Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen goes into that category of films that I go to see with zero expectations.  I’ve found that it just makes for a (slightly) better experience.  Watchmen was another recent addition to that category.

To set things straight, I disliked the first film.  A lot. Why would I go see the sequel even though I didn’t like the first? Because, I enjoy seeing action films such as this (crappy or not) on the big screen. Even though I can’t stand Michael Bay films, I’ll confess they are usually worth checking out (at least once) on the big screen.

I won’t waste time with fan-boy nitpicking about how this movie and the first were nothing like the show–because that isn’t the point with these films. When you’re taking a 25+ year old children’s cartoon show designed to sell toys and trying to adapt it to a mass audience film, some stuff just ain’t gonna work. Even more so when you take it from a cartoon to live action.

However, I died a little on the inside when Optimus Prime said “My bad” in the first film.

Thankfully, this film actually featured the Transformers for more than what felt like twenty minutes in the first.  My feelings about the first film are brilliantly summed up in this comic.

But, I’m still not a fan of the character design for the Transformers. Not that ILM didn’t do a great job with the animation, I just don’t like the busy/cluttered design of the robots.  I had heard that ILM’s idea was to make it look as if all the parts from the vehicles fit into their robot bodies, but I don’t like it.  I also have a hard time telling who is who–especially with the Decepticons (Megatron and Starscream are nearly identical).

I also don’t like the ‘human focus’ of the films. But, I did like the idea of humans and Autobots teaming up to hunt Decepticons, that was pretty neat (and made for a pseudo G.I. Joe/Transformers cross-over element).

I could have done with WAY less of the human stuff, it just dragged things out.  But some of the new characters were fun (Jetfire), and some where down right horrible (the Twins). I don’t need to go into details about how bad the Twins were, just read this write up on the whole thing on /Film.

One of the saving graces of this film was John Turturro, who is one of my fav actors—which was the case for the first film.  He’s so great. The other saving points were the inclusion of Soundwave and Ravage–two of my favorites from the show and voiced once again by Frank Welker. Lastly, Starscream (another favorite) finally became interesting and had some great back and forth moments with Megatron, which was a fixture of the original show.

This film defines brainless action–which, hey I have nothing against in general (Commando is one of my favorite movies), but I’m just not a fan of Michael Bay’s directing style, or the focus on the very boring human characters.

And the character of the Fallen, while cool in concept (I enjoy Transformer history as much as the next geek) didn’t really come across as that interesting.

So if you enjoy brainless action, and for some reason enjoyed the first Transformers, check this out…but maybe for a matinee.

Mirrored from Daniel J. Hogan. If something doesn't look right or show up, view the original blog post. Feel free to comment here or on the original post

Review for the film Up (no spoilers).

Pixar has done it again.  I am amazed by the consistent quality of animated films that Pixar cranks out. Even Cars, perhaps their weakest film, was considerably better than I thought it was going to be and not unwatchable (they won extra bonus points for having the guys from Car Talk do voice-over work).

Up is the next installment of that fine tradition.  I didn’t think it was possible to top last summer’s WALL-E, but they did. And I loved WALL-E.

Up goes beyond being just a wacky adventure film.  It touches on life, death and what we make of each.  And it shows what happens when one forgets to follow their dreams (the case of Ellie) and when one becomes so obsessed with their dreams, that they lose their mind (the case of film’s villain).

I paid extra to see the film in 3D and honestly, I don’t think is worth it.  Sure, it looked great, but there weren’t that many times where I realized I was watching something in 3D. Coraline still holds the title of best 3D film that I’ve seen thus far.

This is easily Pixar’s most serious–and in some parts, darkest–film to date.  We see characters bleed, which unless I’m forgetting something (maybe Incredibles?), is a first.  The montage that covers Ellie and Carl’s life together towards the beginning of the film is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking.  Watching the characters age before your eyes is great.

As serious as Up is, it is also very funny.  The mismatched characters of elderly Carl and the young, energetic Russell make it an endearing buddy film. Add to that mix a few goof ball animal characters (namely, Dug the dog) and you have another classic film from Pixar.

Mirrored from Daniel J. Hogan. If something doesn't look right or show up, view the original blog post.

Review for the film DRAG ME TO HELL (no spoilers)

I don’t throw the term “instant classic” around to often, at least not since that epic sailing film, but I think it applies to Drag Me to Hell.

The film is Sam Raimi’s return to the horror genre after spending the better part of a decade making the first three Spider-Man films. Raimi cut his directing teeth on this genre twenty-plus years ago with his classic horror films, Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn. Drag Me to Hell is worthy of their company.

What I liked most about the film is just how creepy and scary it was.  I’m not usually a fan of the more common place ‘gore’ horror films, like the Saw series, so when a film like DMTH comes along that focuses more on suspense and thrills, I really excited (NOTE: yes, I realize the Evil Dead films have their fair share of gore…but they don’t compare to stuff like the Saw series…and the Evil Dead films–especially the second one–use it in a more comedic manner).

The plot is simple, but works great: a young woman (Alison Lohman) angers an old gypsy woman (Lorna Raver, who is amazing in her role) and has a curse put upon her. After a few days of torment, a demon will appear to–you guessed it–drag her to hell. Lohman spends the rest of the film being tormented by her choice to no help the old woman (and the demon) and does everything she can to be rid of the curse–including some things that even surprised me.

The tension and suspense in the film are top notch–and makes me wonder what a full Venom-based Spider-Man film would have been like if Raimi had the chance to do it that way (I hated that Venom was a last minute thing thrown into the last act of Spider-Man 3, but I had heard Raimi was under pressure to do so).  The way Raimi uses music, sound and editing are great. He follows the less-is-more-rule, and teases you the whole way or lures you into a spot of quiet and then BAM! Loud shriek and a flash frame of a scary face.

Sure, there are some gross parts but nothing involving graphic violence and it just adds to the layers of creepiness. Raimi’s usual sense of odd-ball humor runs rampant throughout the film as well, especially the way he abuses Lohman on a regular basis (she and Bruce Campbell will have plenty of war stories to swap).

You can kind of see the ending coming, but that really isn’t the point–and Raimi keeps throwing so many curve balls that while you may know what is going to happen, you don’t know exactly how it’ll happen and you’ll second guess yourself right until the end.

Drag Me to Hell is a great example of a classic horror film. It is worth seeing in the theater to get the whole scary effect. And it has (at least for me) a lasting effect. As my friend who I saw this with put it “it is a great cautionary tale about how we all have to stick together in this Recession Economy.” (Lohman gets cursed after refusing the gypsy an extension on her mortgage payment, thus taking her house away and throwing her out on the street).

Mirrored from Daniel J. Hogan.

My review of Terminator Salvation, click to the cut to read (spoilers).

( click to read )

Saw WATCHMEN in IMAX last night with a group of friends, nine of us total and about half the group has read the graphic novel before (including myself, I usually re-read it once a year). I'll say that that film was much better than I had anticipated, but to be fair I had very, very low expectations. I've learned over the years that when it comes to comic book films, not to get one's hopes up.

I do agree with Alan Moore (WATCHMEN's co-creator and writer) that you really can't do a film version of this comic, because it is so layered. I don't think anything less than like a six hour movie or long mini-series would work. However, I was impressed with what they did keep in the film and how they abbreviated what they left out (or at least hinted to). This film was definitely made for fans of the original comics, which was nice. Those in our group who had not read the comics, while enjoying the film, were very confused about a lot of it. Usually I recommend seeing the movie and then reading the original source material, but in WATCHMEN's case, I would read the comics first because there is so much going on.

I was thankful they did not try to make this film appeal to a general audience, as I think that would have required the filmmakers to totally redo the story. The problem with adapting WATCHMEN over BATMAN or SPIDER-MAN is that there is one set story that is being adapted (in this case, a 12 issue mini-series) instead of decades of different stories to pick and choose from to make something that appeals to everyone ( like they did for X-MEN 2 and THE DARK KNIGHT for example).

Yes, there were story changes, most notably to the ending--but I'll be honest, while they irked me at first--the changes did make sense for the film. However, a few little things really annoyed me: such as the crime fighters referring to themselves as 'Watchmen' or that they used to be part of group called 'Watchmen'--this isn't really the case in the comics, although there is something similar. I get why they did it, you have to have that tie in with the title (perhaps for the same reason, according to legend, that the film ENEMY MINE actually has a mine in it, even though the MINE in the title was meant to just be possessive).

Also I need to make this clear: this is NOT a 'super-hero film' for children (like SPIDER-MAN). There was group of kids with their parents at the theater last night and during some of the more intense scenes I saw the parents sharing worried looks. Hey, it is rated R. What do you expect? And it is the same director as 300. C'mon.

I was unimpressed with most of the casting--with the only exceptions perhaps being Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian. Malin Akerman, while being kind of close in age to the Silk Specter II character, looked way too young for the part. The same goes for Matthew Goode as Veidt, and Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl II (although his acting for the part was pretty good, and I'll confess he did grow on me by the end of the film). Billy Crudup as Doc Manhattan was uninspiring, I get what they were going for with his mono-tone voice, etc but I just didn't like the sound of his voice and some of the lip-sync with the CGI Doc Manhattan didn't look that well put together.

A couple things I did enjoy were the production design and attention to detail within the WATCHMEN world, both were top notch. The costumes, with the exception of The Comedian and Rorschach, were kind of blah however. Some of the cinematography was fun, but a lot of it was way overdone (excessive slow-motion, etc). And they certainly amped up the action in some scenes (as well as the gore).

If you've read the comic, then I would certainly give WATCHMEN a viewing. It is a very faithful adaptation, perhaps even to a fault (that general audiences won't get it), but just remember that it isn't going to be exactly the same as the comic. If you haven't read the comic, I would do so before seeing this film. And those with younger children, please do not take them to see this film thinking it will be just like SPIDER-MAN and then complain about it to everyone afterward--this is a film meant for adults, not children.

I saw CORALINE in 3D last night with friends. 

Wow.  It was an amazing feat of stop-motion animation and the story was great too, right on par with ALICE IN WONDERLAND or WIZARD OF OZ.  I haven't read the original Neil Gaiman novella yet, but I plan to at some point.  When it comes to movies based on books, if I have any interest in the film I try seeing it before reading the book.  Reading the book first tends to make the film version more disappointing.

I don't know if this was in the original story or not, but there were a lot of shout outs  to Michigan--Coraline and her family are from Pontiac originally and her dad is always clad in a Michigan State sweatshirt.  Then there is her mom's favorite snow glob, which is of the fountain at the Detroit Zoo. Very cool.

The character design of the film was amazing.  Exaggerated features and expressions all around.  And I loved how the characters moved and how they had their own body language (something you rarely see in computer animation).  The 'sets' were equally breathtaking and I adored all of minute details.

The film did drag a bit here and there, but the plot kept things moving and all of the eye candy kept me interested.  It is very much worth the extra money to see this in 3D, although there were only a few moments where the 3D really got my attention beyond the depth of field stuff (part of me wonders if my having to wear regular glasses under the 3D glasses affects this at all).  I loved the creepy and spooky stuff of the story--it gives it so much more depth.  This film is hardly just a 'kids' movie.

I don't know if I liked more than Heny Selick's previous masterpiece, NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (which he directed, not Tim Burton), but CORALINE is at least on par with NIGHTMARE in my book. The music was great too, but the film is not a musical like NIGHTMARE (although some characters do sing). 

This is certainly a film worth seeing on the big screen--and in 3D (better hurry too, it is only in 3D for a limited time).