2011: The Year in Film: "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" Review

First, a couple of confessions. As I'm sure you've figured out by now, I'm a whore for spectacle. I'm a total sci-fi nerd and big-budget flicks are simply the only place where visual spectacle on the level of a "Star Wars" or "Star Trek" or "Avatar" is possible. To me, there's nothing wrong with escapist entertainment. Are big-budget action flicks going to revolutionize your worldview? No. But why do they have to? If you're really so dreadfully serious that you can't turn it off and enjoy a spectacle for what it is, I truly feel sorry for you. However, there are good spectacles and bad spectacles. Michael Bay has been responsible for plenty on both sides of that equation. Hardly any director is as divisive among movie fans as Mr. Bay. He's made flicks that stand up against any other action flicks of the past 15 years (Bad Boys, The Rock, Bad Boys 2, The Island, Transformers) while also making some complete shitballs (Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, Transformers 2). However, whether his movies are on the good side or the bad side of the spectacle equation.. they're going to be big, they're going to be loud, people are going to die, shit is going to blow up and you're going to be in for a ride. Whether that ride sucks or not depends on certain factors that apparently only Mr. Bay is privy to.

My second confession is that I love Transformers. Not the film franchise of recent years so much as the old school (known as Gen-1 in fan parlance) cartoons that aired along with GI Joe back in the days of my young childhood. Transformers were a big hit in the Brenner household. Not only because they are giant alien robots (which is, in and of itself, inherently awesome), but because they are heroic, man. Optimus Prime is one of the all-time stand-up dudes. He's like Ned Stark without the idiot streak. He's like Luke Skywalker without the self-doubt and whining. He's a true-blue hero and all around good guy. Sort of like Abe Lincoln plus Captain American plus Maximus. All-around stand up guy. You want Optimus to raise your kids and can leave him around your wife. This 3 minute youtube clip will show you what Optimus Prime was up to back in the 80's and why he's ingrained in my consciousness as a hero for this and every time: (and yes, the music only makes it more awesome) So yes, that's Optimus Prime mowing down half of the Decepticon roster and then taking out Megatron despite a litany of dirty tricks and tactics. Needless to say, once Mike Bay hired Peter Cullen to be the voice of Optimus Prime (you may recognize the voice in the cartoon..), he had me hooked. Some continuity of character and boom.. I'm on board, Mike Bay.

So, with me having confessed that I'm a sucker for spectacle and that I will forever have a soft spot for Transformers generally and Optimus Prime specifically (I had an Optimus Prime poster in my room from about 2003 onward..) enter my Transformers 3 review at your own peril. That being said, however, the Transformers movie franchise has been a troubled one. The first flick is a lot of fun.. and I feel it pretty perfectly captured the spirit of the Gen-1 cartoon that so enthralled the boy I was. At the heart of the Transformers story is a battle of good vs. evil, but it's more than that.. it's an alien civil war that humans have been thrust in the midst of and one heroic side takes the side of humankind even over themselves. There's something admirable and damn heroic about that. And hell, I can be a sappy bastard.. the friendship and even.. love? that is shared between the Autobots and their human friends is a big part of the appeal. So the first movie captured a lot of that feeling and spirit and that was a big part of the draw for me. Sure, there were battles and explosions, but at its heart, the movie was about the relationship between a regular dude and the group of 50 foot sentient alien robots he happened to run into. The second flick sort of lost sight of that heart, amongst other things, and lost its way in a web of bloated new characters, a convoluted plot, incomprehensible action sequences and childish "comedy" in the form of juvenile cracks about sex, balls, race and the like. I'd give the first Transformers a 7.5 or so and Transformers 2 a solid 5. No one's actually said that this is the last Transformers flick.. but it's been hinted as much.. and it certainly seems and feels like it is.. so last go-round Mr. Bay, let's see if the good or evil Mike Bay is going to come around this time.

The opening sequence is damn cool. Basically, it treats the space race of the 1960s as a race to discover alien (Transformer) tech on the moon (there was 21 minutes of radio silence on the first moon mission, after all). (Hence the "Dark of the Moon" of the title) Something long thought lost to the Transformers turns out to have been on earth's moon the whole time.. and this technology turns out to be the key to the entire eons-long war between the Decepticons and Autobots. A long-simmering plot by the Decepticons, lying in hiding after their defeat in the second film, brings the conflict to a head, here on earth, and full-fledged war erupts with humanity caught in the middle. Amongst this background, our erstwhile hero, Sam Wittwicky, tries to move on with his life, with a new girl, and trying to get a "regular" job, now that his friends, the Autobots, have moved on without him.

First, this is a much, much better film than the last go-round. The last flick felt like it was made by a 14 year old boy with a high CGI budget and no adult supervision. WAY too many stupid cracks and just needlessly silly scenes sabotaged the last film from the jump. Here, there are still silly cracks and John Turturro is still WAY over the top and cheesy, but it's been scaled way back to tolerable levels. I did see the flick in 3D (not by choice, although Bay did supposedly work with Cameron on the conversion), and while the 3D is very, very cool for the battle scenes (you're actually able to tell the robots apart, which was borderline impossible in the large battle at the close of Transformers 2) and several other scenes, on the whole.. it doesn't add a lot and it makes the flick needlessly dim, as 3D is want to do. So it's a mixed bag on the 3D. I will say this, it's well done and doesn't look cheap.. it just doesn't add THAT much to the flick as a whole. So the flick feels like grown-ups made it, which is a nice break.. and the "heart" that was largely missing from the last flick has returned, as Sam "shares" several nice scenes with Optimus and Bumblebee. He's given a decent amount of personal drama as well. But let's cut to the chase.. you're coming to a Transformers flick for the battles.. and let me tell you, this one does not disappoint. I literally felt exhausted leaving the theater. The last hour of the flick is one prolonged battle scene.. and it looks incredible. I know of nothing that approaches the level of epic-ness this one achieves other than Return of the King, the last Lord of the Rings flick. Granted, that was a much, much, much better flick all-around, but in terms of a prolonged epic battle? Yeah. That's the neighborhood we're in.

So on the whole, this is definitely a Transformers movie. It's big, it's loud, it's childish in parts.. but it's fun, it's intense without being overwhelming, and I, for one, am always a fan of good old-fashioned heroism. It's good guys vs. bad guys, with the fate of the world at stake.. and the action scenes are so damn well done. What can I say, like I said, I'm a sucker for spectacle.

7/10, a return to form for the Transformers franchise, and I for one am glad Optimus Prime gets to go out on top.. he deserves it. This flick will make $500 million.

2011: The Year in Film: "Green Lantern" Review

Green Lantern Over at DC Comics they have to be pulling out their hair in bunches. Marvel successfully self-financed several of their second-tier heroes to Blockbuster status, and seen Spider Man and the X-Men achieve serious success with other studios while DC has managed to only turn Batman and Superman into successful films, while Superman is currently languishing after a sub-par last effort. Warner Brothers owns the film rights to the DC collection, and with "Green Lantern", we see their first foray into the deeper parts of the catalog. With a rumored budget of $200 million (plus an additional $100 million with the summer's largest marketing campaign), and the Harry Potter franchise drawing to a close in a few weeks, Warner was desperate for a new tentpole franchise to be a summer staple and hopefully that Ryan Reynolds and the Green Lantern would provide just that. While time will ultimately tell how the flick performs and the stage is certainly set for a sequel, unfortunately, the flick just falls a little flat. But, on with the review.

Green Lantern is one of the trippier super heroes out there. He achieves his power, which basically is to create green energy manifestations out of anything he can imagine through sheer power of will, through a ring and a lantern that are imbued with the green power of will through the Guardians of the Universe on a distant planet called Oa. The universe is divided into 3600 sections, and earth, located in section 2814, has long been under the protection of a particularly powerful Green Lantern. When this lantern falls to a foe long thought dead, the ring seeks out a replacement.. someone said to be without fear. This happens to be Hal Jordan, the first human ever selected to be a Green Lantern, a brash and cocky test pilot whose life is apparently in shambles despite his baller apartment and line of hot chicks dying to fall into bed with him. Poor Hal. But alas, origin story ensues, with Hal rising to the occasion and fighting for the forces of good. He travels to Oa to receive his training and meet the other members of the Green Lantern Corps, where it is revealed that a grave threat to the safety of the Universe and Lantern Corps has returned. Like I said, pretty nonsensical, even for super heroes, but it's actually kind of cool in the way that whoever actually thought it up was particularly crazy. I respect that.




So this movie has been getting absolutely shredded by the critics. I'm not sure how much of that is fair, but some of it surely is. It feels rushed and thrown together in parts. Some parts are good, some even very good, but others fall flat and overall the flick comes off as very uneven and the last half hour is very, very rushed. Martin Campbell directs, (best known for Goldeneye AND Casino Royale) and he does a fine job. The primary problems here are with the script, as some parts simply do not work. Ryan Reynolds stars as Hal Jordan/the titular Green Lantern, and he's perfectly likable and charming, good even in spots. I'm surprised the flick didn't get more positive reviews simply because of how likable Reynolds is. Blake Lively stars as Carol Ferris, his love interest/co-worker/boss, and the flick is at its best when Lively and Reynolds are together. They clearly have chemistry, and she's downright good at being in movies, which is surprising to me because it seems odd that someone who was in "Gossip Girl" would actually be good at acting. Let me also state for the record that I've had a huge crush on her since "Accepted". Marc Strong is "Sinestro", the leader of the Lantern Corps.. and he's pretty darn good as well. But for me, the treat of the movie was Peter Saarsgard. He's been on my "main man" list for a while, and he absolutely crushes his part in this flick... and longtime acquaintance of Ferris and Hal who happens to be a scientist and come into contact with the evil power rising in the galaxy. Saarsgard is actually really good, and one of the shames of the flick is that he's just sort of allowed to lapse away in favor of bigger, badder bad guys. I rather enjoyed his little storyline. Tim Robbins plays a Senator/Peter's dad and seems criminally underused as well.

Therein lies the main problem. The flick is too concerned about jumping from place to place.. from Oa, to Earth, to various places Hal is going, to various government offices and stuff without much warning or very much explanation. Some parts work very well.. as I said, pretty much everything with Saarsgard is gold. Reynolds and Lively are good together and their scenes work. I like the stuff on Oa (I'm a sucker for a good training sequence and Strong has charisma). But.. there's just too much expository dialogue and cheesiness going on. In the post Dark Knight/X-Men 2/Iron Man universe, this feels more in line with a "Men in Black" or other clownish late 90's movie. The CGI (of which 75% of the movie consists of) at times looks great and other times looks like a PS3 game... that is to say, not so great.

So even though there's quite a bit to like about this movie and it is in no way "bad", I simply can't give it a ringing endorsement. The plot moves in spurts and there's just way, way, way too much cheese. For instance, Thor is similarly nonsensical.. but it never comes across as cheesy. Here, nothing resembles an actual reality.. and that takes away from the gravitas of the happenings.

I'm going to give it a 6/10.. even though Reynolds is very likable and the actors did basically everything they could. Sorry, Green Lantern, I just Can't give you a ringing endorsement.

2011: The Year in Film: "Super 8" review.

JJ Abrams is one of the hottest names in tv/movies today. Steven Spielberg is the all-time master of the popcorn flick.. whether you're talking Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones, Spielberg knows how to craft a classic crowd pleasing flick and good time at the movies. The famously secretive Abrams is fresh (somewhat) off of 2009's fantastic "Star Trek" reboot, and when I found out about this one.. I became more and more excited as details continued to slowly leak out. So needless to say, when I heard JJ Abrams + Spielberg + 80's retro + aliens/monsters + kids.. I immediately thought "AWE-SOME, where do I sign up?". Abrams is a sci-fi master, and Spielberg is directly responsible for creating or influencing small-scale movie aliens as we know them today.. match made in heaven? Possibly. When I found out Kyle Chandler, aka Coach Taylor, aka "the guy I wish was my dad even though I love my dad" for folks nationwide was going to be starring... my state of excitement began to resemble low-level arousal. This flick, along with Captain America, is my #1 most anticipated of my summer.. so when an opportunity came to catch it a couple of days early, I jumped at it.. even if that required sitting in the midst of all sorts of rabble, including a guy who was wearing tube socks on his arms. (If there's one thing crazy people love more than being crazy, it's free shit..) So with clear eyes and a full heart, here goes nothing..

In small town Ohio (the flick is set somewhere outside of Dayton) in 1979 (it's never explicitly stated, but they mention 3 Mile Island on the news), a young boy, Joe Lamb, has just lost his mother in an awful industrial accident. He lives alone with his father, Coach, er, the town Deputy. His group of friends are a plucky bunch, and spend their time helping their friend Charles with his Super 8 zombie movie. (something tells me this is how Spielberg and Abrams spent their summers) Joe does the sound and makeup, and is also pretty talented at making models. He's a pretty quiet kid.. generally dominated by his louder and more aggressive friends. After recruiting the prettiest girl in school (they are either in 7th or 8th grade - we see their last day at middle school), the group takes a fateful trip to an old train station outside of town (for "production value). While filming a scene, the gang witnesses a horrible train derailment, an event that would prove to be fateful for them all, and the town. I'll spare the spoilers.. but needless to say, the train has some connection with the US military, and the mysterious events befalling the town in its wake may be more nefarious than first appears. Amongst the investigation, cover-up and such, our gang of plucky kids attempts to finish their zombie movie.


First, this is an outstanding flick. The sense of childlike wonderment, a certain precocious innocence peculiar to that age and time period and adventure is pitch-perfect. The acting is outstanding.. the lead, Joel Courtney.. can seem a little overpowered by his friends at times, but I'm not sure if that's the script or the actor. Elle Fanning (Dakota's little sister) is simply outstanding as the pretty gal from across the tracks who surprisingly agrees to help out with the movie. A sense of mystery pervades the film's first 2/3rds, while the final act becomes your classic "kid mission". This flick captures perfectly the nostalgic spirit of the time period.. when everything was less cynical and not quite so dark. The kids share a completely believable bond, and come off as an authentic group of 13-14 year old kids. This flick is sort of ET meets Stand By Me meets a monster movie... but definitely more "ET" than say, "War of the Worlds". The action is an afterthought here.. it takes a backseat to the characters... which is how it should be, in my humble opinion. Chandler is great as the overwhelmed Deputy struggling with being a widower and single parent to his son that he doesn't really have much in common with. At times sweet, funny, moving, harrowing and exciting... this flick combines much of what is great about flicks. Don't go to have your worldview fundamentally challenged or altered.. go for some great directing, great acting, and a fun story with great characters. The film is at its best when the monster is in the background.. and I, as a child of the 80's, loved it. As a small caveat... the theater I saw this one in had the volume turned up to 1100000.. the action sequences were uncomfortably loud. So I am making my review under the assumption that this was a theater error and not something fundamental about the film. If the flick is in fact this loud for some mysterious reason, adjust my score a full point down.

Do yourself a favor and see this one, the best movie of the summer season so far. 8.5/10

2011: The Year in Film: "X-Men: First Class" Review

After the mutual disasters that were "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (which is approx. 19X better than XMen 3 but still a mediocre movie, at best), it was clear to lots of folks (well, at least me.. and hopefully everyone else who cares about these sort of things) that something needed to change with what Fox was up to with their X-Men franchise. After the departure of Bryan Singer (the director and mind behind the first X-Men flick and the superb X-Men 2), the franchise appeared to be floundering and in need of a serious overhaul. Enter Matthew Vaughn, producer pal of Guy Ritchie and the dude behind Kick-Ass, a time warp, the return of Bryan Singer and a couple of serious Hollywood up-and-comers and Fox is looking at a serious revamp a bloated and troubled franchise.

The film opens with looks at Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr (who would become Magneto) at age 12 in 1944, dealing with the initial manifestations of their powers in settings that could not be different. Xavier in a mansion in New York and Lehnsherr in a Nazi death camp. The action next skips ahead 18 years to 1962, where as adults, Xavier (James McAvoy), fresh upon receipt of his PhD from Oxford and Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), hunting down those responsible for his parents death, are two of the most powerful mutants on the planet. In the midst of the Cold War, the CIA are investigating a mysterious organization known as the "Hellfire Club", who have mysterious connections with those in power both in the US and in the Soviet Union. Upon discovering that mutants exist, the CIA turns to Charles Xavier, now a leading expert on mutation, for help in learning about and identifying this new threat. After happening across Lehnsherr, Xavier and his new friend get along fabulously, and set about recruiting other mutants for their new team. As the Cuban Missile Crisis looms, the new "X-Men" play an important role in averting nuclear holocaust amidst the growing tensions between the two leaders of the team.. Xavier who seeks peace and cooperation, and Lehnsherr who believes confrontation and war is inevitable.

This is a very, very strong film and a much-needed reboot of the X-Men franchise. McAvoy and Fassbender are truly fantastic. Without either one of them this film would have fallen flat on its face under the stuffy weight of its absurdity and pretension, but these two talented actors, through sincerity and a necessary levity, allow the film to rest on their capable shoulders so that the rest may fall into place. This is an absolute must given the sometimes whirlwind action of the plot, bouncing around the globe and introducing tons of new characters in a short period of time. The effects and direction are more than adequate.. but the strength of this film is the acting. Kevin Bacon is convincing and sufficiently smarmy as the villainous Sebastian Shaw, (soon to be Catniss Everdeen) Jennifer Lawrence brings a much-needed humanity to the Mystique role, and January Jones and Rose Byrne are both strong as the sex appeal on both sides. Oh, and there's the single greatest cameo and one-off use of the PG-13 F-bomb that I can recall.. that's all I'll say about it. Let me say that it is absolutely criminal how under-used Oliver Platt is in this flick. He is one of my secret favorites and never seems to get enough to do.



Michael Fassbender is going to be a star. Let's just get it out there and say it. I've dug him ever since Inglorious Basterds (he's the awesome English dude), and if you haven't seen "Centurion".. Netflix instant it RIGHT NOW. He absolutely crushes the Magneto role out of the park.. bringing the requisite pain, rage and nuance to an absolutely essential role. That's a large part of the appeal of the X-Men franchise.. the primary villain isn't just a dastardly prick that can be written off as evil incarnate.. he's a nuanced human with a depth of character and sympathetic view. He gives a star-making performance, truly. But this flick wouldn't be good if Magneto kills it and Professor X mails it in.. and another favorite of mine, James McAvoy ensures that doesn't happen. McAvoy and Fassbender clearly enjoy working together, and share a number of absolutely terrific scenes. I, for one, look forward to a number of prequel films in which they work together. This is a quality super-hero flick folks.. come for the acting and stay for a fun period flick with a solid mix of action and character. It feels a little crowded and frantic at times.. but with actors as good as McAvoy and Fassbender bringing the goods, I'm willing to overlook a lot.

8/10.