Nerds - the good and the bad

I went to see the new Transformers movie on Tuesday, and I've been trying to get myself motivated to write something about it (or at least make a point or two that hasn't already been made by other, better, critics).

Immediately after the movie ended, I groaned about how crappy the logic of the plot was during the last half of the movie. OT, who was sitting next to us (and who drove us to the movie at 52 MPH through Oakwood), defended the film as "just a B-movie," presumably meaning it shouldn't be expected to have coherent storytelling. I don't think you can claim any Michael Bay film as a "B-Movie," between the massive budgets and explicit military support (I especially loved the 3-minute sequence early in Transformers that consists of characters shouting the names of various Air Force planes, then showing the planes taking off and flying in slow motion).

Maybe my standards were too high, but that's only because Michael Bay has demonstrated his ability to tell a decent story in his movies (The Rock is still one of my all-time favorites). It was only worse because the first half or so of Transformers is fantastic - Bay established characters who behave in a logical, realistic fashion and put them in interesting (albeit fantastic situations). By the time we get to the obligatory massive CGI action/fight setpiece, all of this gets thrown out the window in exchange for swelling chamber music and slow-motion robots pulling off John Woo-style shooting flips.

I applaud the programmers who designed the robots for the film - they're all really cool looking (at least I think they were - it's hard to see detail in the split-seconds between explosions and edits). But even the best-looking giant robot semi trailer is a letdown if I, the viewer, don't care about it or why it's fighting (especially when I'm not really clear on what's happening).

One of my favorite TV series was the Beast Wars relaunch, which used the Transformers brand in a new kids' cartoon in the early 90s. It was entirely computer-animated (one of the first shows to do so), and as expected sometimes looked absolutely terrible, like it was running an old 16-bit video game cutscene. Despite the visuals lacking, the writing was fantastic, way above par for a show aimed at children - and I'll take a crummy-looking quality story over shiny, polished crap any day.

In other nerd news, I was directed to this page today - I've watched the simulation 4 times so far, and it's excellent each time. Check it out. I dare you...