Trailer: Big Hero 6

Walt Disney Animation's latest animated feature Big Hero 6 is coming to NZ theatres on Boxing Day and it looks freakin' awesome! Based on a lesser-known Marvel comic character, this superhero flick, about a young tech-geek prodigy and his cuddly inflatable robot buddy, looks to combine all the slam-bang blockbuster action we've come to expect from the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Pixar's gorgeous state-of-the-art CG animation and smart, all-ages humour (the city design looks stunning). Fatso will be hosting previews in Auckland and Wellington on December 21 -- stay tuned to find out how to win tickets. In the meantime, check out this fantastic trailer below:

Everything Wrong with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

I say this every time -- but I'm oddly excited about the new Transformers movie coming out in a week's time. Of course, I will most likely live to regret it, as it always happens, once Michael Bay has obliterated my senses two-and-a-half hours later (according to IMDB, Age of Extinction clocks in at 166 minutes). It stands to reason that after being burned by three consecutive movies of the same moronic, depressingly soul-draining ilk, I don't imagine the game changing all that much -- and the dudes at Cinema Sins have just done an amusingly snarky job of reminding me everything that's wrong with the franchise by ripping apart the 2009 sequel Revenge of the Fallen. The plot's even more mind-bending than I remembered:

Super Bowl Teaser: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Although Michael Bay has given us a few reassurances that Transformers: Age of Extinction might be an improvement over the previous series entries (didn't he say Transformers 3 would be less goofy too?), watching this Super Bowl teaser makes me think otherwise. It looks pretty much like robot Bay-hem as usual, albeit with Mark Wahlberg hammin' up a storm in the lead instead of Shia LeBeouf. And wait, is that Optimus Prime riding on a dinosaur...? Admittedly I loved the Dinobots when I was a kid, so I'm curious to see what Bay does with those characters, but yeah, I'm keeping my expectations extremely low. Who's hyped?

Robots Play Bond Theme

Amaze... love the outsider/amateur/crap high school band feel of it...

Transformers 3: Compendium Post

I was meant to blog something about Transformers: Dark of the Moon post-screening last week but busyness got the better of me, and also 'cos the film was so X-TREME that it temporarily disabled my ability to construct critical thought in a timely manner. So here's a bumper post of all things Transformers 3 from the past week (hopefully that'll cover this film, and Michael Bay, for the next while).

Firstly, some loose, potentially spoilery observations about the film:

• There was a valid, but cautious reason to be pumped: Michael Bay had taken criticisms of no. 2 to heart and vowed to make a better film. He said the "dorky comedy" would be toned down. When the trailer first appeared, it looked like a darker film with no comic relief Transformer in sight. While there might be less comedy than the previous film, it's still there - in abundance - and very bloody annoying and only funny for how unfunny it is. See any scene with John Malkovich, Ken Jeong (WTF dude), Alan Tudyk, Shia's parents, and those two smaller "sidekick" robots. All of this comedy-driven exposition swallows up nearly half the entire running time.
• The 3D was promising in the opening scenes on the moon, and generally better than any post-converted 3D film (a given). But as the film wears on, like most 3D films, you'll mostly forget about the 3D (and remember that it's not a pleasant experience).
  
• Interestingly, shooting in 3D does reign Bay in. Shots are held longer, but not consistently so. You definitely won't forget that it's a Michael Bay film.
  
• Stupid but irresistibly "wow" moments: Shia being flung from Bumble Bee in slow-mo then thrown back inside as it transforms into a car again; those mad base-jumping stunts; Shockwave snapping the high rise in two.
• Rosie Huntington-Whiteley: a shapely vacuum. Her intro into the film is already the stuff of legend (as is a scene that might suggest Bay is a closet tentacle-porn fan).
  
• The film is 157 minutes long. What does Bay think he's making? JFK? Combined with one hour of non-stop destruction, the running time is so punishing the only reaction to feel after it's all over is SWEET RELIEF.
  
• Twitter gets 2 mentions, Facebook only 1.
• Those crappy generic radio-friendly rock songs on the soundtrack...

It might sound that I'm incredibly harsh on the film (yes, it's awful), but the fact of the matter is Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a fascinating film in many ways, inspiring both immediate repulsion and deeper-level discourse. It's been torn apart with acerbic wit by critics (Roger Ebert, Walter Chaw - a must-read!), but I find myself digging those fence-sitters, those writers trying to evaluate Bay in a mixed light and coming up with interesting points of discussion (Nick Schager, Jaime N. Christley). I also love Vern's "software upgrade" description of the film.

Now here's bunch of related stuff that don't require much reading:



Michael Bay reusing scenes from The Island for Transformers 3:



Optimus Prime or Darth Vader?


And if you're wondering what's next on the cards for Bay, he'll be making a "small little movie".

Trailer: Sucker Punch

I'm in two minds about this one. Sucker Punch looks like an exercise for Zack Snyder (Watchmen) to cram all his adolescent fantasies (hot babes, robots, dragons, samurai warriors, and more hot babes) into one hyper-active R-rated action-fest. Although I can see myself sitting through this and scoffing at every video gamey aspect of the movie - which looks to be nearly all of it - there is also something undeniably irresistible about its go-for-broke, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink attitude. Sucker Punch is due for release on March 24 next year.

Robocalypse

Just when you think that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen looked like it could be the Ultimate Michael Bay Movie, comes along this hilariously inspired, quite brilliant marriage of the latter's trailer and Terminator: Salvation's, resulting in a 'bot-mad epic that plays like Bay's hardware fetish at its most grossly excessive. If only it were real. Best line: "And worst of all... they're eating all our sand..."