Transformers: Dark of the Moon

I'll say this before I begin the review. I enjoyed the first Transformers. Sure it was stupid, but it was an enjoyable Summer popcorn flick. I HATED Revenge of the Fallen though. It completely destroyed any and all of my childhood memories of Transformers. It was loud and noisy (not in a good way), had an over abundance of humping and dick jokes, and the "comic relief" were two blatantly racist and unfunny robot twins. Naturally, this caused me to despise the possible sequel before it was even announced. I had zero expectations for Dark of the Moon because of this.

Now for the big shocker, I really enjoyed this movie. The plot was a laughable, but good attempt at a darker story. The acting was just ok, but the voicework for the transformers was pretty good for the most part. The new female (I'm not including her under "Actors" for a reason....) was abysmal. She was so bad that I wanted Megan Fox back...which should never happen. Also, like the other films, the humor was just not funny and offensively stupid at points. It made up for these shortcomings with some great action sequences, and phenomenal music, and I'm not just talking about the score.

The story was bad like all the other films. However, I do have to give Bay credit for trying to give us a darker and more serious story this time around. The Decepticons are attempting to take over the world...again... This time around, they want to activate an ancient teleportation device in order to bring their allies to Earth in order to enslave humanity and create a new world. It wasn't anything special, but it was leagues above the other films. Like I said before, I have to give Bay credit this time around. There were few times where I honestly got teary because of things that happened. Teary during transformers? shocking I know!

The acting was competent but nothing special. Shia Lebeouf was...meh, although I do have to give him credit for trying to put more emotion into scenes when they mattered. The only problem is his character is still an annoying twat. All of the other humans did their job, but John Malkovich was just wasted. The only exception to the "good acting" was Ken Jeong (who I normally love) as an Asian nerd named Jerry Wang...(I'll get to this later...) Any comedian will be painstakingly annoying when put into a Michael Bay film. All of the voice actors for the transformers did a memorable job. Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving return as Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively. My only complaint is that Megatron was barely in the film. The other major transformer was Sentinel Prime, Optimus' mentor (voiced by Leonard Nimoy). I loved him, for both his design and his role in the story.

Now for the new female lead. You might be wondering why I'm not including her in the acting section. This is because being called an actor/actress implies that you have some sort of ability to act. This person had none...She was dreadful...she was abysmal...she made me want to gouge my eyes out. And she needs to seriously relax with the botox. A barbie doll looks more realistic than she did...and barbie dolls don' have huge fish lips.

The comedy...was terrible. There were one or two moments where I chuckled, but it was, for the most part, toilet humor. Fortunately, none of the humor involved John Turtoro's butt. Unfortunately, it did involve a few dick jokes and more racial stereotyping. Nothing as bad as the twins, but equally unfunny and childish. The twins were replaced by the Brooklyn accent mini transformer from RotF and a new sidekick who is basically Butthead, from Beavis & Butthead, in robot form and not nearly as funny. Now for the worst part...Ken Jeong as Jerry Wang who wants to be named Deep Wang. I honestly wish I was kidding when I said that that was his last name. An Asian man named Deep Wang...since this is a Michael Bay film, do I need to explain what kind of jokes were involved with this character? Good, because I won't. My biggest complaint with the humor is how it completely killed the serious tone set by previous scenes. This doesn't just happen once or twice..it's consistently doing it.

The action sequences were incredibly well done this time around. I could actually tell, for the most part, what the hell was going on. There some amazing set piece action sequences in this film. The only problem was that most of them were pointless when the next scene happens. I can forgive them though because of the thought and detail that went into them. They were incredibly memorable.

Now for the music. Naturally, Steve Jablonsky's score was outstanding. All of his music fit their respective scenes very well. He updated the main theme, and it sounds fantastic. The score used for the final battle/climax has the proper oomph that it should and never feels overbearing. Now for the part that surprised me. I don't hate Linkin Park, but I'm not the biggest fan in the world. Their songs for the first two films never felt out of place but they always felt like free advertising more than anything. Not this time around. While the heavier parts still felt out of place, the beginning of the song was used to amazing effect. It created some amazing atmosphere for the darker moments of the film. I honestly don't want to spoil it.

Overall, I can recommend this film. The acting is so so, the humor is unfunny and racist, but it more than makes up for it with its attempt at a darker story, expertly filmed action sequences and some fantastic music.

I've never done this before in one of my review...but there is something else that needs to be mentioned. There are possible spoilers ahead, but they need to be talked about. There were a few scenes that were disgustingly offensive. The area of the climax was named "Ground Zero." There were many occasions of crumbling buildings and enemy planes running into the sides of buildings. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but these immediately made me think of 9/11 and the horrors of that day. The other scene, while making sense in the story's plot, felt really out of place for a film like this. Megatron blows up the Lincoln Memorial and sits on the remnants like a throne, while a smaller decepticon crushes Linclon's head. The other big thing was a scene that made me think of the failed Challenger space shuttle mission that resulted in the death of 7 brave men and women.

X-Men First Class

How exactly does one create perfection? I'm still not sure myself, but you might want to ask Matthew Vaughn because with First class, he has somehow done it.

I had incredibly high hopes for this movie going in, and they were met and exceeded. Matthew Vaughn has always been a master of blending genres. A Romantic comedy with fantasy adventure in Stardust, superhero with some drama and comedy thrown in with Kick Ass. In First Class, he is able to intelligently blend your typical superhero movie with a political thriller and a sort of James Bond style film making.

First Class was brilliantly directed, had a great score by Henry Jackman, and all of the actors perfected their roles. To be honest, its only weakness was something that couldn't be helped. It's a prequel, which takes out many of the twists and surprises. Charles had to become paralyzed and wheelchair bound by the end, Erik had to give in to his hatred of humans and become Magneto, Mystique joins Magneto etc.

I really enjoyed the story, mainly because of the genre blending. The Cuban Missile Crisis is the basis of the film. We learn that this whole fiasco was actually created behind the scenes by Sebastian Shaw in order to create a new world for mutants. He is joined by Azazel, Riptide, and Emma Frost. In response to this, Charles teams up with Erik to create their own team of mutants to combat Shaw and stop the crisis from getting out of hand. They are joined by Angel, Darwin, Havok, Beast, Banshee and Mystique. The best part about the story was that it wasn't a "good vs. evil" thing. It was more a clash of ideals. One of the film's strongest points was that, at times, you could see where Erik was coming from and you could even agree with the points he makes.

The acting was phenomenal. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender both nailed their parts as Charles and Erik, respectively. Fassbender in particular had some amazing scenes. He was aggressive and arrogant but also held deep respect for Charles, which are all traits that I can see leading up to his eventual transformation into Magneto. McAvoy on the other hand played a slightly more comedic Charles at times, yet also played him very seriously when the scene called for it. Kevin Bacon did a surprisingly good job as the film's villain, Sebastian Shaw. He was very chilling at times, and had this incredibly aggressive tone to his voice which I loved. He was very much a Bond villain to me. He never had any real "allies." He merely used everyone to further his cause...and he spoke a variety of different languages, so I have to commend Bacon for learning them all. I also have to give credit to Fassbender for the same reasons. I should mention Rose Byrn as well, who played CIA agent Moria MacTaggert. She wasn't a mutant but helped Charle's cause. She played the part very well, and played the role of the human negotiator so to speak.

All of the younger actors did fantastic jobs as well. Lucas Till stood out in particular as Alex Sommers/Havok. He played an honorable smart mouthed character very well. He was the "jock" of the group, so to speak but was trustworthy. Nicholas Hoult played Hank McCoy/Beast. Hoult really played the Jekyll and Hyde character extremely well. The only other character with significant screen time was Raven/Mystique played by Jennifer Lawrence. She was one of my personal favorite because, like Beast, I could really see the inner struggle she was going through. January Jones, for what it's worth, played a good Emma Frost but I felt she was a last minute addition to the cast because of her screen time, and lets face it...she was terrible. I hate saying this because I love her in Mad Men. All of the other mutants were in the movie simply for the hell of it, but they never detracted from the movie. Jason Flemyng played Azazel, the shape shifting father of Nightcrawler. Zoe Kravitz played Angel, a mutant with the ability to fly and spit acid. Edi Gathegi played Darwin, a mutant with the ability to adapt to any environment. Alex Gonzalez played Riptide, a mutant who has the ability to create whirlwinds with his hands.

Now I come to my absolute favorite part of the movie, the score. Anybody who knows me should know I'm obsessed with how perfect the Kick Ass score is, done by John Murphy and in part, Henry Jackman. Jackman returns as the main scorer for First Class, and manages to one up Kick Ass. The main piece of music is the perfect fit for the film. It is the musical version of the X-Men so to speak. I can picture every single X-Men when I hear this theme. The other main theme of the film is Magneto's, which is used in a variety of different scenes. It is a mix of traditional instruments with a very hard guitar/bass riff in the back. It is used to show Erik's sadness, but is also used to great effect during some of the film's more intense scenes. I'm not trying to sound cheesy here, but the mixture of Magneto's theme and the film's main theme during the sub scene (you'll know it when you see it) is one of the most uplifting pieces of music ever created for a film. This song flawlessly portrays how far along Magneto has come in learning how to properly control his powers.

The movie's visuals were petty good, but were definitely the weakest point. I can't blame Vaughn though, because he had a schedule of 9 months to complete this film. This doesn't mean they were bad though. Vaughn did a better job than anyone else in his position could of done.

All in all, this movie is the very definition of perfection and it comes at my highest level of recommendation. Even people who don't like superhero films will find something to like in this film. It has the perfect balance of action, comedy and drama and none of it ever felt forced.