This weekend was good times. Saw Transformers. Go see it. If you don’t like it, there’s something very very wrong with you. Check your brain for worms.
Erica had picked me up tickets to see the American Le Mans Series at Limerock in CT. Apparently the crowd was among their record largest. I can’t say I’m surprised, it was packed. The race was good times. It’s always cool to see something other than NASCAR in America. The Audi TDI cars were eerily quiet, almost like a normal car going by on the highway. The Corvettes were so loud they literally made my pants shake. Not even kidding. While the race was going on we walked around the circuit. Erica took some sweet pics:
Clicky
Please don’t hotlink these, or it will hurt my server’s soul.
We were in position to see one of the spectacles of the race. One of the Audis crashed coming around the last turn (see pix). It took them what seemed like forever to clean the car up. They must have done 7 laps or so under the caution flag.
Sunday was good times too. We were at an auto-x most of the day, and there was actually shade for once. After watching all the racing this weekend it makes me wish I still had a beater to play with. But until I have a garage to maintain such a thing, I won’t miss having one all that much.
Also, go see Transformers.
We’re thinking of transformers this weekend…either that or 1408.
I really thought Transformers was just ok. Maybe a B. Pretty good…but so uneven, so strangely lacking in very basic areas when so incredibly strong in other areas…that I found it distracting. For a lot of reasons…and none of them really “fan-boy”. The first half or so was really great. The second half, not so much…starting just a bit after Optimus shows up. WTF!
from hiding in the backyard scenes that went on far too long, to Autobots that didn’t seem to DO anything, to Bumblebee pissing on the Feds, to the horribly flat and awkward section 7 feds, to the almost instantly forgettable battles of most of the last 50 minutes, the lame climax, etc.
the section 7 stuff was there to tie things together since the movie can’t depend on your previous knowledge of the cartoon. The movie was cast for green audiences above and beyond. That’s why, imo at least, it was awkward at times. In order for them to incorporate everything and give all the autobots character development and whatnot, they would have had a 5 hour movie. The hiding in the backyard scene was just supposed to show how awkward and un-acclimated the bots were. There was only so much time they had to assign them personality traits. And honestly I didn’t mind seeing a bunch of sensational fight scenes with my childhood robo-heroes kicking butt. It’s not as if they could have taken the time to have them develop tactics and strategize and whatnot. I hear a lot of people complaining about it in the same sorts of ways, and it seems everyone went into the theater expecting a mini-series. it was long at ~2.5h. There just wasn’t a whole lot more they could have done with it. I went in expecting a bunch of special effects and cool fight scenes. I got a lot more than that. cool beans.
Compared to the first hour, the second hour was awkward, clunky, and generally all over the place. The scorpion battle, the Air Force 1 scene, and the brief moments of clarity – Prime stabbing Devastator, Starscream crushing the fighter jets, the car chase…those were good fight scenes.
Too much of the rest was pointless. The pace was fine. But too many of the fights were not. Lots of moving parts and money tossed into a scene that just didn’t work all that well.
And don’t say they couldn’t have cut down a lot of scenes. The scientists chick and silly fat guy stuff was utterly pointless – there was enough characters and humor with the (well done) Bumblebee thread. I’d have cut out that entire character line….and stuck with the soldiers and LeBeouf/Fox. The feds/frozen Megatron thing was fine. What we didn’t need was the wasted time with the feds arresting the lead, getting pissed on, etc.
and for personality, why was the backyard flower crushing scene *the* personality setting scene for the movie? I’d have much preferred the ‘bots to be less bumbling and more going on with Ironhide’s cannons.
I’m sure there was a lot of disagreement internally about what to show where and when, but as a whole I’m pleased with the movie. it could have been a LOT worse. I guess I tend to just tune out sub-par characters and a lot of nitpick-worthy material/mechanisms sometimes because I’m so used to having to do it. I don’t look to movies as a source of intellectual stimulation on the whole, and that’s a habit more learned over time than chosen. Sure there are gems out there, but they’re few and far between. They’re typically not action flicks, and pretty much never the movies slated as “summer blockbusters”
I do agree that there were some superfluous scenes. But I guess it all boils down to chopping up/down what’s available and catering to the audience. If it was written for all transformers fans, it would have been a lot different. but it was written for the moviegoing audience. And people like you and I will forever be tangential to that faction. I go to the theater with that in mind and put on my moviegoing filters, tend to be less disappointed in what I see.
The reason I mention that backyard scene the way I do is that it’s right after those characters were introduced, and there was a lot of dialog and behavior involved. I’m not saying agree with the way they were portrayed. I’m saying that was the mechanism I think they were using to get the flavor of the characters across, and that’s why it was as long as it was for win or loss.
Don’t worry, I’ll check him for the worms