Friday 20 July 2007

Transformers: How awesome can one movie be!

A couple of days ago I watched the Michael Bay directed "Transformers" film on one of the multiplex movie theatres situated in Thessaloniki, Northern Greece. To cut the long story short I liked it, I liked it a lot, actually that doesnt do justice to how much I liked it, I loved it and I was thrilled after watching it! That is right, I was thrilled, how often can you say that about something I wonder. Being a fairly intelligent individual (albeit a ridiculously modest one, LOL) I can sense already the girls among my readers giggling and whispering "typical male behaviour", "men will always be boys" and all of those cliched expressions that women use when they can't comprehend why men like things like football (oh yeah bloody soccer in the US, lol), cars, action movies, videogames, comics or whatever. So let me cut through all those female misconceptions with my trusty Merc wit and let me start describing the guilty pleasure that was viewing "Transformers".


There are a lot of posters around the web but I liked this one better for some reason... you got to love those chinese letters (enough with the english language I say, heh)


I went to watch the movie in the company of two other guys (all of us "alpha male heterosexuals" I assure you, LOL) in the viewing starting at 9.30 pm. We bought our tickets, got a couple of drinks, sommersaulted to the ceiling and groped woman asses just before we enter the appropriate dark room where "Transformers" was screened (actually we didnt do the latter two tasks since it is a little known fact that I am a gentleman and I dont do things like groping asses, not unless I am overdosed on M and M's or other sweeteners like that, lol). As I entered the room , I saw that 90% of the audience was male (no surprises there then, lol) and I had this strange thought that all of a sudden there was this odd bond between all of us, regardless if I didnt know anyone in person. Most of us were in the age group 24-30, most of us in guy groups of 3-4, most of us anticipating this movie with some sort of probably misjudged but yet totally understandable excitement coming from the depths of our childhood. A childhood when Saturday morning meant watching the "Transformers" cartoon on TV, while in the evening a kid would play merrily with the transformers toys at his disposal, constantly transforming the robots to some sort of vehicle and vise versa, plotting fantasy storylines and surreal space sagas in the confines of his room. It was a time when imagination was still the way to have fun before all the "take away" fun that today's kids experience with videogames, without really using their imagination too much. Anyway, back to the movie thing....



Countless hours of fun for kids of my generation with these toys... Something tells me after the movie the madness will kick in again:)



There were a few girls in the audience, probably some unlucky girlfriends dragged along by childish boyfriends or some poor females that had "one too many" and thought that "Transformers" was a rom-com movie... All girls were wearing the tightest outfits known to man and in any other occassion they would have probably been the centre of attention with lusty male stares mentally undressing them. Still, this wasnt the night for sex male fantasies and clumsy flirting attempts... this was the night to watch the robots transforming and make THAT damn sound, in the process ,that was so ridiculously mesmerising back in the day of the cartoon. As time went by and we were getting closer to the beginning of the movie, I could see a strange air of anticipation building in the movie theatre. At that moment all guys in the audience merged into one collective conciousness requiring just one thing, to watch the bloody Transformers movie!




Here is a trailer to wet you appetite! Despite how it seems all serious and gloom there is a lot of humour in there... it is one of those cases where "appearences are indeed deceiving"...


The movie finally started and I felt a shiver down my spine (I know it is fricking ridiculous, after all I had mediocre expectations of the final product although I had heard really good word of mouth from people who actually watched it...). So the movie kicked in and as soon as I saw the first robot transforming I was in geek heaven I have to say... still that wouldn't be the sole reason why I loved this movie. Now comes the good part... if you strip down the movie to its bare essentials it is about transforming robots that fight eachother off while humans cower like ants and shoot their peashooters in vain. Hardly a concept to grab the audience by the balls then and make them have a hell of a time... After all I am not a Transformers fan in the hardcore sense, just a guy who used to like them when he was a kid... So what really worked then...





Ok, ok I am a guy... what did you expect, transformers in thongs... geez... there is no pleasing some people, LOL!




What made the movie really click and what would make the movie work even for girls I think, is that it doesnt take itself too seriously trying to emulate some sort of space odyssey opus or anything remotely like that. This movie is a comedy at heart! Yes you heard it right, it is a comedy and it is intentionally made this way! I am not talking about unintenional laughs and cheesy situations ( I mean the concept as it is cant get anymore cheesy let's face it, lol). Transformers among all the amazing special effects, the ridiculously cooly choreographed fights, Optimus Prime's noble voice and all that other typical fodder is funny, very funny! The reason it is funny, is because the humour comes from the situations rather than be forced just for the sake of it. Especially, the male human lead of the movie is outstanding at portraying a human being trapped inside all this transforming madness. This guy is very natural, very funny, he has some amazing lines and you just root for him. Really, I cant give the actor Shia LaBeouf enough credit for what he achieved in this movie. He managed not to get outshined by the bloody robots, it is an amazing achievement in this sort of popcorn movie. There is some female eye candy in the form of Megan Fox and Rachael Taylor and there is a US trooper (isnt there always...lol) that will probably appeal to ladies as well, lol. As for Michael Bay his direction is amazing, the best he has done by far and I'd like to wackily compliment him for doing what he does best even better: Relentlessly blow things up and create action pieces of immense originality and tension. Lastly, I 'd like to congragulate the writers of this movie for giving both the human and the robotic leads such well fleshed out personalities, even the robots have a sense of humour you see, heh.


Optimus Prime : Did you ever think we were going to get our own live action movie one day?
Megatron : Not in a million years, I guess Hollywood is really out of inspiration... Thanks fuck I am not transforming into a pistol anymore, that was like uber-lame:)
Optimus Prime: Less talk, more ass kicking please...
Megatron: Amen to that, I'll transform you into scrapyard junk in no time...
Optimus Prime: The script says otherwise... ha,ha,ha,ha


I know the guys among my readers dont need much convincing and they will watch it one way or another but I have this last comment for the female readers: DO NOT be intimidated by the subject matter and diss this movie as "standard male fodder". Among all the "silliness" of transforming robotic behemoths fighting it off there is a great comedy in there with normal characters at the core of it. It would be a shame to miss it... Maybe by the end of it all , you won't be as excited as I am because this franchise means nothing to you but I'll be damned if you dont smile and even laugh a lot during the overall playtime of this blockbuster. Seriously, if you dont see the funny side of it, I will have to work overtime on your humour glands with my future blog entries and try to reactivate them... I find it THAT unlikely not to laugh in this movie!

Oh guys, one last thing, the transforming effect totally owns, it is really something beyond cool how they visualized it on the silverscreen (plus THAT sound is still there, oh yeah!).

So, that is that then, I had a great time watching this movie and I hope the ones among you that haven't watched it already, give it a shot!

Till next time.... DP out!



15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hum... sorry, but the poster is Chinese, not Japanese !

I had to say it.

I was one of the few girl (or woman ? "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman... all I need is time..." - why am I quoting Britney ??? anyway...) who :

1) Played with Transformers
2) Went to see the movie on its first day

And I loved it !

Deadpoolite said...

Oh you just had to nitpick on my post now didnt ya... geez... everyone is a critic these days:)

Ok, I corrected my linguistic mishap little Ms Perfect (I always wanted to write that for some absurd reason, heh) so now you can feel content in the thought that you seriously improved my chinese fluency (not really but still it was a good effort, lol).

Glad to learn you enjoyed the movie as well, I loved it to bits myself!

Anonymous said...

Gotta admit that it was a great movie. I was always kept stunned on my seat in the cinema.

Even the no robots part like the 'HOT' part stun people. :)

someGirl said...

Hey there, thanks for visiting my little blog....About the movie...*gasp* I haven’t seen it!! *more gasps* I opted to have a night alone (kids went instead) and I must say I give THAT a big thumbs up!!

PS: I might be asking a completely mental question...but what is "Merc"?!?!?

Deadpoolite said...

Welcome to my wacky blog corner!

"Merc" is short for "Mercenary" as in soldier for hire. This refers to the Marvel Comics character Deadpool who is sort of an inspiration for this site. In the comics he is a hitman unlike any other really, cracking funny wisecracks right and left, he is quite a surreal creation (for more on him check my "Interview with Deadpool" past article which I think conveys really well what this character is about, I think it is pretty funny as well, lol). My avatar is actually a funny miniaturized version of this character.

Deadpool is referred in the comics as the "Merc with a mouth" because he talks a lot (A LOT, trust me, hahaha) thus I use that abbreviation myself sometimes:)

Again welcome to the blog and I hope you stick around, really like your blog by the way!

Shan said...

lol, indeed, Chinese poster!

Everyone has been totally saying it is really really good... I think this might be one of the few movies I have to go see... It's a total shame I have no hot girls to go see it with hahaha

P.S. I am a guy :P

Ocha said...

Hi, just blogwalking to see you post content. Really interesting content, i'll be back to see your next post friend.

Epoch [z] said...

I saw Transformers last night at midnight. normally I'd fall asleep. The movie was HELLA good. I'd like to say I'm not one of those girls you described. I'm just looking for a good action flick. This is probably the one of the best movies of ALL time. transformers is back and better than ever.


Epoch [z]

Epoch [z] said...

I saw Transformers last night at midnight. normally I'd fall asleep. The movie was HELLA good. I'd like to say I'm not one of those girls you described. I'm just looking for a good action flick. This is probably the one of the best movies of ALL time. transformers is back and better than ever.


Epoch [z]

Anonymous said...

Well, I had to pick on you. I mean, I studied Chinese for 12 years and ended up being a French teacher, so sometimes I have to show off my absolutely useless knowledge of Mandarin. Sorry it happened to be on your blog :D

I saw a really cool trailer before the Transformers movie. They didn't give out the title of the movie but it looked like some kind of War Of The World movie. Can't wait to know more about !

Any other good movies you saw lately ?

Deadpoolite said...

@shan

LOL! I dont have the faintest clue why I thought you were a girl ha,ha,ha,ha...

This is by far one of the funniest things that has happened to me during my blogging time:)

So what do I say... oopps sorry... not likely dude:) I guess I confused your gender with some other blogger's or I am just plain mad take your pick:)

@ocha

Hooray! Newbie on board! Welcome, let me wear my custom made DP underwear for these merry occassions (or maybe not,lol) and welcome you to this humble blogging corner of madness. Glad you enjoyed the content, gonna visit your blog the soonest possible, promise!

@zhu


Ok, you present a valid excuse for your insolence ("insolence" what is it, the middle ages? LOL) so your public whipping with a lollypop is postponed (damn...lol).

Well Die Hard 4.0 is always in the pipeline but haven't seen it yet. What is it with us guys and fake bravado with guns blazing I'll never understand,lol!

Going to get back to you on that one (recommending movies and all). Haven't seen many in the cinema lately to be honest, many more on DVD and such.

Deadpoolite said...

@ocha

Ok, this is going to take longer than expected, you got so many blogs. I'll have to gather my strenght and attempt attacking eeehhh reading some of them at least... Not with the current heat in Greece though:)

Could you help out and tell me which one of your blogs is the personal one? I am more interested in personal blogs to be honest.

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