Reflect On: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

I know I’m not saying anything that hasn’t been said a million times already, but these are my thoughts on the film.

Okay, so a friend of mine showed me the other day that “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is currently number 9 on IMDB’s highest grossing movies list of all time.(Check it out here.) This blew my mind. I knew that the movie was doing well at the box office and has actually earned the title of “highest grossing movie with the worst reviews,” which is pretty much the same thing as saying “worst highest gross movie of all time. But I had no idea that it was doing well enough to make it into the top 10 highest grossing movies ever (damn inflation).

Now the movie had already been in theaters for a little over a month before I started to take this blog seriously, so it didn’t really feel necessary that I talk about it or do a review of it (after all I’m trying to do the reviews right after I see the movie.) But after this new found information, it got me thinking more and more about the popularity of this movie and I though I would take the time and reflect on the bizarre phenomenon that is “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

I saw the movie at midnight opening night with a group of friends and to be honest, at the time, I didn’t think of it as being that terrible. I was really disappointed in it though. The humor was bad, painful at times and the first half of the movie didn’t ever feel like a “Transformers” sequel. I thought the actions scenes were pretty good, except I could understand how someone could get board or confused with them. The biggest problems I had where things like the slut terminator – duh, I mean Transformer, like I said earlier, the humor, the fact that Jetfire can teleport and of course the infamous robot heaven scene. Oh, how I hated robot heaven. I mean why is there a heaven for robots? Yes, I know one could argue that the robots have the computer based DNA, like what was mention in the first, and that they could actually be a living organism and thus could have some kind of afterlife. But then what is Sam doing there? Or what are the robots doing in people heaven? Or why was the scene ever put in there? It was unnecessary and could have been avoided if they hadn’t killed off Sam. You know say what you will about “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls” in regards to what are aliens doing in an Indiana Jones movie, but at least that was based on actual mythology and has been feature in other movies. Having a robot heave is something completely inexcusable.

I didn’t have big problem with the whole stereotyping and racism that everyone is getting so bent out of shape over. Honestly, this movie isn’t even worth getting that offended over. I mean consider the score. This whole issue says more about the filmmakers than it does the actual race that is supposedly being criticized.

Surprisingly, I didn’t pay much attention to the plot holes until sometime after the movie when I was able to sit down and think it over. If you’ve look anywhere around the internet you’ve probably noticed that it is the film’s plot holes and continuity errors that everyone seems to be attacking. And why shouldn’t they? This movie is such a mess in these regards. (To get an idea what I'm taking about, chick here. More here on IMDB.) It’s hard to believe that so many mistakes could get onto film. Seriously it’s like filming the first draft of the script with no one looking it over. This movie has been in production for like what, two years? And during that time, no one picket up on any of these issues? Mind blowing, but here it is.

Frankly I think that this is the root of the fascination with this movie, it kind of falls into the “it’s so bad, it’s good” category, but not quite. It falls more into the “I can’t believe how bad this movie is” category, and really it the budget and scope of the movie the pushes into classification. If this had been a couple thousand dollar budget direct to DVD movie (and believe me, there out there), this would be the kind movie that you show your friends to have fun and a good laugh. Sort of in the vain of “Plan 9 from Outer Space” and “Troll 2,” which both generated a cult following based around how painfully bad they are. But since “Revenge of the Fallen” is a multimillion dollar Hollywood production, you expect more. We want it to be good; we want to believe that they knew what they were doing and took their time to give us “grade A” entertainment. But they didn’t.

People have always question Michael Bay’s capability as a filmmaker and I think more a lot of these people this confers it. This stuff looks pretty, but that’s seems to be the only thing he cares about getting right. In a way this movie gives the people who criticizing Bay a way of saying “I told you so.” And I have a feeling we’ll be hearing it again all to soon, because as you know Hollywood isn’t going to look at the reviews as long as the money’s being raked in. Basically we all know that this mean “Transformers 3.” Let’s hope that the filmmakers (particularly the writers and Bay) can learn from their mistakes and be able to approach the project with fresh eyes. But since the studios want production to begin towards the end of the year, I don’t have high hopes.

(500) Days of Summer

Okay, so I was at a comic book shop the other day and they had free passes to an advance screening of “(500) Days of Summer” sitting out. This was one of the movies that I had been looking forward to all, well, summer. So naturally I jump on the opportunity to see it before it was released here in the Columbus area.

I seems like I’ve been having a feeling of disappointment a lot this year as I’ve exited the majority of the movies I’ve seen. It was during a musical number in which Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is ecstatic after sending the night for the first time with Summer (Zooey Deschanel) that I thought to myself, “Hey, I’m enjoying this!”

Now I think it’s pretty obvious that word has gotten around about this movie and I don’t want it to sound like I’m simply jumping on the band wagon on saying that this movie is good, but it seriously does have a lot going for it. The pacing, the humor, the characters, all of these elements is enjoyable and what make the thing worth watching.

The pacing is done right so that there isn’t a single slow point to loss interest, the humor is sincerely funny and the characters are relatable. At times too relatable, painfully relatable. If you have ever had any kind of attraction to a member of the opposite sex, you will find at least one moment that resembles your life. Towards the beginning of the third act, there is a sequence done with split screen where one side shows Tom’s expectations / prediction of what’s going to happen when meeting up with Summer for the first time in months, while the other side shows reality and what actually does happen. This hits a nerve or two. In fact it’s probably safe to say that everyone in the theater could identify with this sequence. Trust me, it really hits home.

The real main critique I would say is the film chickens out towards the end with a with a more crowd pleasing wrap-up than with I would have predicted. The tagline of the film reads “Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t.” and most of the film lives up to that idea and theme. Now, as a good movie should, the characters change and grow through out the movie until basically they’re different people by the end. However, I feel the film should have been more brave and gone with a different ending. But this is one of these times where if it was a different ending, then I would be saying that they should have gone with the happier ending. I don’t know. See it for yourself and come to you own conclusion.

I could go on about the theme and what not, but I’m afraid of giving away spoilers and since this movie is only in limited release, chances are not a whole of people have seen it yet. But when it does come to your city, do give yourself the opportunity to go see it. Better if you see it with someone you care about.

Archive Review: Jurassic Park

I always wander is if this movie were to be released today, would I still view the same way that I did as a child with everything I know now about filmmaking and story structure.

Okay, so for the first ever Archive Review, I figured I might as well do the most nostalgic movie from my childhood. “Jurassic Park” was the first movie I ever saw in theaters – well – okay, second. The first movie I actually saw in theaters was “The Muppet’s Christmas Carol” but I don’t really remember anything about and let’s face it, it’s a lot more badass to say that “Jurassic Park” was your first.

The year was 1993, I was six years old and like most kids I had a grossly unhealthy obsession of dinosaurs. And during the peak of this obsession is when “Jurassic Park” was released to theater. You can imagine a six year old getting excited about seeing a movie about dinosaurs, but imagine a six year old seeing a movie about dinosaurs with that quality of special effects. Needless to say, my mind was blow and has been ever since. In fact I credit this movie being the main influence that made me want to get into filmmaking. It was also the first time I heard the name of someone called Spielberg.

Now I tell you all this simply to show how much of an impact this movie had on me.However I also tell you all this as a heads up that my judgment may be clouded a little due to nostalgia, but it’s been 16 years, I’ve grown up and have a better understanding of film structure, so hope now to try and approach “Jurassic Park” from a critical perspective. When you’re a kid, you don’t really question anything you see in a movie. Like Gennaro getting eaten while hiding in a bathroom. As a kid you see that and think it awesome because, well, it’s kind of funny. But I wonder if I would have the same reaction if I were to see that for the first time today or would I just roll my eyes and view it as ridiculous.

The following his how I view the film today.

As you probably already know, the film is based off of the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. Now the film, I must say, departs quite a bit from the book (no surprise there). However depending on how you look at it, this can be a negative or positive thing. Negative for the fact that the book is way more action packed and features more dinosaurs and more frequently. The story of the book is much longer and has more content, which is something that I prefer in story. The movie simply cuts a lot out and at times maybe too much. On the positive side of departing from the novel is the fact that the human characters actually act like human characters. Now I like Crichton’s work, but with “Jurassic Park” in particular, he really has a problem with having things feel awkward. Some of this has to do with pacing and flatness of some of the characters but the main problem that I noticed was the lack of detail. More than once there will be a part where you forget which characters are actually in the scene because they don’t ever do or say anything. You’ll be reading along and then there will finally be an acknowledgment of a character that you would have known was there if it wasn’t for that one tiny sentence.

The movie does a much better job at not only pacing, but fleshing out the characters as well. It feels like the actual narration was thought out more whereas with the book it seems like the focus was the research and technical stuff. The movie actually has things like character development. For insistence, in the beginning of the movie Dr. Grant has an annoyance for kids but learns to put that aside and develop a tolerance in able to get the two child characters, Lex and Tim, out of Jurassic Park alive. While in the novel Grant lives kids for the beginning and basically doesn’t change throughout the story.

From a narrative standpoint, it’s pretty adequate. It has all the right elements, but nothing special, but enough to get the job done. Plus there a good amount of action to keep things exciting and feel like there’s content. The characters again are adequate. It’s not like this is a heavy drama or anything ,but they at least for the most part fell thought out, maybe not as developed as they can be. They are likable, well, the ones you’re suppose to like anyways. Now when it comes to technical side of thing, I have conflicting issues. One thing that I’ve always noticed is that some of the cuts, shots, beats and dialogue are done differently than what you might expect. I look at this as a good thing because it sets the movie apart from other and helps make the thing fell a little more believable (at certain times). But one the other hand this could come off a little awkward and maybe even amateurish on the filmmakers half. But I don’t think this is much of an issue since most people don’t even seem to pick up on this sort of thing, so it all must be working.

Before I wrap this up, there is one thing that I want to disgust that has sparked a kind of “who shot first” controversy. I’m of course talking about the infamous spontaneously changing ground level within the Tyrannosaur padlock. From the very first moment that the padlock is seen on the tour up till when the Rex tares down the fence and steps out onto the main road, the ground within the padlock is at the same level of the road. However, later on when the Rex pushes the explorer into the padlock and into a tree, the ground level has dropped about fifty feet or so from the main road level. Now I’ve heard many people say many different territories about this, the most common one being that in the midst of the confusion for the Rex attack, the car is actually pushed over a cliff on the other side of the road from where the padlock was. But is you really watch carefully, this is obviously not the case. (The best theory I’ve heard on this issue can be found here at this LINK.) The fact of the matter is, if you watch any of the early animatics or look at the story boards or hell even read the script, the Rex is supposed to have dragged the explorer several feet from its original location after it is flipped upside-down. So when the Rex knocks the car into the padlock and into the tree, it’s not in the same location where the Rex exited or where the ground is level with the road. Like I said this was in the script, it was in the storyboards, and it made it as far are being in the animatics, so why it was never actually made it into the finished film is beyond me.

Now I bring up this issue to make a point. I realize that when you watch the film, you’re so wrapped up into the action that you actually don’t notice this detail of the ground level changing. But the fact remains that when you look about at it there is a huge error and it should have been addressed better in the final film. There are still hints of the explanation, but that since there is still confusion, it’s obvious these hints are not enough. What I’m trying to say is its factors like these that can make the film seem rushed. Like they were trying to get through production as soon as possible, which is kind of ironic because the dinosaurs where clearly not rushed. Spielberg did of course have another movie being released that year (Schindler's List) so it’s possible some elements of production where rushed or got overlooked due to be distracted with juggling two movies.

In conclusion, this is not a perfect movie, far from it in fact. It’s defiantly not the same as I view when I was younger. I can now see the imperfections and I’m willing to call it out on that. Yet the movie has held up well, other than the computers, the films not all that dated and the dinosaurs have helped it stand the test of time. It’s still enjoyable and entertaining and even when you watch it now you get this wave of excitement that reminds me of the first time that I saw it. So in that regards it works and frankly that’s what matters most.

Why does the direction of this clip keep getting flip backward?

Introduction

Okay, so I started up this blog about three months ago and I have yet to publish a single post on it. Basically I’ve been distracted and haven’t been motivated to get this off the ground. Well, that’s about to change. Hopefully I’ll be able to frequent posts now that I have thing figured out now.

So this is how this is going to work:

The whole gimmick to this blog is to do movie reviews from a film student’s perspective. Now I will be doing new releases in theater as I see them as well as reviews of some of my favorite (and not so favorite) older movies which I will call “The Archives.” I will also come up with other categories and types of reviews as time goes on. But now this is what we’re going to start off with.

Check back soon with the first new release review and Archive.