Afishionados,

Today was a good day. I spent the afternoon and evening with my grandma. I love her, she’s incredible. She’s in her mid eighties now but still gets around quite well and likes to go to the movies. Tonight we saw the Transformers movie together then went out for dinner. Next up this week, we’ll be seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

I thought that the Transformers movie was good. I expected no plot, lots of CG special effects, and lots of action. I was not disappointed, and there was even a fair bit of humor in the film as well. I loved the Transformers toys and TV show as a kid, and I wanted to see how well the film compared to what I remember of the “old school” Transformers as a child.

My favorite Transformers growing up were Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. The movie features the original voice of Optimus Prime (the great Peter Cullen) from the cartoons, which is great because Prime’s gruff voice is one of the features that helps define him as a character. Optimus Prime without Peter Cullen would be like Darth Vader without James Earl Jones. Prime’s voice has always been great, but it simply sounds the best in surround sound.

I always liked Bumblebee because he used to be a Volkswagen Beetle and I have always liked that car. In the new film, however, he’s a Camaro because Volkswagen wouldn’t allow their beloved car to be seen transforming and blowing up other, more evil space alien robots, and therefore would not give the studio its blessing to keep Bumblebee a bug. For fans of the old Transformers, though, Bumblebee’s introduction in the film features a great inside joke with regard to this “Volkswagen change of character” situation. I thought it was funny.

Acting is what you would expect it to be: all but nonexistent. Sam (played by Shia LaBeouf) is believable as a high school nerd, and is actually funny in some scenes. Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) plays the girlfriend/heroine and is good screen candy and little else. Jon Voight (Defense Secretary John Keller) is the worst of everyone and Josh Duhamel (Air Force Captain Lennox) shows that Captains in the Air Force are not required to have their hair cut to military standards. Oh, and his character is pointless, too.

☆☆☆☆

Four Autobots out of Five.

Speaking of movies, The Simpsons Movie has a feature on their web site where you can make yourself a character in the Simpsons universe. Here is what I would look like if I were a character in the Simpsons.

Now, go make your own Simpsons avatar. It’ free, you don’t have to register, and I want to see what you guys look like.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 12:25 am and is filed under Family, Movies, Observations, Oddities, Pets, Photos, Plugs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.