So, the fourth of July has come and gone. I hope everyone had an enjoyable and safe holiday. A bit of rain came down on New England for the fourth, so it was a great day to catch a movie. My son Ben is a HUGE Transformers fan, so there we were in the front row. Admittedly, I am not a Transformers guy. I had a few of them when I was a kid in the 80's and caught the cartoon a few times but that was about it. My favorite one when I was younger was Soundwave. The boom box that had a couple of cassettes that also transformed. The movie featured an updated CD boom box named Frenzy.
Transformers was a great movie from start to finish. The story was intriguing, the acting performances, especially that of Shia Lebeouf as the hero Sam Witwicky was very entertaining. The effetcs and CGI of the Transformers was flawless, some of the best effects I've seen in a long time. While the movie was filled with action and fighting, there was no real visible violence. No humans were shown being killed or stepped on by the giant bots. I would receommend to use caution withyounger kids, but if your child is fine with movies lkike Star Wars or Harry Potter they are more than equipped to handle Transformers.
A strange preview appeared before the film. The preview from JJ Abrams Bad Robot Production Studio seemed to center around a send off party for someone who apparently was leaving New York or New Jersey the next day. The preview was shot as if someone had a hand held cam corder and was recording the party. The party is interuppted by an eerie sound coming from the New York skyline. As the camera goes out on the balcony, large fireballs can be seen shooting up into the sky.
IMDB gives this synopsis; A giant monster movie (currently referred to internally as Cloverfield; the monster itself is referred to as "The Parasite", not to be confused with the film project The Parasyte) that is shot using home video cameras from the point of view of people who are experiencing an attack on New York City.
There is a lot of secrecy and speculation around this project,which I've seen referred to as Cloverfield and 1-18-08. A lot of the speculation seems to be that it is a new Godzilla film. I belive this could be true. Whether a true sequal or not, the 1998 Mathew Broderick movie Godzilla took place in New York and ended with the military blowing up Madison Square Garden, which was full of the Godzilla babies. I believe, although it's been a few years, so it could be I'm remembering wrong, that the movie ended with at least one of the babies surviving. Another point of speculation is that according to the sources I found online, the Godzilla property was licensed to Sony by the Japanese Toho company until 2003. Since that licensing ran out four years ago, it has not been given to any other compan or studio. On online source claims that Abrams has recently had several meetings with Toho. Also the sound heard in the new trailer is similar to the classic Japanese Godzilla sound. It would be a little funny if JJ Abrams was doing a Godzilla movie, because Abrams wrote the screen play for the 1998 Michael Bay classic Armageddon, and if you recall the beginning of the film when the initial meteors are crashing into New York city, Eddie Griffin plays a man on a bicyle with a dog named named Little Richard. Little Richard attacks a toy Godzilla at a street vendors stand.
Whether it is a Godzilla film or not, it is certainly attratcing a lot of attention. In a time when it is becoming more and more difficult to keep secrets, Abrans has done an excellent job so far. We'll have to look forward to January 18, 2008 to find out the truth.
Yesterday was the opening og the 5th Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I have been a fan of both JK Rowlings novels and the movie adaptations for several years now. I began to read the books at the urging of my wife Bonnie and was immediately drawn in to the world of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. To date, I think the films have done an excellent job of bringing this world to life on the screen. The first two films, The Sorcerer's Stone and The Chamber of Secrets were perhaps the best adaptations of the books. As the lengths of the books have increased, the last three films, The Prisoner of Azkaban (in my opinion, the weakest of the films), The Goblet of Fire and now The Order of the Phoenix, have had more difficult times translating to the screen. Some storylines and characters have had to be altered or eliminated all together. But I found each film to be both engaging and entertaining.
