Given the choice between giant alien robots kicking each other's ass, or a reverse aging man or whatever, and I will pick the giant killbots every single time.
__________________
The Following User Says Thank You to Teh_Bandwagoner For This Useful Post:
I've got no problem with Michael Bay, actually I'm not even familiar enough with him to know the difference. My problem with the movie(aside from having way too high expectations) was I thought it was way too jokey. I know, its based on 80's children's toys, obviously its gonna have an element of cheese to it. But I felt they went way over the top. Its to the point where I think that movie could almost be stored in the Comedy section at video stores.
I was hoping for a "Jurassic Park with robots" kind of feel: definitely some cheese and funny lines, but also some edge-of-your-seat moments. Over-all I was hoping to be awed and almost intimidated by the robots, not laugh along with them. Either way I'll still see the second one, as all-in-all the first one still had its moments. But this time I'll go in with much reduced expectations.
There is a big difference between fun action movies and bad action movies.
Die Hard was good, fun movie. Then look at Live Free Die Hard, Transformers etc and they just plain sucked. Die Hard was awesome, Live Free Die Hard made me feel embarrassed for seeing it.
Stupid plot, bad acting etc. Just plain crap. I can turn off my brain and enjoy a movie like Die Hard or the Rock or Indiana Jones (1 and 3 only), or the Matrix or Ironman or even Sin City and 300 to a lesser extent. There are so many good action movies that don't have to be plain stupid. Transformers was just plain stupid. Turning your brain off is one thing, having the director, writer and movie studios insulting your intelligence by making a movie so dumb is sad.
Transformers had 1 redeeming feature and that is it. Megan Fox, and I even think she's such an idiot I can hardly stand it when she talks.
The difference between a good action movie and a bad one can be a fine line but anyone who thought Transformers was good, even with brain turned off...wow I don't even know what to say.
Spiderman 3 is the worst movie ever made IMO. It makes Transformers look great. And Transformers makes the first X-men movie look like The Godfather.
Last edited by flip; 02-02-2009 at 03:31 PM.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to flip For This Useful Post:
There is a big difference between fun action movies and bad action movies.
Die Hard was good, fun movie. Then look at Live Free Die Hard, Transformers etc and they just plain sucked. Die Hard was awesome, Live Free Die Hard made me feel embarrassed for seeing it.
Stupid plot, bad acting etc. Just plain crap. I can turn off my brain and enjoy a movie like Die Hard or the Rock or Indiana Jones (1 and 3 only), or the Matrix or Ironman or even Sin City and 300 to a lesser extent. There are so many good action movies that don't have to be plain stupid. Transformers was just plain stupid. Turning your brain off is one thing, having the director, writer and movie studios insulting your intelligence by making a movie so dumb is sad.
Transformers had 1 redeeming feature and that is it. Megan Fox, and I even think she's such an idiot I can hardly stand it when she talks.
The difference between a good action movie and a bad one can be a fine line but anyone who thought Transformers was good, even with brain turned off...wow I don't even know what to say.
I have watched Live Free or Die Hard many times as well. Methinks you are forgetting how 'bad' the original movies were.
I really can't understand the movie snobbery in your post. God forbid people have different tastes.
Flip: Exactly how I feel. And you brought up some other great actions movies. The Matrix, (the original and perhaps the 2nd) Sin City, The Dark Knight obviously.
Transformers to me just didn't make a whole lot of sense, and didn't seem that well written.
Nothing against the people who did like it, it pretty much did as I expected it too in the box office. Just not my cup of tea.
I have watched Live Free or Die Hard many times as well. Methinks you are forgetting how 'bad' the original movies were.
I really can't understand the movie snobbery in your post. God forbid people have different tastes.
It is one of the few things I just can't bring myself to say "to each his own".
My post does come off as snobby, I know. I have friends that like the turn off your brain movies and it drives me crazy. I don't call them dumb per se but I do question their cinema tastes.
I don't expect everyone to think There Will Be Blood is the best movie of 2007, but it was. I think I have a pretty balanced taste in movies, my DVD cases have movies like Anchorman next to Apocalypse Now, but every once in a while action movies just get so bad I can't stand it.
But for every Bourne Ultimatum, Terminator 2 (maybe the best pure action movie ever), Jurassic Park, Dark Knight, V for Vendetta and the movies mentioned in my first post etc there is a Face/off, Wanted, Eagle Eye, Hitman, Max Payne, Live Free Die Hard, Transformers.
I know some are a fine line. 300 comes to mind. It could have been great but was ok. Same with the first two Spiderman movies and Xmen movies. I admit I'll be the first in line for Wolverine Origins when it comes out, same with Watchmen. And I did burn each and every movie I listed in the crap category above, except the new Die Hard, I turned it off 20 minutes in.
If I come across as a snob it is because I am. But you have to understand that my ability to enjoy movies has been severely limited because appealing to the lowest common denominator is so common that I only like one out of every 20 movies. That is not to say if you like them that you are simple or dumb or anything just I'd like it if for once a movie like Indy 4 or Spiderman 3 would flop and lose like $200 million because people would just say no and demand better products.
For me, aside from American Psycho which comes in second, the original Transformers The Movie from 1986 is my favorite film of all time. All the conventions of that film, the style, the music, everything influences all my likes and dislikes into adulthood.
There was no way the new movie could have ever lived up to what I wanted but what I really wanted was a movie for the 80s and not the 2000s. It was a decent movie but lacked the epic feeling that it required. Some nice CG shots and Micheal Bay explosions but overall, missing that epic storytelling quality it needed.
I've been dreaming of giant robots rampaging through cities since my childhood, I always had better scenes in mind for the choreography and fighting. Micheal Bay is just too much "boom" "boom" and too little on aesthetic and design.
For me, it has nothing to do with appealing to the lowest common denominator...I just don't agree with Bay (and the entire production team's) sense of style at all. Then again, to appeal to my tastes, the film would have an American blockbuster budget, with Japanese design, with kung-Fu choreography, and a 1980s soundtrack!
That is not to say if you like them that you are simple or dumb or anything just I'd like it if for once a movie like Indy 4 or Spiderman 3 would flop and lose like $200 million because people would just say no and demand better products.
As I mentioned earlier, movies seem to have taken a downward trend over the last few years. Course, attendance IS down for the most part, I just wonder how long it will take the industry to sit up and take notice. Like the music industry a while back they like to blame piracy for their woes but the fact is, the movies often SUCK.
We're finally starting to get a lot better music out again nowadays (though mostly through indie or semi-indie channels) obviously a lot of 'pop' is bad as ever. Perhaps film will follow in it's wake thanks to the internet and digital age.
Movie studios just seem to be following the same script (pun intended) to try and make cash while taking very little risks.
I mean if it wasn't for sequals, superhero movies, remakes, or toy/cartoon/video game translations how many summer movies would be left? Heck, how many movies all YEAR would be left.
Hollywood has forgotten how to be original. And it's a shame because it was pretty good 10 years ago. IMO. A lot of people were talking about it being a second golden age of film.
Not to say there hasn't been anything of value, just that, it's becoming less and less.
As I mentioned earlier, movies seem to have taken a downward trend over the last few years. Course, attendance IS down for the most part, I just wonder how long it will take the industry to sit up and take notice. Like the music industry a while back they like to blame piracy for their woes but the fact is, the movies often SUCK.
We're finally starting to get a lot better music out again nowadays (though mostly through indie or semi-indie channels) obviously a lot of 'pop' is bad as ever. Perhaps film will follow in it's wake thanks to the internet and digital age.
Movie studios just seem to be following the same script (pun intended) to try and make cash while taking very little risks.
I mean if it wasn't for sequals, superhero movies, remakes, or toy/cartoon/video game translations how many summer movies would be left? Heck, how many movies all YEAR would be left.
Hollywood has forgotten how to be original. And it's a shame because it was pretty good 10 years ago. IMO. A lot of people were talking about it being a second golden age of film.
Not to say there hasn't been anything of value, just that, it's becoming less and less.
I'll agree with you on this one. The movies that are coming out lately don't seem to be as good as what we saw in the late 90s. Maybe its because I'm now a father of two and my wife and I just don't get to go out anymore but we simply don't go see many movies anymore. We've gone to a couple and left feeling "meh". There hasn't been many movies that we had to see. Ten years ago we would go to see several movies. Now we wait until a friend buys the DVD and we borrow it, or we borrow them from a library.
Bottom line is that most people don't care to or don't know how to critically evaluate a movie. Essentially, most people are fanboys.
Why can't someone disagree with someone else's tastes in movies and be neither a fanboy nor a movie critic? Can't some people understand that others may not take going to the movies so seriously? Box office numbers tell it all, people want to be entertained with explosions, t&a, robots, ninja's, aliens, midgets, fart jokes, comic hero's and graphic gore. The only time I want to pay to watch Adrien Brody cry is if he's being beaten and tortured within an inch of his life.
__________________ Go Flames Go!!
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Rhettzky For This Useful Post:
