact on the movie itself, the movie should stand alone, but if you do ever inspire the interest to check some of the making of's of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it is not only fascinating but makes you see the movie in a different light.

Watched Age of Extinction earlier.

There comes a point in ones movie watching life where you realise you must start to appreciate films for what they are and not hate them for what they're not. Before Age of Extinction was released it was already being torn a new asshole and when it was finally released critics were quicker to pick holes in it than they were to find things they actually liked, all texts deserve to be engaged with, even if you don't like it. I understand this is a beloved, nostalgia goggled franchise, but I honestly have never enjoyed Transformers more than these live action movies.

So yes, to get the obvious out of the way, Age of Extinction is very, very silly but it's silly on such a grand scale and always tongue in cheek, that it is the best kind of silly, the most enjoyable kind. Bay never set out to make the next Blade Runner, he took a toy brand about killer robots that turn into other things and ran with it. With the way people rip into the guy for these films, you'd expect the original Transformers or their many iterations to be high art and not a long string of mostly trashy attempts to capture some of the more magic, bigger Japanese toy franchises from the past thirty or so years. With these films, gratefully, Bay says, "You're either in for the ride, or left behind - it's one or the other." Those critics who are still poking holes in the plot like anyone cares were left behind before the credits of the first movie, good fucking riddance, no one likes a party pooper.

The real surprise for the narrative is the tone, Transformers are literally on the brink of extinction (I guess hence the title and the use of Dinobots) and as the Autobots are backed into a corner, there eventually comes a point where the fancy ideology and morals have to be dropped just so they can survive. This leads to some shockingly intense and violent sequences but also gives Bay an excuse to take the brakes off all together - who knew he ever had brakes in the first place?

Simply put, Age of Extinction is absolutely gorgeous. Not only does it push the boundaries of what CGI can do, and the boundaries of sense all together, it just has a fantastic visual style. I know Bay is mostly remembered for explosions, of which this film has somewhere around 8000, but Age of Extinction is a genuinely well shot, well choreographed, well put together movie with style to spare. Is the film overlong? Yeah probably, but set pieces this good can carry any moment of dead air.

I mean, let's be honest, we're all here for the giant robots and so you'll fall in love with these effects. The intricate and almost unnecessarily complicated transformations of the Transformers are an absolute joy, each Transformer looks so complex but yet so streamlined with each one having a clearly defined visual identity, even if bullet cigars and metal trench coats push the word "ridiculous" to breaking point. Overall it's difficult to pick a favourite moment overall with so many great set pieces.

Our little ragtag group of Autobots who make their final stand are really really cool with the likes of John Goodman providing the voice for a cigar chewing, overweight, gun nut Transformer called Hound to Ken Watanabe providing the voice for a samurai Autobot named Drift who gets the honour of being both a samurai, a helicopter and a Bugatti Veyron. Fucking hell, Drift is like everything my teenage self loves in one thing, all he needed was boobs.

Then there is Optimus himself who goes from looking badass as a beaten up old lorry to getting a really cool new lick of paint (in the coolest way possible) before he grabs himself a sword, shield and rides on the back of a robotic T-Rex. Somehow he's still able to be badass when he's gotta share the screen with Drift, and that is no easy feet.

The only real disappointment robotwise was Galvatron. He plays a bigger and bigger role as the movie progresses but he's basically just sequelbait and his role in this film is artificial at best. I mean I guess props for setting up a dark Optimus Prime 2.0 with the mind of Megatron and one of the coolest transformation effects I've seen but I'd rather Lockdown got more room, who is really, really cool but also almost completely wasted. Galvatron would have been best left for right at the end or the next movie all together.

By this point I shouldn't need to tell you but it's the human characters who are by far the weakest part of the movie, both in terms of action and story. I personally dislike Wahlberg anyway as I don't think he should be allowed to escape his past and make millions for having fun but I can't deny the guy usually brings a lot of energy to a lot of mediocre products. Here however the guy seems to forget somewhere along the way that he has a job to do and so although he may sweep up the audience in how much fun he appears to be having on set his story of an overprotective single parent who regrets past mistakes falls completely flat as he himself seems as uninterested in it as the audience is.

Who is he battling to protect? I dunno, she's so totally forgettable I've already forgotten her name. She's played by Nicola Peltz who is only memorable for looking more like a wotsit than a human being. The camera leers over her as the costume department do their best to accentuate her legs and breasts in a child friendly way. The camera is practically rammed between her arsecheeks for most of the movie, which I'm sure is bound to shock a few soccer Mum's while the seven year olds groan and wait for the next robot dinosaur shot. Wait what was her involvement in the story again?

On a more positive note is Kelsey Grammer, playing the downtrodden CIA bigwig Attinger. He seems too good for this kind of film but he doesn't ever put in a performance like he thinks the film is beneath him. It's amazing you can have such an endearing human villain when all the other villains are giant robots. Grammer adds a lot of depth between the lines for his character, meaning he never feels so much a villain as much as he does someone who got lost along the way. He's obviously made some very poor decisions but by the point of the movie he just seems to have lost all control, and is more drowning in mistakes, than making concious decisions to do harm. He is one of the only characters who really feels human here and not just an actor on a rollercoaster.

All films are made for the cinema, but very few belong there, and Age of Extinction is one of those few. Find your biggest and loudest screen, grab the 3D glasses, relax with some Ben and Jerry's and prepare for the cinema experience to be stretched to the limit. Bay never intended to push the boundaries of human thought, he just wants to push the boundaries of enjoyment, and my does he do that here. He does it to excess, as is the Bay way, and may he do it for decades to come!

I refuse to support Bayformers ever again. I was tricked into seeing it three times in the theater and it just got worse with each one. Despite my issues, I had this little inkling that wanted to see AoE but then Michael Bay made that comment about people going to see it anyway and that little inkling said, "OH HELL NO WE AREN'T SEEING THAT ****!!!"

Rewatched Beautiful Creatures on Bluray.

To get it out of the way, the Bluray presentation is poor but I think most of that is down to the cinematography. It's a stylish movie, that has some good production design, but half the time scenes appear to be out of focus and the things that aren't are buried in noise. No shot looks quite the same, but each is as equally shitty. Overall I think the word I'd use is "flat", all the out of focus backgrounds, the heavy noise in the foreground, it just has no depth at all.

In terms of the movie? Well first, let's talk about characters. Ethan takes a long time to like but when you realise how real and lived in he feels, warts and all, he suddenly becomes endearing. Bella Swan - the most common example - is a character that was the centre of the universe in her story no matter what stage of her arc she was going through but Ethan is always no one and the movie never loses sight of that. The fact he doesn't become the Chosen One or whatever shit is what ends up making him so special. He's just an ordinary teen caught in an ancient battle between good and evil and he's forced to watch and be pulled to and fro spending the entire movie utterly helpless to change any event that plays out, or at least change them in any meaningful way. That may sound like a deathwish for a character but instead he becomes the anchor for the audience because of this and because he remains ordinary, the movie never loses us either. He's also acted well by the incredibly charming Alden Ehrenreich.

It's a shame then that Lena is a complete failure of a character. We'll get to the failings of the film as a story later but speaking right now of characters, Lena's premise is she - like Katniss Everdeen - is going to prove that girls can have the power in the Young Adult genre. However, as much as I dislike the Hunger Games, at least what Katniss goes through is real.

With Lena all the so called power she has is just pretence. The most we get is overly dramatic staredowns and contests to see who is the worst actress, it never feels like Lena is actually in a control. And yes, I am aware that is the whole point of the story, but it seems like such a bizarre creative decision to give women the power - something so rare in this genre - only to make it the whole premise that the power is then stolen from them. Why pretend? You're no fucking different!

Even aside from all that Lena doesn't seem nice inside or out, anyway. Shallow maybe but Alice Englert is not an attractive woman but Lena isn't even a nice person anyway. She's mean, naive and stroppy, a cartoon parody of a real teenage girl where the negatives are magnified and the positives are hidden. Ethan deserves better.

This is especially problematic when the two leads coming together is supposed to be the main drive of the narrative. The romance is well realised, and moves at a nice natural, flowing pace but it doesn't count for much when you can't stand the female lead. Maybe to some extent this is intentional but a turd is always going to be a turd. It's basically a romance for the Tumblr generation, I couldn't think of much worse to say.

Luckily outside of them is the much stronger supporting cast. Irons and Thompson chew so much scenery between them I'm amazed there's any left to chew by the end. I can't tell if they two of them just don't care - especially Irons who only attempts an accent for about one in every ten lines - or if they decided to just have fun in their roles. Whatever they're trying to do, it comes off great on screen, even if the enjoyment gleamed from it was probably never intended, at least not in the shape it comes.

Ridley is probably the only character I genuinely liked from the get go. Rossum, at times, seems a little out of her depth but Ridley is one of the few female characters in the film who actually gets to use the power she is promised. And her flashback, and general character arc, is about the deepest the film gets. I'd have honestly liked a whole movie about her.

Narratively Beautiful Creatures is like a concert hall after hours, vast and empty. It constantly raises hot-button issues, usually with some urban fantasy guise, but it doesn't have anything to actually say about them. What this leaves is an incredibly shallow, pretentious movie, that is all exposition and no substance. This is a shame, as although most of the mythology here is clearly borrowed, some of it does seem to be going somewhere interesting. It never does, though.

Well, to the say the movie has nothing to say, would be unfair. It has lots to say when it comes to Christianity, it just has nothing nice to say about it. The movie takes every opportunity to insult the faith, I am not a Christian or of any faith for that matter, but I see no need to take sweeping stabs at any religion for insults sake. Faith itself is harmless, it's the people who follow it who are the issue, something the movie only ever half understands.

When it isn't offending every Christian in the theatre, it's offending everyone else in it as well, most notably in that it seems to believe being ordinary is much like some sort of fatal disease. I don't know why I ever praised this movie, but I'm going back to Twilight, this doesn't hold up to multiple viewings at all.

It appears I made a boo-boo. My real post is the one after Locke's.

If someone wants to delete this post, I'm cool with it.

That is my favourite part of the Transformers franchise - oh yeah it's "trash" trash that has entertained almost as many people as it has made in dollars times a million. I'm sure your piece of shit art film which opened in one theatre to two people is really enjoying that same level of success. He makes his movies, for his fans and we are legion meanwhile the critics continue to show themselves as sheep who do not know a thing about what they are talking about except for their own isolated, insular circles which they call "art".

I'm willing to forgive Bay for that statement for a few reasons.

1). He's right. People are going to go see it.

2). The guy has been hearing the same criticisms over and over again for the past seven years. There's a point where he is going to get tired of them.

3). He's made it quite clear he makes those movies for people who are/want to feel like 13-year-old boys.

4). I don't really care.

I enjoy the movies for what they are. There was a time where I gave them more credit than they deserved, but I'm older and slightly less stupid, now, and I've realized they have their flaws.

I don't watch those movies because I want to be challenged. I watch them because I want bto see giant robots turning into giant machines and fight other giant robots. If there is some deeper message or challenging ideas in there, that's great, but that's not why I'm watching.

That doesn't mean I don't always want to be challenged. It just means that I know what I'm getting myself into when I watch a Transformers film, and I know how to enjoy it. It won't stop me from watching better movies. It just means that, sometimes, I want to watch a Transformers movie.

And that's okay.

Did my last post just get deleted or simply vanish?

It's probably above my last post. Go up two more posts, and you'll see what happened. :lol

Shit man I got so confused, it's 4 am and my mind can't handle this labyrinth.

:lol

Except the movies aren't for fans. I grew up on Transformers. I love Beast Wars. Transformers Animated is my favorite Transformers series as it took homages to the original and combined it with the story telling and character development of Beast Wars.

Michael Bay has done nothing but make me hate the entire franchise to the point that I have sold off 99% of my entire Transformers collection. I hate what his movies have done to the series overall as it is spilled over into every other TF medium there is. He turned the series from something special with a unique concept about transforming giant robots that battle each other into walking junkyards mating while making as many sexual innuendos as possible. He took the idea of having good human characters to help the Autobots survive on Earth and turned them into bumbling moronic idiots and actresses that look like professional porn stars with the acting ability of average porn stars.

I would rather go see a good movie like The Grand Budapest Hotel than be disappointed and bored with another bayplosion orgasm that I have already seen a million times before.

When Michael Bay goes back to making something like The Rock, then I'll go back to watching his movies.

He might be right, but he was a dbag for saying it as his whole attitude towards it proves he doesn't give two crap holes about Transformers. He only sees the $ signs is he given.

He can't be hearing them too well if he is still making the same movie over again. Most people actually listen to people's complaints and try to fix it. Bay has done none of that. He just makes each movie worse and longer than the last one. Or maybe he has just gone deaf for creating too many explosions.

The worst part is, he doesn't make sense. His movies feel like they don't even have a script, yet, earlier this year he acted like a spoiled baby and darted off stage because the script wasn't there to tell him what to say. Who knew he was so adamant on having a script?

That's not how it works. The movies should be growing with their audience, not regressing.

That is how I felt too. But after a while, you get tired of having the same plot with no character development, dumb humans, and boring ass battles taking place. Not to mention having Megatron be downgraded as he movie goes along. They should have just named the trilogy, "Megatron is Everybody's Bitch" since he is owned by everyone in this series whether it be from a random master that appears two seconds after he says he is in charge to a human woman screaming at him.

I would love to watch a Transformers movie too, but that is not what Bay gives us. He gives us 80% military human bullshit and then 20% of these giant insect looking scrap piles that don't even look like robots. The only Transformers movie I can watch is the one from 1986 as it is the only one that actually features Transformers.

Everybody's talking about Transformers and here I am just watching some Pinky Violence films :lol

Damn if Dr Kain thinks this about the Bay movies, I can't wait to see the wrath of god that will come down on the MMPR movie.

Also, why does the Bay movies want you to sell your Transformers? That makes no sense? Wants you to leave the fandom? That's fine. But how the fuck does the movies intrinsically want you to sell something that is only related by the same franchise.

He thinks they're so terrible that he's ashamed to be associated in the same fandom as them?

Non-Stop

This movie made me feel very uncomfortable, watching Leiam Neiisan hastling people.

I like the amount of intrigue and thinking the first part of the movie goes. Giving you clues and suspicions about who it is on the plane that's doing this.

The main character is very flawed and I'm not one to usually appreciate these types of characters but I liked Neesan's character here.

I can understand where a lot of your complaints are coming from (although I think you were a bit out of line with some of your insults). However, I'm a teenage boy, and while I don't act like one most of the time, I think that's the reason I'm able to enjoy these movies. I was nine when the first one came out, and my only prior experience with the franchise was Cybertron. I watched Animated as it aired, but the movie was really influential in me making that decision. While older fans might feel like they're not gettting the movie tthey deserve, the movies are responsible for a large portion of the fandom's growth. And, for that, I think they've earned their place in the franchise.

Also, Optimus Prime riding a dinosaur. That makes me happy and gives me hope. :D

The whole "it's not faithful to the source material" is like my favourite line. How would the films have benefited, in any way, with sticking closer to the material? You'd expect the original Transformers or their many iterations to be high art and not a long string of mostly trashy attempts to capture some of the more magic, bigger Japanese toy franchises from the past thirty or so years with the way they rip into him. I just utterly fail to see how Bay's vision of the transformers is somehow worse than any other iteration. I mean at least his are big, high concept spectacles unlike Beast Wars for example, which was a show I loved as a child but it's aged so horribly in the last ten or so years I find it unwatchable as an adult.

I'm not complaining about their source material. My problem is that they just don't look like Transformers to me. I cannot even tell some of the characters apart as they all look the same. It's like they just threw garbage on top of a magnet and the drew the image out in the shape of a robot. Their transformations just don't make sense as they hardly even look like the vehicle they are supposed to be hiding as.

They just completely killed my interest in Transformers. Plus, I could either keep my Transformers or collect Figuarts, and since I was collecting Transformers because of nostalgia, Figuarts won.

They attempted to address that in the new one. I reckon you'll like the designs in the new movie.

That ship has sailed though. I shouldn't have had to go through four movies just to get to better designs. And honestly, I don't see better designs. I cannot even tell the Dinobots are... well Dinobots. They look like the fossil dinosaurs from MMPR the Movie. I'm not even going to watch AoE for free.

There is literally not a single sex joke in AoE, which is one of the things that pleasantly surprised me about it.

None of the AoE Decpticons or Autobots look insectoid, and every one of them is a distinct, unique-looking character with actual lines and personality that extends past racial stereotypes. Also, zero military presence, unless you count Lockdown's team.

It's cool. I've already decided I will never watch another Bayformers movie again, so there is no point in really arguing about this anymore. I don't care if AoE is The Empire Strikes Back of the Bayformers movies, I am done. I'd rather watch a good movie like A Clockwork Orange, Alien, or The Shawshank Redemption instead.

I'm cool with that, bro. Any the who, I rewatched Evil Dead on Bluray.

I'm someone who really, really likes The Evil Dead, in my mind it's better than Evil Dead II. Mostly remembered, wrongly, as a comedy The Evil Dead is the only part of the trilogy to be a straight horror film and is the product of love and talent, not money, which leaves something truly special. It's the kind of film that satisfies film nerds, fantasy fans and horror fans alike which is why I'm disappointed it got pretty much completely overshadowed by Evil Dead II over the years.

So yeah, Evil Dead had a lot to live up to for me. I watched it in the cinemas and I didn't like it a whole lot but with the remake fresh in my mind I rewatched The Evil Dead again and it both highlighted some flaws in The Evil Dead I'd never really noticed before and also gave me a new found appreciation for what Evil Dead was trying to do, even if it is mostly unsuccessful. This is the first time though I've sat down to review the film again since reviewing it after watching it in theatres, and my feelings remain largely the same.

There are four parts to Evil Dead's narrative and the only one that is explored in any meaningful way is the worst direction for the film. I just don't see the point of constantly teasing us a better film if you have no intention of doing anything with it, this whole film feels like several rough drafts slapped together like they assume that if you stick scraps together it'll just magically become a cohesive whole. Not only is the ending of naked chicks coming out of the ground while the sky bleeds monumentally stupid but you'll be too worn out by the end to care how stupid it all is. Are we meant to be having fun?

Huge sections of the movie put all their weight on the assumption we actually care about any of these characters even though it rushes through the character beats - just like it does the narrative - to give us more gore. Are you really surprised then that large sections of this film fall flat on their face? If you want the audience to care you have to make them care, the audience aren't a charity, we don't work for free. By the end no character gets any real closure and so the audience gets very little closure either.

Yet the thing is, it actually really works in context in a really weird way. The film couldn't have pulled off the same sense of chaos, confusion and panic if the movie had slowed down to explore the characters any more more than it already does. This is a ridiculously intense movie with the kind of energy rarely seen in horror to the point where there really is no more room for characters and plot without the risk of bloating the movie. So yes, having a tighter, more focused, narrative would have made this a better narrative film but it clearly wouldn't have served what Alvarez was trying to do with his film. I'm just personally not sure if Alvarez is the best person to decide that - or maybe I'm just disheartened - as an initially interesting film almost becomes boring as it dissolves into a special effects showcase with as much depth as a shower.

Special effectswise Evil Dead is possibly one of the best films ever made, made entirely with camera trickery and practical effects (well they touched it all up with CG) it does put The Evil Dead to shame. The Evil Dead's effects have aged mostly horribly but remained beloved because of the small budget that forced Raimi to do really crazy and inventive things. As much as I want to rally that approach to filmmaking, I also can't help but deny that after seeing this I now firmly believe that as far as talent goes, money goes farther. The violence feels so real in this you can practically smell it, sure it's very stylised and cartoony but man do you feel those hits.

This level of quality doesn't stop there, either. The detail that has gone into the sets, and the atmosphere, Evil Dead is just a bit of a show off honestly, a bit of a flirt and I can't help but love it for it. It puts practically every horror remake of the last decade to shame. Luckily then we've got a stunning Bluray transfer too which is rich and detailed, it's a showcase of Aaron Morton's unconventional but gorgeous shooting style which does the general production design real justice.

Overall they could have just cashed in on the name and put in zero effort, like pretty much every other horror remake of the last decade, but they didn't, they actually wanted to make something that could stand on its own and in some ways it really gives the original a run for its money. I really appreciate Evil Dead, maybe more than I actually like it and I believe Evil Dead deserves to be watched at least once, even if I think The Evil Dead will be the film you'll fall in love with more.

That's ridiculous. Beast Wars is still alongside MTMTE and Animated as the pinnacle of Transformers quality. While the CG quality is obviously not as good as some recent shows, it is in no way ugly or distracting and does not even nearly effect the brilliant story-telling present throughout the series. I watched it for the first time last year and I am baffled by how somebody could think it hasn't aged well if they gave it a chance, because it definitely has and is definitely worth every second of it.

Still, even with it not being totally up to today's standard, Beast Wars CG characters had eight times the emotional range of the CG Transformers in Energon and even Prime.

As for AOE. It was OK, definitely a distinct improvement on DOTM and ROTF, but it was far too long for what the plot deserved and that really detracted from the overall experience. Plus, while significantly less offensive then ROTF and DOTM in terms of humour, it still suffered from the usual Michael Bay human dialogue that stagnated and repeated and furthered the plot in no significant way and there were a lot of pointless scenes that only existed to boost the film's length. I enjoyed it, although I was the only one in the group of six I went with that did, but I can honestly understand the critical panning its receiving due to franchise fatigue and just more of the same. Good big budget action movies are more common then bad ones lately and Transformers just isn't up to the standard of its competitors in terms of story, action and character which I think is a shame because Transformers could be up there with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men franchise, Planet of the Apes franchise and even the Amazing Spider-Man films if they tried (and had a different creative team).

I, Frankenstein - I want my time back. It was the exact same plot as Van Helsing, but lacked a good final battle. Seriously, they just kill the main villain without any effort. The movie was full of good actors, but they obviously were just there to collect a pay check as they did not even appear interested in their roles. The execution was lazy and makes no sense. None of the characters have any personality or development. And "Adam," did not even look like an abomination at all. I give this frankensteined plot a 2/10 and that is only because of the one good fight scene in the middle of the movie against that demon dude with the journal.

Disney's Beauty And The Beast- One of my top 5 favorite Disney movies.

Rewatched the first Transformers on Bluray.

Spielberg was the executive producer throughout the franchise and injected huge amounts into the screenplay, with many key moments coming straight from him and honestly I see much more Spielberg in this film than I do Bay and the Spielbergian parts are where most of the problems lie. Namely in that it is ungodly long, and focuses much more on boring human characters than what we actually want to see, sound familiar? Yeah...

Transformers doesn't really go anywhere, honestly, dragging itself out for all it's worth until it just fizzles out all together, smothered by its own weight. I can't even really think what Spielberg thought he was gaining by cramming this film with so much...stuff. I mean I understand some good human drama is always necessary but the amount of human focus is pure overkill to the point where the film itself seems to be struggling to bring the sheer quantity of human characters together.

The human characters aren't even that good, probably the only human character really worth a mention is our protagonist, Sam. I've never much cared about LaBeouf but he seems to really enjoy this role and brings a lot of charm to Sam. He's usually the only character on screen who has any spark of life as he's surrounding by a cast of actors trying desperately to animate the cardboard cutouts of cardboard cutouts this movie calls characters.

Ironically, characterwise, the Transformers themselves fair the worst. Optimus is pretty cool and they do a pretty good job of making us care about Bumblebee but...who else was there again? The movie spends so long building up Megatron and when they finally unleash him it's like they don't have a single clue as to what to do with him, much like all the other Decepticons who come out of nowhere in the last twenty minutes to look cool and die without achieving anything.

Even the special effects, which are the true saving grace, are a double edged sword. I mean those effects, they are so good, so ahead of their time, it's like there's been no advancements in four movies. Maybe there hasn't. Special effects heavy films made in the last ten or so years usually age fast, and age horribly, so I'm very pleased that this still looks wonderful.

On the flip side though the camera can never seem to quite keep up with the Transformers themselves, the camera would have really benefited with being pulled much further out and the Transformers would have ironically benefited from simpler designs. Action sequences are usually so cluttered, so busy and cramped that it is almost impossible to tell what is happening in them.

This is a shame too, as these action sequences - at least on paper - are as fresh and varied as you'll probably ever get from "Bayhem". Most people criticise Bay's Military Fetishism but at least when it was soldiers fighting the robots I could actually tell what the fuck was happening!

Now the first Bayformers was a pretty good movie. Yeah, it features plastic face and Whiny McNononononono, but the execution was pretty good and the fights were cool. Not to mention Megatron was pretty bad ass after he woke up. That first battle between Bumblebee and Barricade was awesome.

Although Age of Extinction doesn't improve the human side it offers a lot more outside of it - most notably much clearer, better shot, choreographed and directed action I could actually follow. Although the villains remain completely throwaway.

saw frozen today. while I did enjoy it, I don't see what the big deal is. I actually think it was a bit heavy on the songs, sure its a Disney movie but it still seems like it was a bit much, even for them. the movie seems like it would be better suited for the stage with all that music in my opinion.

Because it tossed all of the Disney cliches upside down. It made fun of them while having a great story with well done character development.

I get that. and I think I might enjoy it more now that I know how much singing is in it if I watch it again. I was just slightly put off by the higher than normal song count since I wasn't expecting that many songs, even for Disney.

Batman Mask of the Phantasm - 9/10.

It was a musical. I really don't think "too many songs" is an accurate criticism. There's a reason nearly the whole cast are Broadway singers

And it didn't really. It had 7, the same number of songs that Disney Masterpiece Beauty and the Beast has and most Disney Classics circle 5-7, such as Aladdin (7), The Little Mermaid (5) and The Lion King (5), which is the type of atmosphere and fun the movie was obviously trying to recreate, which it did successfully. If you don't like songs, don't pick up a Disney musical, really.

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

My brother gets Nerdblock every month and so this documentary came with it. I thought it was just a dumb thing they threw in there and then I read on the back that Morgan Spurlock directed it. I like Morgan Spurlock and when I see his name on something, I sit up and take notice, as I am a fan of Super Size Me and his CNN stuff.

So in honor of Comic-Con this weekend and the fact I'm coincidentally going to San Diego that same weekend but for a different thing, I watched this movie.

Basically its about tons of different people who all go to SDCC and see if thier dreams come true. A Comic book dealer wants to sell the most rare Marvel comic so his business can stay afloat, a girl and her friends are cosplaying as Mass Effect characters onstage, two seperate dudes want to make it into comic books, a guy wants to marry his girlfriend at a Kevin Smith panel, its all very interesting.

There's also some bits from famous celebrities and writers talking about thier convention experiences and nerd fandom. Its really cool to see people like Joss Whedon and Olivia Wilde share thier experiences.

Its also nice to see something that doesn't shun collection or extreme devotion to nerd culture like mainstream media treats us but embraces shit like Honey boo boo.

My only problem with the movie is that Morgan Spurlock never shares his experiences. I'm fascinated by the guy and since he's a filmmaker, I would have loved to hear his influences from nerd culture. But I guess that's a testament to the people speaking for themselves in the movie rather then Spurlock.

Check it out if you haven't seen it, it'll defintley ignite the nerd inside of you.

Now I wanna go cosplay as Amuro Ray for some reason.

Rewatched Revenge of The Fallen on Bluray.

One of the complaints of Revenge of The Fallen is that it tries to be "too big" but I honestly think it's all the better for it. The hits are harder and the action cleaner, the whole thing just flows better and despite the larger quantity of robots I can actually follow the action this time.

Sadly the effects, while not horrible, are just not up to the scratch set by the first film. Spielberg made sure that in the first film every CG shot was accompanied by practical shots - very little outside of the robot forms of the Transformers were CG - which made it very easy to be convinced by what was on screen and has lead to the film ageing very gracefully. Revenge Of The Fallen on the other hand, not so much...

Given at least fifty more million to play with, it appears Bay has made the majority of the whole movie into CG and made the Transformer's even more complex, if you thought the designs were over complex in the first movie, you ain't seen nothing yet. By the time the Decepticon's arrive, I couldn't tell one apart from another, there are a few stand out designs but most are just a whirlwind of shiny metal scraps which are never laid out in any kind of defined shape cluttering the otherwise decent cinematography. The whole thing seems to melt into an animated feature by the end, my belief long since abandoned.

Characters are much more defined this time around than they were in the first film which has mostly positive results. Sam and Mikaela's relationship almost feels believable this time with how well they play off of each other (who woulda figured?) and although I don't quite like the person Sam grows into in this film seeing how he plays off his parents and Bumblebee continues to be very enjoyable and at places quite poignant. I certainly found myself relating to Sam much easier this time around, which is probably helped by the fact that minus the earlier parts of the film, I never felt smothered by the human characters.

The Transformers themselves remain, sadly, completely forgettable though. Optimus is more badass than ever and Bumblebee even more lovable while also getting his own chance to be a bit of a badass but all new additions, Autobot or Decepticon, are... wait, were there any new additions? I don't remember. Yeah...

Tonally, Revenge of the Fallen is all wrong, too. It gets really dark in places, and really brutal too and I guess I should be happy that the Decepticons feel much more like a genuine threat this time around but I didn't want it like this. It doesn't even really work all that well in context given how silly the whole premise of this thing is and I mean yeah, the comedy in the film is no better either but it sure fits better than what we got here.

Pretty much everything scriptwise is all wrong though, to be fair. I finished this movie...and I couldn't tell you what the hell it was about. It isn't just incoherent, it's convoluted as all hell. It's about fifty fetch quests which all interlink only because the characters cross over in scenes sometimes, every one has some sort of novelty which not only defies all real world logic but also directly contradicts and confuses the previous movie. By the end it literally just felt like scenes were being thrown together in whatever order they wanted and half of them felt like they weren't even from the same movie.

Revenge of The Fallen ends up being the kind of film where the spectacle leaves you finishing the film on a high and it isn't until a few hours later where you've gone away and thought about the film that you realise how awful it is. It takes a pretty massive step in the wrong direction tonally and the effects were disappointing. I will say that there does seem to be, at least at points, a genuine attempt to better the first film but it doesn't work. Just like the whole film.

"You can't marry a man you just met." -Elsa
"About dang time, Disney." -Everyone

See, there was another Disney film that did that first. And did it better.

It was called Enchanted.