Transformers
Now I'll admit up front that I have a bias towards this movie. I loved Transformers as a kid, and seeing it rendered live action on the big screen is something I've always wondered about. Though that could really cut either way, given the expectations I have for this movie. But I've spent the last couple months getting ready to hate this movie. I knew they were changing some of the characters around, and the plot wasn't really going to be recognizable as anything I've seen, it was going to be Transformers started from scratch. So I was ready for them to steal everything I loved and make a bad movie with it. But I was pleasantly surprised, and I was wrong.
The movie centers around the human characters, in this case Sam Witwicky, who is an amalgam of a few different real human characters from the comics and cartoons. He gets his first car, who ends up being Bumblebee, and it turns out that his grandfather discovered Megatron buried in some ice a hundred years ago, and now all the Autobots are protecting him while the Decepticons search for him so they can find a giant life giving cube that America has locked away some where. So like I said, it wasn't what I expected. But the action was beautiful. Seriously if they don't win an Oscar for visual effects I will have no faith in that establishment anymore, which will destroy the TINY amount of faith I have left. The movie was fun! It took all the boyhood excitement I had for this franchise and ran with it. The dialogue for most of the characters was spot on, even the little bit of sniping between Megatron and Starscream. I won't go on ad naseum about how great this was because I don't want to ruin it, but I'll give this my highest recommendation that you go see it soon.
That said, it wasn't without a couple problems. The Transformers themselves needed a lot more dialogue. They have a complex past, and the conflict between the different groups needed to be explored a lot more than just some good vs. evil mantra. The hokey dialogue from Optimus was exactly his character, I loved it, and if anything I wanted more of that and less of him and his cohorts stomping around the yard smashing up land gnomes. There was a lot of extraneous, goofy stuff in this movie having to do with the humans that should have been cut to give more screen time to the Transformers themselves. I know it would have been more expensive, but they should have done it, to make the movie right. It's something I can forgive for this movie, but for the sequels that have already been greenlit I will expect more exposition and less doughnut eating throwaway characters, and less goofy super secret government agents.
Die Hard
Now Die Hard followed almost the exact plot formula as the previous three movies. There's a complex plot that is never what it appears to be on the surface, but is instead layers within layers within layers that John McClane always somehow gets himself caught up in. But anyone who has ever seen and loved a Die Hard movie knows that you see it for only a couple reasons, and those are stunning action scenes, shootouts, and McClane's racy comedy. You don't go see it for believability, you don't see it for a masterful plot. It was funny, especially with the addition of Justin Long as his sidekick, even if I do miss Carl and Sam Jackson. Long was funny, though he needs to learn how to grow facial hair. The action was intense, non-stop, and eye popping. Yes, it edged on the side of ridiculous when he was driving a semi up a ramp that had just been destroyed by an F-35, then jumped onto the F-35, which was then damaged and crashed, and then jumped off the F-35 and slid down the ramp that was just destroyed as a fireball rushes after him, and then dusts himself off, runs across the street, and saves his daughter. But those are what Die Hard is all about, outlandish, outrageous, unapologetic awesomeness. If you want to talk yourself out of having a good time, then analyze this movie to death. If you want to enjoy it, and you liked the first three, put yourself in that same frame of mind and enjoy the ride.
If anything I thought this movie lacked the swearing the first three had. Usually I'm never one to say a movie needs MORE swearing, but it seemed really out of character for John to be swearing so little when it was clearly his favorite set of words in the first three movies. PG-13 be damned.
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I won't have a ton more reviews, but you can expect a review of both the next Harry Potter movie and Deathly Hallows when it comes out later this month. And when I finish it, a review of Al Gore's new book will also be reviewed.
