I went to see Transformers 2 yesterday, and I saw Star Trek and Up earlier last month, so I'd like to take some time to throw in my two cents.

Transformers: Rise of the Fallen
The recent revival of 80's franchises is not so surprising to me. We've kept the likes of Batman and Superman going for 70 years now, so why not Transformers? Now, I had some problems with the first Transformers film. It was fun to watch the Autobots in action, and when Optimus Prime talks, I get the same geek-asm as everyone else [even though I was more of a He-Man/Thundercats kinda guy back in the day]. There were a lot of little things that bothered me though, and in retrospect, they really weren't anything more than that. Little things. Like Bumblebee pissing on Agent Simmons [John Turturro], Frenzy's digitized voice, the fact that Sam's grandfather was already old when he found Megatron decades ago, and just a lot of very awkward moments. I know, some people like awkward moments in movies, but I have limits. Hearing Sam's mother talk about his "happy time" makes me cringe. Goddamn suburban yuppie twits. I admit, even I think these are minor gripes, but they still matter.

Having said that, let me now say that I LOVED Transformers: Rise of the Fallen! Michael Bay and company spend a lot of time talking about how much bigger and better the fights, explosions, and CGI are, but they're not the only things that came back better. The history of the Transformers and their activities on Earth are given more depth than before, as well as their reasons for being here. Also many of the Transformers themselves are more fleshed out as characters. My favorite one was Jetfire, the cantankerous old Transformer from the Smithsonian. It never occurred to me that a Transformer could actually age the way people do. That alone makes them more believable as an alien species. His performance as an seasoned veteran on his last legs was very dramatic and very funny. You could actually see him coming apart as he walked.

I also liked Shia LaBeouf more in this picture too, he's matured a lot since the first one, both as an actor and in his portrayal of Sam Witwicky. He's much cooler in a crisis. My favorites, though, were Agent Simmons and the Witwickys, who got more involved in the action this time around. Their character moments were more sincere and more involving. Simmons was the resident jerk in the first film, but now that he's a retired agent trying to make a difference one more time, I actually have more sympathy for him. The Witwickys outgrow the yuppie twit stereotype in their interactions with Sam and each other. Watching the mother cry over Sam's baby shoes and trip out over the 'special' brownies made me laugh, and near the end, when Sam's father, who up until then struck me as a sarcastic dork whose biggest concern was the lawn, really came out of his shell when Sam... well, you'll have to see that for yourself.

It's not a perfect film, but it's better than before and a lot more fun. Give it a shot.

Star Trek
I liked most of the previous Star Trek films, but they all seemed to have one thing in common. The characters were getting older. No, that's not quite right. It's not that they were getting older, it's the fact that each successive film seemed to be pushing the fact that they were becoming obsolete in their own eyes. I mean, Insurrection was a fight over a fountain of youth. Maybe it's me, but each new film was falling over the idea that their time had passed. Not so with the new Star Trek.

The new film, which interestingly enough finds a way to reboot the series without tossing away continuity, takes more of an action film route, really pushing the tension that comes from a starship dogfight. I saw this film in IMAX, and I gotta say, I haven't felt that level of tension since the last time I went scuba diving. You're staying alert at every moment, because you know that if something goes wrong, you end up suffocating under 100 feet of sea water. Working on a space ship has that same kind of tension, and Star Trek does a great job of conveying the idea.

Another great thing about the film was the casting. Each new face gave renewed meaning to the classic characters. I kept trying to see Sylar, but all I could see was Spock. They were THAT good. And it's a good thing they were, because at the end of the day, it was the strength of the characters who crewed the original Enterprise that won us over, and they each got their moment to shine.

Of course, the main story revolves around James Kirk and Spock, and their personal connection to Nero, the Romulan madman who wants to destroy them. This is the first time these two men have had to work together, and while we're used to seeing them as friends, their interactions are explosive right from the start. But as the crisis builds, they have no choice but to work together, and they are an excellent team.

Star Trek ditches the long drawn out politics of the last 40 some-odd years and reminds us all why we loved them in the first place.

Up
People say this is the most depressing Pixar film they've ever seen, and really, I think that's the point. You'd have to get pretty far down to want to get up that high. The Pixar films I've seen all seem to offer some very fundamental commentaries on life and human nature as we know it. It's all about big emotions.

*I'll have to finish this review later. Remember, I've still got those eBay auctions going on.