Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

Okay, if you haven't seen the first Transformers movie, where have you been? It was awesome, go see it. But whatever you do, do not waste ten dollars on Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. It should be revenge of the stereotypical lame sequel. 

I'll get right to the point. It was terrible. The story was confusing and even more ridiculous than the first, there were huge plot holes, and the acting was pretty bad, though I blame the production and writing team mostly for not coming up with a decent script. 

SPOILER ALERT!!! For instance: I know that the robots are totally cool and can transform into anything, and I should just accept a lot of what happens in this type of movie. That's all well and good until they start making machines that literally look like a human beings, and have other robots teleport whole crowds of people half way across the globe. Explanations please?

Another spoiler alert coming up. Why do we have to kill off the coolest robot (Optimus Prime) five minutes into the movie, when everyone and their mother knows that he's going to be brought back to life at the end. And why does Shia Labuff's character have to die and go to Robot Heaven only to be sent back to "finish his task"? Wow. Hundreds of millions of dollars and that is what we've come up with?

The worst among the long list of bad plot choices in this movie, however, are the two robots that were obviously supposed to be black. It was a blatantly racist portrayal in my humblest of opinions, which didn't necessarily offend me all that much, but will certainly offend many others, especially knowing how much time and effort went into developing these CGI characters. No one thought, "this seems wrong." I mean, the robots were "from the hood," couldn't read, and had gold teeth. It was ridiculous. 

The only good part of the movie, besides Megan Fox, was John Turturro. He was hilarious, as usual. 

As for the action, yeah it was exciting, but I saw it in the last movie. And it really is pretty hard to tell which giant robot is kicking ass on the other. Oh well, Michael Bay. You can't win them all. 

Muller's Grade: D+

If you liked this flick, check out: Transformers, Fast and Furious, and Live Free or Die Hard

Up

It must be difficult for a company such as Pixar to release a move every year when we have come to expect greatness from every new motion picture it produces. With such amazing accomplishments as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and, most recently, Wall E, Pixar has revolutionized the way we look at movies, particularly animation. And if it's not obvious, for what it's worth, I love Pixar movies.

Up is no different, but it isn't an instant classic like the previously mentioned juggernauts. Up is heartwarming, funny, family oriented and even a bit melancholy, though certainly not in a bad way. In short, it's good, not great. I liked it, I didn't love it. I wold recommend it, but don't drop what you're doing to go see it right now.

What Up really lacks is that "X" factor. It just isn't that memorable. I walked out satisfied but the further I get away from that moment, the further Up drifts from my Mind.

Having said all this, Pixar has nothing to be ashamed about, and likely never will for that matter. But with the bar being set so high from previous successes, Up, for me, is on the lower end of the spectrum of great Pixar movies. Plus, I saw it in 3-D, which added basically nothing to the movie. It was kind of cool, I guess, but was just a good movie that they decided to make 3-D as apposed to a good 3-D movie. So save yourself a few extra bucks and see it on a standard screen.

The story was good enough and the characters were likable. I actually thought that Pixar went in an interesting direction making the main character in a kids movie and old man. And a widower at that. But the themes of love and companionship really shine through and Up doesn't disappoint. 

Muller's Grade: B

If you liked this flick, check out: Finding Nemo, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek or Coraline which was a great 3-D movie.