Day Out And About

[crossover_chick]

Mom, Dad, and I ended up going out to see Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon today, as it was cloudy and grey and all that. First time back at our old theater in a while. They don't have chocolate smoothies anymore. :( Ah well -- I got myself a gigantic cup of root beer instead. And we had M&Ms, which was nice.

Now, my thoughts on the movie?

. . .I didn't like it. I don't know if I full-out HATE it, but I didn't like it. The opening bit with the "secrets behind the Moon Race" wasn't bad, but after that. . .
I dunno, it seems like a lot of the fun went out of the world in this one. Sam just seemed more unlikeable in this one -- he came off as whinier than usual to me. And Carly -- you know, I don't mind Sam having a new girlfriend, but I'm not sure if I like them having an established relationship when the movie starts. It just didn't gel with me. I think I would have liked her better had they gotten together during the movie. I also would have appreciated more character development -- she basically comes off as "Ms Fanservice." I'll give her the Awesome moment of convincing Megatron to turn on Sentinel Prime, but it does seem to come out of nowhere.
As for the other characters: "Sam's parents are embarrassing" is officially overused. His mom's antics in the first two films were funny, but now you can see they've been shoehorned in for the comic relief, and it's just not working. As for Simmons -- still funny, but he feels shoehorned in too. (And his new assistant -- WTF??) In fact, none of the comic relief really worked for me this time around. All of it felt forced.
And for the main draw, the big robot fights -- still good and flashy, but I wasn't getting into them. I dunno why -- perhaps because they've gotten even more brutal? There's more transformers "bleeding" in this one, methinks, and I think that unsettles me on some level. I don't know. I suppose it doesn't help that I couldn't keep track of all the bots this time -- it wasn't until I hit TV Tropes that I realized Sam killed STARSCREAM. Bottom line, I just didn't think it was all that great. (Hell, I liked ROTF better, despite all its flaws. Maybe because I found at least some of the comic stuff funny in that one. Original's still the best, of course.)
Weird moment -- one of the Autobots was a bot with an Einstein hairstyle and an inventor's streak. Yeah, my first thought was, "WTF, Doc Brown Autobot?" (Second thought -- ". . .Why give robots 'hair?'")

After the movies, we went looking for sneakers for Mom, then came home and had an early supper. I only got on a little while ago. At least I'm keeping up with drabbles for the 100 Drabbles challenge in my notebook (though I don't think I'll be able to participate in this week's round-up, damn). Now, I should go think of something to do on my tumblr.

Comments

[martyfan.livejournal.com]

I actually liked DotM better than RotF BECAUSE of the lack of humor. Because every single bit of it in RotF was awkward and painfully embarrassing, and pushed all of my squick buttons. Getting to just see robots beat the crap out of each other is what I wanted, so... *shrug* But we all have our likes and dislikes, so I can see why it would be too much. And it did just drag out a bit. (Also, Leonard Nimoy as Sentinel Prime was pure awesome, though it made me sad when he turned out to be evil.)

[docsgirl.livejournal.com]

Ahh, yes, "pushing the squick buttons" -- I know that feeling well. I have to say, that's a good part of the reason I disliked the first Iron Man -- all those scenes with the arc reactor (especially Pepper having to change it) hit my "gaaaaah no" meter. So I totally understand that reason for disliking. Honestly, it's been a while since I've seen ROTF, so I don't know if I'd like it more or less on a rewatch. I only own the first one. (I didn't even recognize his voice, shame on me -- Mom did, though.)

Ignore the rp journal, heh

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

Yeah, RotF had the "Sam's mom getting stoned on a pot brownie" thing and the worst line ever spoken in any movie ever, "I am directly beneath the enemy's scotrum." Not to mention the incredibly awkward forced makeout between Sam and the "hot" humanform Decepticon, which had my stomach turning. Between that and DotM, I know which one I can actually stand to watch.

Aww, and Nimoy even got the "Needs of the many" line and everything! I loled when I heard it. Although I can't really fault you; Tommy Lee Jones was in Captain America and I didn't figure out who he was until the end credits.

Re: Ignore the rp journal, heh

[docsgirl.livejournal.com]

"Sam's mom is embarrassing" got WAY overused in the sequels. A little of her being goofy is okay, but damn, writers, you have to know when to quit. And GAH, yes, the AliceCon thing creeped me out muchly too. I can do without human-copy Transformers, tanku.

I can only plead that I'm not a Star Trek fan. ^^; LOL, that's a bit like what happened with me and Patrick Dempsey's character in DotM -- I kept going "he looks familiar, who are you?" (Enchanted, Robert. Apparently he's got plenty of other famous roles, but that's how I know him.)