Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (2009)

Two years after the events of Transformers, Michael Bay brings us another blockbuster to the big screens. This time, the Autobots have new allies to add to the pack--and so do the Decepticons. Unfortunately it is the same formula recycled into this movie: human characters take up the running time, which is longer than it was in the last movie.

So here Sam Witwicky is going to college, and the Autobots have formed an alliance with the humans to form NEST to hunt down the remainder of the Deception forces. But it sounds like the Transformers are waging war on earth for no apparent reason since the Allspark has been destroyed. So why are they still here? Well as the story evolves, it emerges that the need for "energon"is at its greatest demand--and the Decepticons never leave their leader behind even in his death. But this plot point takes a very long time to evolve as we have to watch Shia LaBeouf ham up his screaming like a stereotypical damsel-in-distress, gibber repeatedly as a result of the All-spark being absorbed into his mind, and make a complete embarrassment of himself in the lecture theater. As if that is not enough, we have Sam's mother blow her blood pressure at the house after household utensils are inadvertently converted to feral Decepticons with a shard from the Cube, and then run amok at the college after eating some cannibis. All these scenes contribute to a longer running time, and a higher probability of an audience member sleeping off in the cinema.

And there is this student, Leo. Throughout this flick he makes like a freaking whelp who finds himself entangled in the mayhem with Sam and his friends, even though he has been on the case of unraveling the existence of the robots in disguise. If I may suggest, he has had several chances to walk away from this movie but does not do so. I mean this guy does not make any significant contribution to the group on any occasion; even Seymour Simmons finds him completely unreliable and tazes him one on scene. Thank goodness!

One thing we want to bear in mind is that nobody wants to give a toss about some poor soul in college, just the story surrounding the alien robots and their ravaged world. And why must Bay add more insults to injury with at least four examples of testicle jokes?

·         In the college dorms where one or two roommates mention "the balls sack" and "sucking the sack"

·         In the aircraft museum, where Leo accidentally tazes himself and jokes about "how many times you have to be tazed in the nuts before you can't have kids"

·         In the Egyptian desert, where Mikaela lands on Leo's crotch after Jetfire's rapid transport via the Spacebridge

·         On the Great Pyramids, where Devastator's two wrecking balls resemble his "testicles".

I thought this is a 12 certificate movie, and this filth just does not fit in at all. Tiresome and unclean as it sounds, I would not pay to hear this rubbish.

And let me recall the story. It is long-winded and takes so much time to get straight to the point. So if I got this, a Decepticon wants to activate a machine to blow up our sun and harvest the energy from it in the form of Energon. But the only way to turn on this machine is to find the key called the Matrix of Leadership. But this key is not exactly in line with the source material because I remember clearly that the Matrix is passed from one Autobot leader to another--and had this been the case, I believe there would have been no need to go through the trouble of looking for it in Egypt, only for it to turn to dust in the "Tomb of the Primes"! I mean seriously, this scripts so full of loopholes that one would be bewildered as to whether it was cross-checked thoroughly before the movie was ever green-lighted.

And before I forget, the subtitle to the movie is Revenge Of The Fallen. I expected the Decepticons, including Megatron himself, to be the fallen ones seeking revenge. But the real twist to this story, as explained by Jetfire, reveals Megatron's "master" to be the Fallen. I was completely bemused by this revelation and wondered whether all that exposition was just to throw us off course.

So I must be frank, watching this movie on DVD can be challenging due to the excessive writing and nearly incoherent storyline as a result. Michael Bay has decided to degrade some characters and add annoyance to the mix. Though we still have the heart-stopping, blood-rushing action scenes like before where the robots beat each other up with their missiles and lasers. And just like the first movie, we also watch heavy rampage and destruction in the beginning and the end of this flick, as well as in the middle. The movie minus the humans equals live-action robots excitement.

Walt Disney's The Little Mermaid

If there is a timeless classic that must latch on to my mind and heart, it must be this classic fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid. Disney adds its formula to spawn its theatrical adaptation and raise our spirits, giving us something unforgettable to date.

The story revolves around a headstrong teenage mermaid, who falls in love with a human prince. We watch how she goes through the challenge of living with her father King Triton and his stringent rules that prohibit contact with the surface. She feels as though her father knows nothing about humans and she consistently embarks on various escapades, just to know the world below and above.

One thing that this movie must be renowned for is its songs: the opening number; Ariel's romantic touch; Sebastian's Caribbean-themed tune. Their songs must surely put the audience in a trance, making it even too difficult to be put off by the villain's own song.

Speaking of which, the main villain is Ursula, the sea witch. She puts out her charm to stand out as so intimidating that anyone who looks at her would think twice before underestimating her. Take a look at her den, lined with poor, shrunken souls who made a deal with her: it basically reminds one of hell, a prison for one who made a deal with the Devil and has to pay the price. No one can look Ursula the wrong way. And she is served by her eels, who act as her spies. Give credit for ingeniously deploying her seeing eyes so that she sees what they see.

There are plenty of characters to love here: Ariel and her sisters; Sebastian the crab; Flounder; Scuttle the sea gull; Prince Eric. What more can I say about these guys? They all show personal qualities and develop throughout this flick. They provide us with comic relief and spirit for adventure. For example, Scuttle starts out as a loopy sea gull but gives it a shot as a comic; later before the climax, he shows perception when he discovers Ursula's sinister plot and warns his friends, then alerts other animals and steals the cockleshell and gives back Ariel's voice. This character demonstrates the qualities that give us reason to blend with the character. He is annoying but bright, and then grows into a character with a sharp mind.

And of course there is this crisp animation. What more do you want? So smooth it is majestic, giving us a clear look at the characters' features and movement; some of which is enhanced by computers. The animation gives a picturesque taste to anyone who watches, letting us enjoy more of the musical numbers, and even the darkest moments of the flick.

Disney has provided something that makes it unique to other animation studios. I would more than definitely recommend this to families and children of all ages. This is a timeless classic that one would be hard-pressed to forget.

Men In Black (1997)

Will Smith starts his movie career with this comic adaptation. He makes his presence after his debut in The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. It is his charm and flair that brought him into the big screens and Hollywood saw him as bankable. He partners with Tommy-Lee Jones, who played a more embarrassing role of Two-Face in Batman Forever two years earlier. Despite his ordeal, this current film can be described as a step up in his movie career, as an experienced agent K who recruits J as a novice agent of a secret government organisation, Men In Black.



This movie was released the same year along with Spawn, Batman & Robin, and even Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie. These movies were poorly received by critics and fans alike, notably for production value, relations to the source material, commercialization over substance, character development, visual effects and the choice of cast. Of all the movies mentioned, Men In Black was a critical and commercial success, cementing Smith's position as a superstar of Hollywood. It is also a movie that helped launch the popularity of its source material, and result in its pop culture reference.

So if I could get this right, from the opening credits we can see how two agents K and D intercept a truck transporting illegal immigrants. They find an alien only known as Mikey, but soon realize that one of the border patrols eavesdrops on them. Just before the alien launches its assault on him, the patrol shrieks so long in high pitch that no matter how loud Mikey roars, the scream is just hilarious to listen too; and so is the eventual disintegration of the alien, which is accompanied by another special sound effect. The design of the alien Mikey required a costume aided with some C.G.I. The disintegration is aided with digital effects so that it appears the alien turned into bits of goo so realistic that it is debatable whether any C.G.I. was used at all.

Will Smith is initially an N.Y.P.D. officer, James Darrell Edwards. He is pursuing a perpetrator, which happens to be a cephalopod. The action scenes here have to be far too dangerous to have been carried out without any harness. One is the alien jumping of from a bridge without having waited for a bus to break his fall. This stunt is demonstrated by Edwards to be too risky. Another stunt that must be too unrealistic involves the alien scaling a building. This one requires a harness that I have a hard time trying to discover. The power of digital technology is at its peak to have anyone convinced that this is for real. However, the last scene involves the alien committing suicide after playing the "pronoun game" with Edwards. There were no takes for this shot, just one, heavily enhanced with the power of editing and digital alterations. I was extremely convinced that the stunt double was never going to survive this whatsoever. This powerful capability is also employed when the cephalopod drops his gun which then disintegrates into nothing. No C.G.I. was employed, seeing how real the gun appeared.

So another alien has crash-landed into earth. His true form is concealed from the camera; he kills a farmer and dresses up in his skin. How it does this without tearing the skin is something I cannot even understand. Anyhow, it has to move around without attracting immediate attention, though due to the deprivation of life-sustaining blood and water, the skin does decay. It has been acknowledged that the skin must surely atrophy over time, so this skin must have had countless designs to illustrate the stages of decay. This alien is a cockroach. It has come to earth to steal a source of energy. This source is a galaxy, despite its size of a marble. If the alien gets a hold of it, it can decimate its enemy race, the Archillians. For the majority of the film, it only talks off camera in its initial form and while wearing John Edgar's skin. When it reaches the climax, it does not speak for some reason. Nonetheless, it does not affect the character whatsoever.

Remember that moment when the cockroach crashlands into earth? That scene alone required only one take and sheer power of C.G.I. It looks as though the flying saucer was really crashing, thus begging belief that C.G.I. was ever used. A truck is standing in a field next to his house. It felt like the truck was really cleaved in half, and a crater formed.

Recruiting someone into Men In Black has a catch or two: they erase their existence, contacts with their loved ones, and all that they ever were involved in prior. It can be painful for someone to lose contact with their loved one, as we can see from Agent K's point of view. Nonetheless, he still can't make contact with her.

 

 There are several gadgets in this film that you wish were real. One of them is the iconic "Neuralizer". Before any agent uses it, they must put on a pair of sunshades to shield their eyes from the flash.  

 

While K is the business-oriented character, J has to be the one who offers the laughs when he gets entangled in slapstick, although this happens once in this movie in order not to wear out in the course of the flick. J makes several pop culture references whenever there is a situation he thinks alludes to it. He also mimics some characters whom he thinks are robotic and monotonous. He thinks that K could be less rigid in his assignments in order to be more human and amicable.

 

This movie brings about a breakthrough at a time comic movies were bashed for lacking the depth and breadth of their source materials. Even on a high budget, this movie implements C.G.I. and digital effects to give the audience the impression of realism, in such a way that it is convincing and well put. Practical special effects have been upheld for every costume, instead of over-reliance on C.G.I. Having various designs of aliens from different corners of the galaxy is a pinnacle of human imagination and the wonders of creativity.

Men In Black 3 (2012)

It has been ten years since the sequel was released. Men In Black II was released 2002; this second sequel in 2012. So what is it about this movie that is the reason for its success? Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones reprise their roles as Agents J and K working under the bureau Men In Black. The headquarters itself has undergone extensive refurbishment so that we see all white instead of glass and steel. And implemented are the concepts of time travel and retrospective exploration of the 1960s.

So now there is extensive use of CGI throughout this movie--scenery, animation, photography. In fact, I can recall several instances of crash zooms, inward and outward, combined in foregrounds and backgrounds. I can also take into account the use of CGI to depict the scenes at the rocket launch where such facility would be too costly to film. And there is this scene about the time-jump, where Agent J leaps from a building to travel back in time to save the future.

So the plot involves time travel, alien invasion, the past and Agent K's aura. There is an alien called Boris the Animal ("it's just Boris!"); he is a Boglodite, a rogue alien race that consumed any planet in its path. Boris escapes from Lunar Max prison, time-jumps to kill Agent K and prevents a defense system from being deployed so that instead of dying out, his race will be able to devour the earth. Now this must be the second movie where the earth faces annihilation from an alien race but the first by an invasion.

Watching this movie you will ask yourself: if K has been dead for forty years, how come J can still remember him from last night? Well I was as confused as J himself until it became clear at the end (or so I thought). Apparently, the rules of time travel have been blatantly violated: despite the fact K was killed in 1969 and hence ceases to exist, J is still an agent and remembers him. 

A large portion of screen time dwells on the 1960s, the decade of the space launch. Here we see costumes of retrospective classics, alien designs attributed to the decade, and technology that was at its less advanced stage (although there was that special unicycle that is more or less out of place as it looks too advanced compared with the rest). We see fashion, vehicles, and the space launch of 1969; hear music of different genres of the time. It's just another way of learning history, without reading a book on it or sitting in the classroom driven down by boredom.

Some other notable changes to this movie are the absence of Newton, Jack Jeebs, Frank the Pug and Agent Z; with the last two appearing on pictures (Frank also appears on a bill board at Canvey Island). Each character has his reasons but I think Frank should not appear again after his debacle in the previous installment.

So let me go over this movie again: a woman strides down a hallway to visit her boyfriend, Boris The Animal. I have to be very honest: for a maximum security prison, security is so lousy that they do not x-ray the cake before allowing it to pass, and one of the guards actually dips his finger into the cake as if Boris anticipated his carelessness beforehand. And the response time is slow and sloppy. By the way, the woman came to the moon somehow, yet Boris was able to use this means of transport whereas he was not even briefed before about it. 

So Boris intends to rewrite history, so he pops over to Jeffrey Price's shop to use the time jump device. So lenient is this monster that he does not kill Jeffrey as he just killed his father Obadiah, nor does he kill any other agent accompanying K so that they do not interfere.

In this movie, the Arch net is revealed to have prevented the invasion of the Boglodites. Yet in the first movie, the earth was open to any other alien invasion. I did not make note of this except when noted by other reviewers.

Violations of the rules of time travel:

• Agent K is dead, so J should not be an agent anymore; yet he is still an agent of MIB, but the movie does not reveal who recruited him in the first place.
• Boris The Animal escaped and fled earth, returned home to his home planet which is 20 light years away. Yet, one time jump gear is still missing from Jeffrey's possession, he has a logbook in which Boris has recorded his jump, and Lunar Max is still on the moon. Also, Jeffrey remembers Boris even though Boris left the earth before Jeffrey's birth.
• In order to change the tide, J grabs Boris and jumps back a few minutes before receiving damage from Boris's projectiles. However, it negates the fact that there would be two of each from the time earlier. Even Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me makes better sense: when Austin returns to the scene five minutes earlier, he sees himself delivering the same line. Yet this movie MIB3 does not follow the same principle.

Agent J is as confused as we all are in this flawed series of events, yet this movie gets away with it. In fact he is so hyped up that he does not act like he was sticking with the scripts at all, but vents his genuine frustration at the distortions of logic and reason. 

As already mentioned, these violations of time travel complicate the logic of this movie. Yet the director concluded that should these plot holes be averted, the story would have ended with the annihilation of the entire earth, with J and other characters suddenly irrelevant. Speaking of which, it was stated that the Boglodites were extinct for forty years; but when Boris alters history, they invade the earth after forty years. What stopped them from attacking the earth after Boris gets the Arc Net? It is already mentioned that Boris' home planet Boglodocia is twenty light years away. This is a great single distance to cover.

And this movie is set in 2012; so it would be 43 and not 40 years otherwise it is 2009. Throughout this movie it was mentioned that J was recruited 25 years after 1969 (in 1994), 14 years later (in 2008) Boris escapes and time-jumps.  This would add up to 39 years and not 40 years: the present is set in 2008, even though the time dial states 2012. Can nobody in this movie get their measurements correct because the time dial is easy to manipulate quickly?

One other point: in the MIB Headquarters, J examines a record of alien murders. He only learns of Roman the Fabulist's murder and an incident at the Factory, but it does not mention an incident at a bowling alley. So why was it omitted from the report?

In my opinion, this movie suffers from time travel inconsistencies and ignore events of previous movies. Anyone trying to understand the story would be perplexed by the distortion of logic and reasoning. However, every aspect of this movie overshadows these faults nonetheless. In other words, this movie is overrated.