Transformers/Once
So the Wang hada to break his blog silence due to the recent blockbuster events that is Transformers. Sure there should be much updates from Coachella which is like what two month old event, so here, just have the photo set and we'll pretend that there was a long blog about it. It was fun and I saw... etc. And China, well. we'll get to China, 1 day.
So the events that motivate the Wang to writing creativity is none other than the events of this past 4th of July holiday weekend wed.. In which the Wang saw two films. One is Transformer, more than meets the eye in product placement and Once. Which by any compassion was the complete antithesis of each other. Both were entertaining, one of course was much better than the other.
When the Wang say antithesis one film here cost 150 million and the other $150k. One is filled with special effects that can feed the entirety of ILM or Digital Domain's family members for the coming year, while the other is shot probably on some hand held digital camera without even a lighting director. One has a cast of famous actors producers, the other barely even gives its main character a name.
First off, the Wang saw transformers on its semi opening day of 7/3. Not wanting to support the blockbuster machine, but the Wang is a sucker for nostalgia. And yes, the Wang has the touch! Anyways one thing the Wang learned is that the Bay Area sucks in its theater going experience as in contrast to SoCal. Theaters are old and tiny and ppl rnt really into the films as much as a Mann's Chinese crowd gets on opening night. Even some of the Wangs peeps have never been to a DLP theater. What is it like the stone age here in the dot com capital of the world?
Anyways, the Wang sat down and begin to enjoy this movie, as some 21 yrs earlier, much similar younger Wang sat down to enjoy Transformers: The Movie. And yes, the gist of it is, this movie was a Michael bay film hands down. It was a string of music videos and commercials strung together by the product placement and some sense of a robots. Don't get me wrong though, this movie was a techno-marvel of special effects. As Noble_zone said, this thing should win an oscar for efx. The transforming sequences supposedly had 10,000 moving 3d parts that made every computer on some ILM server farm, the happiest-little-computer-they-could-be for the last few months. And probably funded ILM's next 4 yrs of budget not to mention 3 company parties and a bowling trip to that bowling alley in the Presideo, I mean it has to get some customers right? But to the average movie goers, we probably wont see all the details of these effects, which probably lead to Mr. Starrfizzy's complaints of the final battles being too confusing. The Wang agrees. Just as some of the autobots came out to fight, the Wang was thinking, "where did they get these robot action coordinators? Quake players?!" Cause clearly the robots were taking some sort of bunny-hopping duck and roll route of gun warfare. Perhaps they are car-fu-ing their gun-fus. Plus Ironhide busting out the rocket jump acrobatics was definitely a clear sign that this movies, was in fact directed by Quake Kids.
So the bad stuff first:
- Comical Autobot wackiness, note backyard fun and jokes
- Confusing robot on robot action, where 1 grey lump of 10,000+ machine jumps another 18,000 machine part rendered into a pile of metal.
- Secondary characters and plot are a waste of time, thought the hawt aussie girl can hang out with Megan Fox. Even though no one believes her to be a real computer hacker/signal expert, unless its in my dreams!
- meaningless characters, cameos, product placements
- the GM car commercial in the middle of the movie, where the autobots all pose in some sort of Autotrend's center fold esque desert road show.
Ok now the good stuff:
- MEGAN FOX
- The Wang got goose-bumps when optimus Prime utter the line, "At the end of this day... one shall stand, one shall fall." But that lead to uber disappointment when the Prime-megatron fight was a pretty sad pile of metal
- Special effects were really good. The computer CGI stuff blended into the background of LA streets like there were really standing there blowing up ppl.
With all that said, the Wang was happy that the writing stuff was fanboi/fangrrls that gave homage to the cartoons. Jokes, 1-liners, comical character interactions were all some part of nostalgic shout-out to the 80s cartoon. But the writers also were some part of Dreamwork corporate machine, who probably wrote it while Mr. bay shot his golden hour helicopter landings and slo-mo machine gun firing scenes. The movie is fun but it really doesn't work together much as a coherent story.
And on the other end of the movie making machine is Once. A low budgeted Indie film by director John Carney, whom was once a bandmate to the lead Glen Hansard from the band The Frames. This film is about an Irish busker ( I had to look that up, its some sort of street singing I thinkg...) That basically is lost in his ways. He meets girl, Marketa Irglova, Czech singer who plays a skill Czech pianist that sells flowers on the street to support her kid and mom. This movie is similar to In the Mood for love in that 2 people come together that they should be together, but they wont, a little due to loneness a little due to their place in life. But responsibilities and situations make it so that the two main characters have to go through a journey of deciding where to go from that point on.
But this movie is described as a musical...
It has scenes that pay homage to Fiona Apple's music video of Never is a Promise where Marketa Irglova does a full song walking towards the camera. Somewhere around here, the Wang realized that the movie is, in fact a musical. But director John Carney blends the use of music so well, that there's no breaking the 4th wall feel when characters start singing. No, they aren't sing like Disney musicals, they are literally just playing songs and singing in real life. And the folks around them reacts to it as if they r just singing on the streets. Marketa sings The Hill (link is for a user made youtube video using the song, footage is from Night Watch) as she walks home after buying some batteries for her CD player.
This movie is brilliantly done is such a low key, that u don't feel the time that passes. Coming just around 1:30 ish min, this movie feels much denser than Transformer 2:30 running time. In fact its slower moments are more interesting when supported by Glen Hansard's music. Many scenes are more expressive just from the few songs that play and sing. Here's a clip that pretty much sums up the feel of the movie in which the 2 characters play together for the first time and create the title track of the movie, "Falling Slowly":
IN the end I think It came down to this: I was entertained by both movies as I watched them, but Once definitely lingered in my mind. As the Wang traveled through the wilderness there was much thought about the characters, the music, their choices, and the ending. More things were learned the more one think about movies like that, in fact it, not unlike an onion, has layers. Transformer made me think for like 10 min on what a stupid and anti-climatic ending. While Once's ending made the Wang go look for more music from the movie and eventually listening to The Swell Season on repeat for the better part of the day. Now the Wang just have to find the Once Soundtrack.
MP3:
