Transformers: Age of Extinction

Expectations:
To describe my relationship with Transformers as a guilty pleasure would be quite an understatement. The film critic side of my brain knows that there is very little about the film series that could be considered even remotely noteworthy or mentionable, but the other side of my brain, which really loves watching cars turn into robots, really enjoys many things about these brainless films. For example, I love the humor that Shia LaBeouf, Kevin Dunn, and Julie White brought to the first three films. Also, I like to watch cars TURN INTO ROBOTS!!! In fact, I even loved Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon, which were both hated by a majority of critics. So... Let's get to Age of Extinction... With Shia LaBeouf and crew removed from the storyline, I was quite leery of how the human side of things would pan out in this fourth franchise installment. However, regardless of the success of the newly installed Mark Wahlberg (who I am not a huge fan of), I clung to the fact that cars would be turning into robots. I mean, how can you screw that up???

Plot:
While I didn't expect Mark Wahlberg's Cade Yeager to live up to LaBeouf's Sam Witwicky, I had hoped that I wouldn't hate him quite so much. Unfortunately, the lack of humor really sucked a lot of the life out of a film bordering 3 hours in length. As expected, when the film focused on the autobots, I was quite entertained, but I just didn't care about Yeager's financial struggles or his unexplained desire to shelter his daughter. The only human-based storyline that I did enjoy was that of Stanley Tucci's Joshua Joyce, although this film was quite unworthy of Tucci's excellence. However, Joyce's fascination with the technology of the transformers did feel appropriate and actually brought up a few questionable social issues that the real world will soon be facing, when it comes to techonological advances. Overall, the awesomeness of Optimus Prime kept me entertained, but, unlike the past three films, there were many moments where I wondered how much longer the film was going to be dragged out. If only the film had been solely about the government, technology companies, and alien robots (yeah, just three big things), it probably would have been a lot better (and at least an hour shorter).

Characters:
As I've now said 50 times, the humans were disappointing, and the robots were awesome! While Tucci's storyline actually fit into the film quite well, it still wasn't perfect, and there is no doubt that everything would have been better without Marky Mark and his family coming along for the ride. In fact there were multiple occasions where they were unnecessarily brought into scenes where robots were fighting or plotting, which ended up being really awkward. Additionally, the only truly comedic human in the entire film was T.J. Miller's Lucas. While Miller always cracks me up, his absence from the majority of the film was quite a disappointment to me.

Negatives:
Humans

Positives:
Alien Robots

Conclusion:
As my movie-watching habits and expectations have matured over the past few years, it's not hard to believe that my desire for Transformers-esque films has greatly decreased. At the same time, I have become much more appreciative of action flicks that can get it right, such as The Avengers, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Star Trek. Unfortunately, the Transformers franchise has not quite been able to keep up with my heightened expectations, and, as long as Mark Wahlberg is involved, I don't think that will change. Even so, I still love all things Transformers, and the film was not a complete bust. The cars still turned into robots, so... AWESOME! I'm hopeful that the franchise will improve with the inevitable fifth film, but, either way, I still have three awesome movies that I can watch over and over! I give Transformers: Age of Extinction 2.54 out of 5 stars.

Great Expectations: July 2014

 

Unfortunately, I have yet to watch Transformers: Age of Extinction, due to my being out of town this past week, but I did find this picture, which I knew I had to share with you guys. With the release of the summer's biggest film behind us, things at the theater will start to slow down in the month of July. Sadly, the Fourth of July week/weekend features very little worth mentioning, and I don't care for anything Planet of the Apes related, so I probably won't get to watch a July release until The Purge hits theaters mid-month. However, I am hopeful that a few smaller, limited-release films will make their way to Hattiesburg, this month. Who knows?... July may be better than expected...

 Boyhood

(July 11)

 

 

 

The Purge: Anarchy

(July 18)

 

 

 

Wish I Was Here

(July 18)

 

Closure: June 2014

After a May full of movie watching, I turned to Orange is the New Black to occupy most of my screen-time in the month of June. Not only did I watch all of season 2, but I also went back and watched season 1 all over again, because of its sheer awesomeness. If there is one thing that I could influence you to do this summer, it would be to get your butt over to Netflix and watch Orange is the New Black. I know... I'm supposed to be promoting movies, but the prison drama goes above and beyond what can be found in most TV shows today, which says a lot about its quality. Trust me... You WILL NOT be disappointed!

On a completely separate note, which probably should not be sharing a page with Orange is the New Black, I will be heading off to Doraville, Georgia, tomorrow, with the high school students from my church. Last year, I had the opportunity to accompany them on this yearly mission trip, and the experience was absolutely awesome. Please, be in prayer for the students and the other leaders, as we spread the good news of the gospel with the children of the Doraville area. Because I won't return until next week, it is safe to say that my movie-watching month has come to a close, hence the early release of this list. Below, you will find a list of all the films I watched in the month of June... Enjoy!

Movie Watched	Year	Format	Did I Enjoy?	Would I Watch Again?
The Fault in Our Stars	2014	Theater > Full Price	Yes	Yes
The Perks of Being a Wallflower	2012	DVD > Own	Yes	Yes
Bernie	2011	TV > Netflix	Yes	Yes
22 Jump Street	2014	Theater > Matinee	Yes	Yes
Transformers	2007	DVD > Own	Yes	Yes
Jersey Boys	2014	Theater > Matinee	Yes	Yes
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	2009	DVD > Own	Yes	Yes
Friends With Benefits	2011	DVD > Borrowed	Yes	Yes
O Brother Where Art Thou?	2000	DVD > Own	Yes	Yes
Enemy	2014	DVD > Netflix	Yes	Yes
The LEGO Movie	2014	DVD > Rental	Yes	Yes

Summer Preview: 2014

The summer movie season is fast approaching, and, as always, I'll be covering the biggest blockbusters of 2014, all summer long! Just so you know, I consider summer films to be any films released from May to August. Sure, some films don't have that big, summer-movie feel, but, regardless of what movie you are watching, if you sweat after leaving the theater, it's summertime. So, take a look at my lists of expectations, below, which include my expectations for films' financial success and my expectations for films entertainment success. The films are in no specific order, with regard to their respective categories. Let me know if I left off one that you are really looking forward to! Enjoy the summer of 2014!!!

 

Big Winners ($)

 

X-Men: Days of Future Past

 

Guardians of the Galaxy

  

The Fault in Our Stars

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Transformers: Age of Extinction

 

Big Losers (-$)

 

Million Dollar Arm

 

Sex Tape

Earth to Echo

Jupiter Ascending

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

 

 

 

Most Anticipated Dramatic Films

 

The Fault in Our Stars

 

Get on Up

 

X-Men: Days of Future Past

 

Godzilla

 

The Double

 

 

Most Anticipated Comedic Films

 

22 Jump Street

 

A Million Ways to Die in the West

 

Wish I Was Here

 

 

Films I'll Steer Clear Of

Blended

Maleficent

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Jupiter Ascending

Night Moves

Earth to Echo

Hercules

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Expendables 3

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For



The Avengers

Expectations:
Let's be honest with one another for just a minute. How many people have ever seen a movie with a ton of really famous stars in it that just really, really sucked? Answer: Everyone. How many people have a seen a movie with so much CGI and so much unrealistic crap that it just really, really sucked? Answer: Everyone. Now my expectations were that, when you combine those two elements of suckiness, you get The Avengers. There is just no way that you could possibly set your expectations too high for this film. We all know how awful Thor and Iron Man 2 were. We all know that nobody can make a good Hulk movie. We all know that Loki looks retarded with that antler helmet on. Sure, the action scenes would rock, and every comic book guru would pee in their pants while waiting in the theater at midnight. The question was could they overcome all of the aforementioned problems and make a good, solid movie?

Plot:
While the plot of the movie certainly wasn't deep or real, I will hand it to Joss Whedon and crew for coming up with a way to make every character share an almost equal-sized role. This film had so many big characters, which is not an easy aspect to deal with, but they dealt with it almost perfectly. The only real big problem I had with the plot structure was the fact that it took so long for us to actually see them all together. There was too much jumping around from place to place at the beginning of the film. The other small problem that I had was not really a problem with the movie but, instead, a problem with film critics and watchers. No one can tell me that the final battle scene didn't mimic the final scene in Transformers: Dark of the Moon (a film that everyone hated for no reason at all). While I loved the scenes in both films, can someone please explain to me how you can love the one film and hate the other? Regardless, I was completely surprised at how sound the plot was. While it certainly isn't Oscar-worthy, people can still love more than the just the characters in the film, and that is a strong statement for a superhero movie.

Characters:
While there were a few low points character-wise, most every character was dealt with fantastically well. There was very little randomness to the interaction and appearance of these characters. Robert Downey Jr. was fantastic, as usual, in his role as Iron Man. While I expected her to fade into the background, Scarlett Johannson really surprised me at how interesting her character was. Samuel L. Jackson was just as so so as he ever is. Chris Evans certainly carried his momentum from Captain America into this film. Tom Hiddleston's performance as Loki turned out to be much more real and raw than I ever could have imagined. While the antler helmet did take away from your ability to accept him as real, I was very impressed with his performance. On a negative side of things, there were a few characters that I didn't quite like in the film. Looking back, Chris Hemsworth's Thor really had no major role in the movie at all. I think Hulk's presence really took away from Thor's ability shine as the big strong dude that does big strong dude stuff. Also, I was not a big fan of Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner. I don't really know why, but I just wasn't impressed.

Best Character: Although I never saw the newest Hulk film, I have heard nothing positive about it, which is what lead everyone to think that Hulk would be a low point in The Avengers. Boy were we wrong! Everyone who has seen the movie knows exactly how great Hulk was portrayed, but I'm not completely sold that it was because of Mark Ruffalo's performance. I give the credit, yet again, to Joss Whedon.

Worst Character: Agent Maria Hill, played by Cobie Smulders, was absolutely the stupidest character in the whole film. I do not understand why she had anywhere close to that big of a role. She wasn't basically just a person that gave Nick Fury a reason to have lines.

Conclusion:
The Avengers shattered mine and everyone else's expectations, while taking the box office numbers for quite a spin as well. Was it the most solid movie ever? No. However, it was extremely well put together, which means that comic freaks and movie freaks all need to invite Joss Whedon to their birthday party this year! The comedy in the film was a bit over-bearing at times, but it was certainly fun to watch with everyone cracking up at 1 o'clock in the morning. The plot wasn't realistic, but it wasn't supposed to be. Almost everything that went wrong in The Avengers had an excuse, which is rare. With all the positive things that have been said, I must say one thing that everyone may not agree on. Contrary to what everyone was putting on Facebook and what not, The Avengers is NOT the best superhero movie ever made. That title is held and will likely always be held by The Dark Knight, and don't you ever forget that. I give The Avengers 4.11 out of 5 stars.

Summer Recap

In my opinion, last Friday was the final big release date of summer 2011 with The Smurfs and Comboys & Aliens tying atop the box office. I am not a big fan of the Planet of the Apes series and The Change-Up just looked dumb, so I chose to write this rather than wasting my time at the movies this weekend, but don't worry, next week I will have a review of 30 Minutes or Less.

The past three summers have brought some of my favorite movies of all time. There was The Dark Knight and Iron Man in 2008. There was Star Trek, District 9, and The Hangover in 2009. And everybody loved Inception and Toy Story 3 in 2010. With those films in mind, the summer of 2011 seems very very weak. Maybe it's not fair to compare these, but the truth is that this was just a bad summer for movies. Many people whined about the abundance of super hero movies, but I don't think this was the problem. Sure, Green Lantern really sucked, and Thor was just ok, but X-Men and Captain America were each high points in a low summer. Many people whined about the abundance of sequels. Once again there were lows such as Pirates 4, but there were many sequels loved by many. I personally loved The Hangover Part II, Transformers 3, and once again X-Men. Harry Potter, Fast Five, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Cars 2 are other sequels that many people loved. So what do we blame the aweful summer of 2011 on?

The problem with the summer of 2011 is the lack of big, original movies. Every movie that I mentioned from previous summers, except Toy Story 3, was a movie that really made itself or its series famous. The two biggest money making movies of 2011 will undoubtedly be Transformers 3 and the final Harry Potter film, but both of these were sold by the success of their previous films. A lot of critics don't care for summer movies because they aren't very Oscar worthy, but, in my opinion, the problem is the lack of original storytelling ability in the film industry these days. My favorite movie of the summer was Super 8, a movie that did a great job of being itself. The biggest surprise of the summer was definitely Horrible Bosses. It may not have been as good as The Hangover, but the storyline really made for many many laughs. Each of these films were certainly original stories, furthering my point.

If you are one that hated the super hero movies or the sequels, you will also be hating the summer of 2012. The biggest films of 2012 will be The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, and The Amazing Spiderman, all of which fall into those two categories. But, there is still hope for next summer to be a good summer for movies. The best thing it has going for it? It will be compared to the summer of 2011.

This has been a great couple of months of blogging for me, and I have really enjoyed letting people know how I feel about each film. If there is ever anything that you think would better the blog, just let me know. I am very open to suggestions. I want to thank each of you for listening to what I say, and I ask you to please continue reading.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Expectations:
The original Transformers movie is one of the greatest movies of all time, and, although many disagree, I also loved the second movie. There was certainly a drop off of greatness following the first film, but it wasn't as bad as the "official" critics make it out to be. Everyone wondered whether the third film in the series would be more like the first film or the second. I was more interested in how Michael Bay was going to wrap things up, with the expectations being that this will be the final film in the series. I really wanted to see some major characters killed off. I have an emotional connection to the Transformers and knew this would probably be my only chance of crying at a movie this summer, so I wanted it! Could we please cry at the farewell of Bumblebee like we did at the farewell of Andy in Toy Story 3 last summer? Well you will have to watch to find out (In 3D!!!).

Plot:
If you desire something realistic then you shouldn't be watching Transformers, but I must say that the tie-in with the moon landing really made the story get off to a good, relatable start. I was also glad that Michael Bay went ahead and explained the moon landing deal before anything else, because that was basically all that we were told in the trailers. The storyline was much more basic than the second movie, which made it much better. There were a few twists and turns, but there was no bringing people back to life five times at the end of the movie like there was in the second movie. With the plot being so simple, many parts were a bit predictable and repetitive, but it wasn't too much to bear. The coolest part was the fact that they finally showed how quickly the Transformers could destroy an entire city. It was finally the gigantic amount of destruction that I have longed for. There is really so much more that I want to say but don't want to ruin the movie for anyone.

Characters:
I liked what they did with the characters for the most part. Sam was sort of caught in a "welcome to the real world" moment and felt under appreciated. This really made me connect with him early on, but I think they clung to that a bit much. There were a few robots that were missing from the second movie, and no explanation was given about where they might have gone (unless I missed it). Optimus had a new trailer that he was a bit too dependent on, considering he did not have the trailer in the first two films. The big question with the characters was how would Rosie Huntington-Whiteley do in the place of Megan Fox. I personally thought she was good but not great. I didn't really miss Megan Fox, but, at the same time I wasn't amazed by the new girl. Josh Duhamel and Tyrese were extremely good, and their characters were brought in extremely well. I thought they kind of seemed a bit awkward in the second movie. Simmons has a love connection that was predictable but really turned out to be fun to watch. Sam's parents, who were too involved in the second movie, also matured with Sam but brought on some laughs as usual. John Malkovich was amazing but gone too soon. Patrick Dempsey was absolutely USELESS!

*New Addition to the Blog:
Best Character: Dutch, played by Alan Tudyk (A Knight's Tale), was a great new addition to the cast as Simmons's agent or something. He was hilarious and was given just enough screentime.

Worst Character: Jerry Wang, played by Ken Jeong (The Hangover), was the stupidest character (barely beating out Patrick Dempsey). It just seemed like an excuse to get Ken Jeong in the movie, and the laughs didn't seem to flow out of the audience as you might expect.

Conclusion:
Before I sum up my emotions, I want to endorse the watching of this movie in 3D. Aside from Avatar, I have never enjoyed the 3D aspects, but this movie made me a believer once again. The problem is that most 3D movies will not be this well made, so enjoy it while you can. Now for my real opinion on this movie: it was amazing. I remember when the first Transformers movie came out and someone had to convince me to go watch it because I thought it would be stupid. Boy was I wrong. I didn't get the tears I was hoping for unfortunately, but oh well. I do think the end could have been a bit sadder. A couple of characters are killed off, but I think the timing was bad, and there should have been more killed off. The ending was a good send off that was abrupt compared to the lagging ending of the first two films. The characters were good for the most part, and the story really showed how much history and emotion the Autobots carry around with them. I love the Transformers series and will miss these guys so so much. 3.95 out of 5 stars.

Movie News

1. Armie Hammer, who played the Winklevi in The Social Network, has signed on to play the Lone Ranger in a movie version of the classic tv show. Johnny Depp will play Tonto.

2. George Lucas said that he has prepared 50 hours (two seasons worth) of a Star Wars tv show. Lucas said that he is waiting for a cheaper technology to come along that would make the show more economical. The show would be based on the period of time between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

3. Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, has announced the names of the new films based on the Rings' prequel The Hobbit. The book has been split into two movies, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

4. The Hangover 3 is already being scripted. Director Todd Phillips has said that the third installment will be the final movie in The Hangover series and will be much different than the first and second films.

5. Shia LaBeouf says that he will not be involved in any more Transfomers movies. He also commented that he did not believe director Michael Bay would be involved in any more of the movies either.