Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Die Hard 4 and Transformers

Well, what can I say? "Die Hard 4" was about what I expected. The best part of this movie was who I got to see it with; my wife and a bunch of my brothers. Now I'm not a perfect example of the "typical male", so I haven't devoted my life to "Die Hard" and although I believe it to be the best "pure action movie" of all time, it doesn't land anywhere near my top-ten best movies of all time. That being said, what were they thinking making a PG-13 "Die Hard" movie? It just wasn't the same. Sure the character of John McClane was there, but everything about the movie was so watered-down. I think what makes me forgive the filmmakers for this obvious attempt to market an adult film to children, is that it meant that I got to see it with more brothers than if it had been rate R. Stephen, David, Thomas, Nate and Jon all got to come with Jess and I, so it was a fun night out, and a good memory.

I debated wether or not I should set aside a whole review for "Transformers", but in the end I think it's alright for it to share space with "Die Hard 4"... "Transformers" is super awesome. Not "totally" super awesome, but super awesome nevertheless. Before going in (and Nate and I already discussed this) I knew that this was going to be a typical (notice how I've already used that word twice today) Michael Bay movie. Now that's not a bad thing, it worked alright for "Armageddon" and "The Rock". At the same time you've got to realize this before going into one of his movies; there isn't going to be a great story, you're going to have some shallow characters, and the over-the-top production/humor/acting/camera angles are are filler between the things that actually paid to see. That being said, what made this movie so sweet were the Transformers themselves. I could give examples of what scenes were the coolest and why I already want to see this movie again, but I think my word should be enough, this movie is super awesome. Two more gripes though; is the PG-13 mother/son interchange really necassary? Sure it was funny, but come on! Secondly, why if you can make so many super awesome special effects work in a big budget movie, are there special effects sprinkled throughout that make me think I'm watching a cartoon? It jolts me out of my amazement, and I know they can do better, they already did in the same movie. Maybe they should just cut out the unpolished effects, the corny teenage angst love story, the heroic army buddies and the clueless parents and just give us the coolest 30 minute Transformer movie ever.

1 comment:

Nate said...

Die Hard was enjoyable. I thought it was better than the second and third die hards. Transformers, to say the least, was better.