Watched Ghost in the Shell

Got a free ticket for Ghost in the Shell from Crunchyroll. I almost walked out during the first half hour but got myself to sit through it. I wasn't a fan of the original animated movie (I thought it was okay) and this one wasn't much better or worse. I thought Beat Takeshi was wasted in this movie. Yeah, he looked badass at the end but he really didn't fit in with the rest of the movie especially since he's the only one who spoke Japanese (what was with that anyways, him being the only character who did that?). I wasn't bothered by the white-washing. The CEO was white, the tech team was white, they're replacing her original body anyways, just make her white! The city was totally Blade Runner. Probably because of that, it totally did not blow me away because for all the CGI used, it didn't feel any more spectacular in comparison to Blade Runner's city. I'm surprised at the amount of scenes the live action lifted from the animated version. I give it a C-. Watchable but barely. I'm glad it was a free ticket. :p

Saw 6

I just watched Saw 6 last week and thought it was mediocre. I liked how it attacked the assbackwards-ness of the American health insurance system however, I didn't like the ending. It didn't feel like a real Jigsaw test at all since it's missing a recording from Kramer explaining the test. Also the gore has become too gratuitous and it's torture to watch through them to enjoy the otherwise enjoyable film series. Apparently the next is the last one; I sure hope it is.

Yeah, the Transformers movie sucked

I was at Fry's and they had Transformers (the live action movie) showing on DVD on a theater setup. I started watching from the point where Sam & co. enters Hoover Dam. While watching it, the numerous ridiculous things about the film came flying back in my face especially after they entered the city for the last battle. The army guys taking the AllSpark into the city and NOT GETTING THE CIVILIANS EVACUATED until way after the fighting has started. The guys playing sitting duck for Starscream to blast their asses instead of running for cover. Sam for some reason keeps making damaged Bumblebee crawl around after him instead of standing still so he can give him the Allspark. Sam running to the tower on foot instead of GETTING A CAR AND DRIVING THERE. The numerous "nice shot taken just because it looks nice" moments. I couldn't stand it anymore and moved on with my shopping without watching it to the end.

PS: One more thing that annoyed me about the movie: I'm not a pro-life or anything but they had a scene where they gave life to a Nokia Transformer and then killed it. I mean sure it was kinda dangerous to let it live but they could have at least tried to communicate with it or tried some kind of peaceful resolution instead of just zapping it dead. What bothered me even more was that nobody batted an eye when it got killed.

Anyways, for all the reasons above, if Revenge of the Fallen is anything like the dreck that was the first movie, it definitely won't be anywhere near as good as Star Trek. Nevertheless, I'll still catch it in the theaters so I can see the giant robots and cool effects on the big screen.

PPS: Yeah the title is in reference to Bay's first TF movie. So sue me. :p

Star Trek was teh awesome :D

Yeah, the movie rocked. Excellent stuff. Not to say it's perfect. There were a couple of things that kinda bugged me. First was the Deux ex Machina moments. There's been plenty of those throughout the various TV series and movies but that doesn't excuse its use. The second was the potential romance between certain key characters. That one kinda came way out of left field. Still, it was a great movie and deserves watching on the big screen! While the movie use modern day special effects, the look both inside and outside the spaceships have this feeling I can only define as "old school". I don't know if anyone knows what I'm talking about.

On a related note, I caught this Yahoo article about some guy's rant about "fake" IMAX which in turn got me interested in watching the Star Trek IMAX. The one "true" IMAX in Houston would be the Edwards MarqE on I-10. This seems to be the last week of airing so I'll need to be quick if I'm going to catch the IMAX version.