Pages

Friday, September 05, 2008

Summer Sensation

I watched Transformers (2007) a second time. I wanted to watch The Dark Knight (2008) again. Why? They are the blockbusters of last summer and this summer. But as history would repeat itself, they sucked, as far as I’m concerned.

The majority of the people liked them and some even loved them. They say that Transformers is what you go to the movies for. They want to see impacting visuals and they want to sense the loudness of theatrical bass. They want sights of fights, gunfire and explosions. They saw The Dark Knight and fell in love with the villain. Batman became a hero once likeable but now avoidable. The cape crusader is no longer an inspiration. He became an icon of brutality and vengeance, one rightfully dismissed from society never to return. The Dark Knight is forgettable, only to be remembered for by a dead actor who gave such a performance that it became the focal point of a largely chaotic plot so disjointed as if the script came right from The Joker’s brain. It’s a joke amidst a black one. It is The Dark Joke because the Knight has lost his might. As his silhouette was seen running towards light. I am thankful it was finally over.

So did a second viewing of Transformers convert my initial perspective? Were there the other three dimensions of a dice I couldn’t see with my eyes on this side? I tried but no matter how it looked, it is just a two-sided coin with similar faces on both sides, disfigured and insane, just like Harvey “Two-Face” Dent. What is enlightening though is that the open 15 minutes of Transformers had already given a clue to what this movie is all about. I quote from Sam Witwicky’s conversation with his teacher after his abysmal class presentation:

I wanna tell you about a dream, a boy’s dream, and a man’s promise to that boy. He looked me in the eye. He said, “Son, I’m going to buy you a car but I want you to bring me $2000 and three As. I got the $2000 and I got the two As okay? Here’s the dream. Here’s your B-. Dream gone. Kaput.”


Sam gave a lousy presentation only intending to sell his grandfather’s junk. His teacher was kind enough to give him a B-. His speech later coaxed an A-. But it is still crap. Nothing can replace substance. A good sales pitch only goes as far as well… perhaps a second look.

Isn’t it ironic then that a rat (Ratatouille) became the savior of last summer and a robot (Wall-E) this summer?

Modern scientists have recently created a rat brain powered miniature robot to study how the brain works in hope that one day we can decipher the mystery of how we humans learn and think.

There is hope yet for good dreams not bad ones.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am not really fan of The Dark Knight but I know I can still watch it again. But Transformers? It's just too long and boring! It proofs that GREAT special effect isn't always makes a great movie. And I am still tired of Shia Lebouf (?) screaming "No..no..no" the whole movie ;)