Transformers 2 negatives

There has been a lot of controversy over last summer's blockbuster "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". Some have called a fun popcorn movie while others have called it a piece of garbage. While I did not hate the film, I found it could have been much better. The main problem is that the story and writing is pretty weak which is a big problem for a movie that is two hours and twenty minutes long. There are lots of spots where it is difficult to figure out just what is going on. Some might say that a good plot is not the reason people attend a movie like this and you should just turn your brain off. Well I don't believe one should have to turn off their brain in order to enjoy a movie.

There are also other areas that could have been improved. The film has been praised for it special effects and graphics. This may be true as the giant robots look very realistic, but director Michael Bay messes up the action sequences by filming the camera way too close to the robots and adopting the shakey cam technique. This makes it not only difficut to tell who is winning the fight, but its also hard tell who's fighting who. The film is also filled with plot holes. At one point, a human turns out to be an enemy robot in disguise, which makes no sense as the whole premise is supposed to be about cars that turn into giant robots, not humans. Another reason this film did not meet my expectations is because the humor often falls flat. Some of the writing seemed geered more towards children than adults.

In addition, the sidekicks in this film, Leo and two robots called Mudflap and Skids, were supposed to provide comic relief, but instead came off as more annoying than funny. One of the few bright spots were Shia Labeuf and Megan Fox who provided some funny lines and were atleast interesting, unlike a lot of other characters on the screen. Despite this, the film still managed to become one of the highest grossing movie of the year, and was liked by audiences. Everyone has their own opinion, but I believe people will delude themselves into liking a movie as long as it has eye candy like cool robots or Megan Fox. All in all, I found this movie to be a letdown as it was ok, but could have used a better story and script.

Alex Daniels

Transformers II

Transformers II was an action packed film full of graphics and hot chicks. Megan Fox plays the role of a tough yet unbelievably beautiful girl. She can be held responsible for the movie’s popularity. What is better than an action packed movie with attractive girls, machine aliens from another planet and the ever romantic twist of Sam and Megan Fox’ character’s?

Critics are unanimous in the opinion that movie was a waste of a $200 million budget and of two and a half hours of our lives. Top critic John Anderson, of the Washington Post declares “What's wrong here is that there's so much swirling, relentless action, indistinct robot characterizations and over-caffeinated techies loose on the special-effects machines that the movie, in mere seconds, achieves incoherence.” ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ was not only painful to noteworthy critics but was just as awful to those of us who aren’t professional critics. Rossiter Drake of the San Francisco Examiner says, “Loud, long and utterly incomprehensible, 'Revenge of the Fallen' is an exquisitely painful experience that pummels the senses as it confounds the intellect.”

Though critics agree that the movie is a waste of time, it still grossed an enormous amount of money and is still rented regularly from both Netflix and Blockbuster.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Positives

On July 3, 2007, film director Michael Bay brought an extremely successful American toy series out of its paper comic pages and cartoon roots and turned it into a live-action film that created quite a stir in the movie community, as well as the fans of the series. This series is Transformers, well known among the youth of today, but hidden behind relatively newer shows. Transformers was released to a box office success and while it got a rise out of the audiences, it didn’t manage to garner any extremely high-end praise. It did manage to break a few records in America, but those were shattered again right away. What did the shattering of those records? It’s bigger, louder, and more expensive sequel.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was released to theaters on June 24, 2009 and quickly began to rake in the cash. Despite the massive cash influx at the box office, the outflow of reviews quickly turned sour. However, there is so much focus on the negative aspects of the film, not many people remember that there were some praises given as well. While most well known critics tended to lambaste the film, such as Roger Ebert and The Washington Post, audience reception right out of the theaters was more positive. CinemaScore, a market research firm located in Las Vegas, surveyed audiences as they left theaters to see how the people would rate Revenge of the Fallen on an A+ to F scale. It turned out that the average came out to a B+.

So what were some of the positives about the film? Well for one, it definitely reached its target audience. A summer flick with giant metal robots beating the living daylights out of each other, explosions galore, and near continuous, non-stop action? What ten-year old, hyperactive kid couldn’t resist this film? Because of that, parents were the ones to pay and go with their kids, so the film made its money. Another positive was the little spits of humor thrown into the middle of this action packed war movie. Some of the more memorable examples include Sam’s flustered bickering with Mikaela while they’re being hunted down by the Deceptions, one of the soldiers sly/cruel method of getting rid of an obnoxious and disrespecting politician, and Optimus’ ominous speech to another politician about the Autobots continual presence on Earth. A third positive aspect could be the visuals, but they have been highly praised by some and heavily criticized by others. Most of the criticism comes from one too many explosions. However, the more detailed shots of the Transformers themselves were positively received, such as closer viewings of mechanical heads, joints, and weaponry, if one is into that kind of thing. The voice acting for the robots was also receive with little criticism and the wide range of Transformers in the film gave a more hearty range and variety for toy manufacturers to work with, undoubtedly making the movie a potential cash pot for them, despite what the critics said.

While critics have already put Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen into the ground with their printed reviews that will last for years, at least there are people who will remember the movie as one that they liked, unbiased by what other people say. Though this is just one side of a coin, unfortunately where there is good, there must also be bad.

Till next time,

Richard Jicha

Essentially Avatar has had opposing reviews among the public and the top critics. Critics writing for the Washington Post and New York Magazine agree that the movie was magical. R.J. Jones, of the Chicago Reader uses symbolism to old time movies to get his excitement across, “Watching it, I began to understand how people in 1933 must have felt when they saw King Kong.” Claudia Puig, of USA Today says “For all the grandeur and technical virtuosity of the mythical 3-D universe Cameron labored for years to perfect, his characters are one-dimensional, rarely saying anything unexpected. But for much of the movie, that hardly matters.” Generally speaking top critic reviews are in sync with this review. Top critics seem to use large words to convey the simplest of sentences. Is it really that difficult to write that the movie lacks originality and is whole heartily boring? The movie was just too long, and after 3 hours without an intermission, it was difficult to enjoy the 3-D graphics towards the end, due to the pounding headache and blurred vision I was getting from the awful 3-D glasses. General public critic, Philip Martin, finds the movie to be a complete waste of time and explains it in plain English, “...a big, dumb movie built to make money but hardly worthy of serious examination. Avatar isn't only critic-proof, it resists serious criticism. You might as well analyze a beach ball.” I want to read commentary that is short and to the point. Philip French puts it perfectly, “Avatar is overlong, dramatically two-dimensional, smug and simplistic.” I couldn’t explain it any better. This movie is widely viewed as great graphics, with an ordinary plot. If you want the straight forward every day sort of reaction to a movie, go to the public. If you want overly thought out, and somewhat exhausting (to read) explanation, read the daily news and their wordy commentary.

Written by Sarah Tucci

The first movie we will be reviewing is James Cameron’s "Avatar." It is the most recent blockbuster that came out, and has caused quite a buzz in the movie community. While most fans have praised it for its state of the art special effects, it has been rightfully said that its story is predictable and clichéd. The story follows James Sully, as disabled former Marine who becomes involved in the Avatar program. As he ventures into a new world called Pandora, he encounters the planet’s native people, the Na’vi and learns the ways of their culture. During his time with the tribe, he falls in love with Neytiri, the daughter of the Na’vi clan’s chief. Due to his feelings for Neytiri and her people, he rebels against his own kind, resulting in a climactic war between humans and Na’vi. It is because of this simple "fish-out-of water" story that there have been many comparisons to movies like "Dances With Wolves" and "Pochahontas". Some critics have called the movie overrated because its script is not very clever or witty. There is very little humor and almost no catchy lines. The actors give adequate performances, but they don’t seem to make very memorable characters. In the end it is difficult to even remember everyone's names in the film. Despite this, the movie still surpassed Titanic to become the highest grossing film to date. This is mainly due to its stunning graphics and visuals as well as the huge number of imax and 3d theaters with higher ticket prices. To be fair, it is well worth it to pay the extra cash as it is a much better experience watching the film in imax. Overall, Avatar's story and writing flaws keep the film from being a truly terrific movie going experience, but it is still a worthwhile film to see.

Avatar's Story

James Cameron’s “Avatar” has been creating a noticeable ripple throughout the movie community and will most likely shape the future format for the oncoming wave of 3D films in the near future. It has been extremely well received in terms of box office numbers and by the general public alike. Audiences have felt enraptured by the visuals and the special effects, conceptions that have only been heightened by the advancements in 3D technology. Everything in Avatar, visually, seems to reflect the feeling of new, especially when the story moves out into the jungles of Pandora. The way the settings draw the audience into the film, attention to nearly every detail has been due to a virtual camera system that Cameron used throughout the filming. This new system is one of the reasons that Avatar was so successful in the visual department.
However, pulling away from all the glamour, if one examines the story of the film, the backbone that is supposed to be holding the entire production together, they might be disappointed. Why is this? Here’s a slight rundown: New setting, new creatures, and new technology…same story. To be fair, it’s very difficult to create something completely original in today’s world. Nearly everything has already been done before in some aspect, in some shape or another.
The story of Avatar is one that many moviegoers will probably be familiar with. Human outsider encounters native group of people and falls in love with a member. Due to the developing connections, the outsider abandons his or her human roots and turns his/her back on his/her fellow humans to follow the one he/she loves. This type of story has been around for ages, so it’s kind of surprising that it hasn’t become an instant turn off for many audiences. This might be due solely to the visuals of the film, but it also could be that this theme is just a timeless classic that never gets old. Whatever the reason, the story of Avatar has been the recipient of a more mixed bag of critiques than the other aspects of the film, visuals and graphics.
The story of Avatar also gets into the hearts of the people watching it. Personally, when I finished viewing the film, I thought that it did an excellent job of making me hate the human race. The humans in the film are portrayed with such drive to gain material resources that they seem almost evil due to their actions. Viewers would have to be quite stone-hearted if they left this movie without having at least some conflicting thoughts developing in their minds from the film. The fact that this story gets the viewer to think about some current events gives it a more meaningful existence. It isn’t just an action story for special effects; it does a good job at tugging at the morals of audiences and probably spurred some interesting discussions between families during their ride home after the film.
All in all, Avatar is a film that could be taken in two ways. One, it could be a start into thoughtful discussions about any number of different topics. Some of these could be based on religion, politics, or even environmental issues. There are a lot of themes branching off this movie that can be explored. On the other hand, viewers could just agree that it was a good film that kept them entertained for several hours because of the action and special effects. Either way, the fact remains that Avatar has made a mark in history and its story has been an essential aspect of its position.

Till next time,
Richard Jicha

Introduction

Greetings, this is Blog Project 09, which will be written by Alex Daniels, Richard Jicha, and Sarah Tucci.

The purpose of this blog will be to discuss and analyze several prominent films over the past few years. Some examples we will provide include Avatar, the Transformers series, one or two of the Marvel films, and possibly the Harry Potter series. Throughout the course of these reviews, we will be discussing several aspects of the films, such as characters, settings, and the story itself. Moreover, we will be focusing on what critics and the public wrote in their responses to the movies. During our time on the blog, we will try to delve into what made the films a success or a failure with their audiences. By doing so, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of how to write in a manner that will be positively accepted by today's standards.

Till next time,
Alex Daniels, Richard Jicha, Sarah Tucci