The Strain - 1x01 Night Zero - Review

He is here...

A plane lands and not a single passenger or crew member is alive. Or so they thought. That is the opening of Guillermo Del Toro's The Strain. If a Pilot episode beginning with a plane makes you think of Lost or Fringe know that while they're all related to current showrunner Carlton Cuse, this is a very different story. Different for those who are unfamiliar with vampire lore or perhaps horror enthusiasts just hoping for a return to the savage vampires of the ancient world. This Pilot begins with a lot of set up yet shows a lot of promise.

Being a Pilot it should be no surprise that this is mainly about establishing and world building. We are quickly introduced to the problem. Something killed 206 passengers on a plane while leaving 4 of them alive. And on that plane is a gigantic 9 foot tall wooden box with images of the grim reaper carved all over it. An already ominous sign that terrible things are set in motion.

Our heroes are Eph Goodweather played by Corey Stoll of House of Cards fame and Nora Martinez played by Mia Maestro. Both doctors and high authorities of the Center for Disease Control. From the beginning it is made clear that Eph is the everyman that we should relate to. He's good hearted and cares about this son. But at the same time we find him at a family crisis as his wife (played by Natalie Brown) is planning on divorcing him and taking custody of their son. Why would she want to leave such a caring man? Because of his biggest flaw: his extreme dedication to his work. He jokes that if he goes on vacation thousands of people die. And from the extremes of what he is introduced to in the Pilot, there is no chance for a vacation. His partner Nora has a romantic history with Eph, one that clearly establishes who the audience should expect to be the one Eph will and should eventually wind up with. It is a mutual attraction but Eph still remains loyal to his wife for the sake of his son while Nora has already accepted that they have to keep things professional. And with the danger that has surfaced, custody battles and romance should be the last thing on their minds.

The only one who seems to clearly understand what is going on is an Armenian Pawn Shop owner named Abraham Setrakian played by David Bradley. Many will remember him as Walder Frey from Game of Thrones as the man responsible for The Red Wedding. And while that one act completely removed memories of him being in the Harry Potter franchise, here he is no longer a side character or a villain but rather a hero. Horror aficionados and vampire geeks should know that Abraham is a direct reference to the legendary vampire hunter Abaraham Van Helsing. Given that this show feels like a modern retelling of Dracula then it should come to no surprise as what Abraham Setrakian's true occupation is and comes off as the most compelling character in The Pilot. He is a holocaust survivor, a vampire hunter, wields a sword cane, and talks to heart in a jar that is still very much alive. That last bit lets you know that there is a lot more complexity with this character if he's talking to the still beating heart of his dead wife. He will definitely be the one to watch in this series.

If you are looking for blood and gore, it is definitely there. It is not overdone as the episode is more of a slow burn thriller than a blood fest. But when it happens it happens in full force. The first clear view of the enemy is both horrifying and a promise of doom. It is the best representation of a vampire lord and brings the creatures back to what they originally were: MONSTERS! 

However as I stated, it is a slow burn and it is a pilot so it really is just about establishing. Characters are introduced to a problem and everyone acts accordingly as to how one in the real world would approach that problem. The performances are fine save for one airline worker at the beginning, yet this is still the start so only time will tell if all these characters can endure. It may not be the best opener that starts with a bang but what it does have is intrigue. Who is this monster? How did our vampire hunter came to be who he is? What are these bloodsucking worms inside the corpses of the dead passengers? Will Eph believe in what Nora is already starting to accept as truth. There are monsters in this world, and "He is here."

SCORE: 7.5 - An okay start but holds a lot of promise for the future of the series.

STATUS: Continue to watch

Review for Next Episode - Click Here

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Analysis and Review

When the Hate started coming in... and Rightfully So

The hotly anticipated sequel to the 2007 unexpected (though not really if one were to think about) smash hit goes for bigger and broader in scope. And the expectations of many were so high for the cast and crew to improve on the very fixable mistakes that were made in the first one as well as enhance what was good in the first one. Does it do that? Well...

The Plot

When Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) triggers a map to a new source of power that gets embedded in his mind, he is once again thrusted into the war between the noble Autobots and evil Decepticons. With his girlfriend, Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox), and his college roommate, Leo Spitz (Ramon Rodriguez), they must trek across the globe to not only find this source of power before the Decepticons do but also hope that it may save the life of Autobot leader: Optimus Prime.

Analysis

It is actually amazing how much watching a movie on the day of release with a massive audience can make one's perception of a movie very murky. I remember it very clearly that while my group of 14 friends and I showed up really early to our screening we still wound up being stuck in the front row. It got crowded really quick, to the point where some people were willing to sit on the steps. Of course that didn't fly well for the ushers, but some refused to move.

But back to my point. I remember having an incredibly fun movie going experience watching this movie. The crow was laughing and cheering and just full of this overwhelming excitement that was intoxicating. My friends and I were caught up in all this energy that it just made the experience a thousand times more enjoyable.

However when we walked out of the theater and had dinner at the sushi establishment across the street...we never talked about whether or not we liked the movie. Which was weird because that is something we always do after seeing a movie. 

It wasn't until I bought the movie on special edition DVD (damn you blu-ray for ruining my chances of having a complete special edition DVD set) that I discovered why we didn't talk about the movie.

But it does show a lot of just how powerful the theater going experience is. Watching this movie alone is not fun. Watching this movie during matinee would not be fun either. Watching it with a crowd of people who loves this movie no matter what? That is truly something magical. 

But now that the magic doesn't follow me to home viewing, lets talk about this piece of ****.

Review

There was a lot going on in this movie. And I do mean a lot. First there is LaBeouf's Sam having to deal with college and being away from his girlfriend. Then there's the horny conspiracy theory roommate who serves one purpose in the movie: being the conspiracy theorist. Then of course the villain from the first movie is brought back to life to kill the number one reason why people want to see this movie (Optimus Prime) so that it would really tie in to another plot of the movie. Then there's the globe trotting to get to the climax and the third act of the film. Okay that doesn't sound like a lot is going on, in fact it all goes together quite nicely on paper. The problem is a good idea on paper may not look good on screen.

As I mentioned the plot seems to be about bringing Optimus Prime back to life after getting killed by a revived Megatron. Oh, is that a spoiler? Well with all out honesty the plot of the film is marketed as an ancient Decepticon wants to harvest the sun's energy....because he wants to harvest the sun's energy. The title Revenge of the Fallen suggests that the titular Fallen (the ancient Decepticon voiced by Tony Todd) wants revenge on someone. Though as the opening prologue states: the ones he wants revenge on have been dead for thousands of years. So...there really is no revenge factor. If anyone should be getting revenge it should be Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving) because he was killed in the first movie. The title would've fit perfectly if that was the case because he has indeed fallen and come back to life. But no he does not seek to kill Optimus for revenge, he seeks to kill Optimus because his master The Fallen can only be killed by someone with Prime in their name. So in a sense the character who should get revenge doesn't actually get revenge on the character who would give cause for revenge but instead does things because he was told to do so. Makes sense?

Anyway this film could've gone a lot differently had it been marketed as what it is: we need to bring Optimus Prime back to life. That is the plot of the movie. But the problem is they had to make it so complex yet at the same time so convenient that a world ending device could also be the key to bringing Optimus back to life. So many moving parts for something that should really just be straight forward. Yet that plot gets mixed in with other plots that get dragged out unnecessarily. Especially with the nonexistent presence of this new villain because although he shows off that he is powerful he doesn't really do much to justify his place in the movie. Let alone justify why his name should be in the title.

The acting was just over the top. I'm not going to name names specifically because lets face it everyone was acting over the top in this movie. Even in the emotional scenes it seemed too heightened for what it should be. The one who I was paying attention to was Isabel Lucas who plays the robot disguised as a human named Alice. The reason was mainly due to her being pointed as the next big thing, and a fine actress. Unfortunately the role she was given in this movie was not a really nice display of her acting range. Which is sad because I've seen her in The Pacific and she's great. 

And the action of seeing robots fight other robots is completely ruined by not knowing who is fighting who. A lot of new hero robots are introduced, including female robots, and a lot of new villain robots are introduced, but in the end unless one is really paying attention very very very carefully (like me) you would have no idea who is who or who is fighting what. This was a minor problem in the previous one but at least there were multiple times when the fights were clear. In this one the only fight that was clear and well done was the one with Optimus battling Megatron and two other Decepticons at the same time. Other than that one part, all the other action in the movie is terrible. And this is suppose to be coming from action auteur, Michael Bay.

I should probably talk about those two idiot robots in the movie but I'm not going to waste internet space for that.

Final Thoughts

I wish I can relive that movie theater experience of seeing this movie with a crowd of blind excited fans because the movie I remembered seeing on the big screen was not the same one I saw when I watched it at home alone. And after seeing the third one that's when it dawned on me that seeing a Transformers movie with a crowd of Transformer movie fans is the best way to see the movie. You will get lost in the energy and feel like it is the greatest movie ever! But sadly it is not.

SCORE: 4/10 - A movie to enjoy only at a midnight screening with hardcore fans of the series

For a review of the previous film, CLICK HERE
For a review of the next film, CLICK HERE

Transformers - Analysis and Review

The One that Started it All

I grew up playing with Transformers and watching the Beast Wars animated series as well as some of the G1 cartoons. So when this movie was announced back in 2007, a fond High School memory becomes solidified.

The Plot

When Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) gets a "piece of crap Camaro" as his first car, he unwillingly becomes embroiled in a secret galactic war between alien robots that can transform into vehicles. One of them being the very car that he purchased in hopes of impressing his crush, Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox). With an alien war on the verge to begin, Sam and Mikaela are thrown into a battle where the fate of the world may hang int the balance.

Analysis

You may notice from that plot synopsis that I came up with for this movie that I do not mention Optimus Prime or Megatron. Well to put it simply, they were supporting roles and the main attraction of the movie. When writing the plot synopsis for Jurassic Park I wouldn't put the T-Rex in a starring role even though he is in the movie a lot. He is the main attraction. Just as the Transformers in this movie called Transformers are the main attraction. And that's something I want to point out.

Having studied filmmaking and having a degree in it you learn a thing or two about why some movies are made the way they are. While this is the most loved of Michael Bay's Transformers franchise it still gets flack for being "not about the Transformers." Let's put it this way.

A lot of people were happy with the announcement of a live action Transformers movie only to be disappointed by the lack of Transformers as the main characters. However let me talk about my favorite scene from the sequel, Revenge of the Fallen. It is the scene where Megatron is talking to The Fallen in the Nemesis spaceship. That scene was entirely animated and photorealistic. Like many I thought why can't the whole movie be about the drama of the robots rather than the humans? You know, like the cartoons? But then that is when it hits me. If they do make a live action movie just centered on the robots then does it really still count as a live action movie? Because lets face it all the robots are animated, with the exception of Bumblebee in this film, who has once scene as a life-size practical effect animatronic. So in a sense, wouldn't it just be a photo realistic animated movie instead of a live action movie? Sure one can argue that they can have the settings be live action, but wouldn't it be more easier just to CGI everything at that point?

Where I'm getting at here is that creating photorealistic creatures and settings is hard and it costs money. I usually get mad at people who call it lazy CGI without knowing how difficult and time consuming it is to make high class CGI for big studio movies. Plus the live action elements are there so that CGI doesn't have to dominate the whole movie and most of the money funneled into making that CGI look realistic is to enhance what little scenes require them.

That's just my take on why I understand there has to be a human story from a production stand point. Of course the other one is that most people are not Transformers fans and don't care about the robots so there has to be some human element for those audiences to watch.

Review

This is the best of the original trilogy in my opinion and I will lay out why. The story is pretty much a teenage version of E.T. If E.T. is about a boy becoming friends with a lost alien, then this film is about a teenage boy becoming friends with an alien robot. And because this film is for teenage boys who want everything to be violent with explosions and hot girls or in this case just one hot girl, it needs to have all that. So yes, this is pretty much a teenage boy's dream come true. And having watched this when I was still in High School, it definitely did resonated with me. While I may not have the same taste in movies as I did then that I do now, I still find the same enjoyment I did when I was that age.

Shia LaBeouf does an excellent job as Sam Witwicky, who is a character that exists in the cartoon but not many people seem to remember that. While the character of Sam was a supporting character in the cartoon, here he is front and center as the audiences eyes into this intergalactic war. He is everything the stereotypical loser teenage boy would be in a movie and that works for his character. His comedic timing is excellent and really helps him be likable for the audience.

Megan Fox was someone I've known about before her big screen debut due to my mother watching the Kelly Ripa show Hope and Grace where she plays Ripa's niece. She does well in comedy, and since then seems to have discovered that genre is probably where she belongs. But let's get back to her performance in this film. It was just enough to convince the audience she is worth remembering. Though that is not due to her acting but more about the way director Michael Bay chose to shoot her. She's gorgeous and the camera and lighting reminds us of that fact the whole time she's on screen. The problem is she does come off as a bit shallow even though she's suppose to have this interesting development of becoming less shallow as the story goes on. Sorry, but even with that development for her character, her acting still makes her look like a shallow girl.

Of course the supporting cast does a decent job. Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson are believable as well as funny as the military men who first discover the presence of alien robots. Rachel Taylor and Anthony Anderson offer some good comic relief and exposition speakers as the hackers in the movie. Jon Voight was just perfect casting to play the Secretary of Defense. And then there's John Turturro as Agent Simmons....funny secret agent...cool. In other words everyone does well with what they're suppose to do. But seeing as how I can't remember most of their names it often questions just how important they are to the plot other than exposition? Oh well, they do decent jobs.

Now lets talk about the robots. ILM deserves all the praise they get for pulling off bringing these complex robotic creatures to the big screen. The biggest boost to them is having cartoon voice legend Peter Cullen voicing the live action version of the character that made him legendary: Optimus Prime. It was his casting that got G1 fans excited, and it sure as hell made me excited. Hearing his voice come out of the gigantic robot king will send shivers down the spine of even the most harshest critic of this film. He was definitely the best part of the movie. And then there's Hugo Weaving as Optimus' famed nemesis, Megatron. Being known for playing villains, Weaving does excellent as the gigantic robot tyrant. For what little screen time the villain gets (yes that is disappointing) Weaving makes your remember Megatron.

The action in the movie is fine, though it could benefit by being a little bit more clear as to who is fighting who. This is not too much of a problem as there are only 6 Autobots (good transformers) battling 5 Decepticons (bad transformers) in the movie so it becomes clear later on. The resolution of the required final battle in the third act is lackluster but in the end it is still a good movie.

Final Thoughts

This is definitely a film worth seeing. It is not as great as I thought it was when I saw it in High School, but by no means do I think it is horrible. This is definitely the best film of the original trilogy because it feels like the most complete film. It is also the shortest of the Transformers which is why it works. It is compact and straight forward instead of drawn out. It is understandable that this may not be everyone's cup of tea, but if one were to ask what would be a cool fun sci-fi action film to watch but doesn't require too much thinking, I'd gladly point to this film. It's just a good time.

SCORE: 7.5/10 - Just a real good time and a fine toy/car commercial

For a review of the next film, CLICK HERE