Transformers 3 review

As I sit here; trying to contemplate what to say about Transformers 3, I’m left with a feeling of emptiness.

I’m not empty because of the movie. In fact, I think it’s a great movie. It’s everything I asked for. When people would say that Transformers 2 sucked, I wouldn’t agree with that. There are many great scenes. What was the story trying to accomplish, I don’t know but it’s not that different than what was going on in Trannies 3. I think in lieu of spending a lot of money on the desert and Great Pyramids, we got to see what that money could do to destroy Gotham, I mean Chicago. (You can’t see the river drawbridge scenes without being reminded of TDK or even when Optimus, in full truck and trailer mode, is driving down the same street that the Joker did and then had his truck flipped. That area must be making bank with all the high priced movies shooting there.)

I feel empty because I think Michael Bay is bored. While the story of Trannies 3 was better and more comprehensive it doesn’t compare to the first one where everyone who grew up playing with the toys and watching the shows where completely blown away. He’s bored and just wanted to take this movie out by trying every trick in his book. I want to make sure that I give the writers their due. Unlike many trilogies this one wasn’t something that was a planned arc that would show the growth of these robots. Let’s not confuse it with Star Wars or LOTR. But to the writer’s credit I didn’t see the twist coming from Sentinel Prime and the plot of returning Cybertron was interesting. Where I felt empty was the execution.

Again, I have to say I feel this is a great movie in so many ways. I’ve now seen it twice and felt the same way each time. It was a spectacle to see but the “pops” and build-ups weren’t there. The second time around I saw more of the battles and they did feel longer. Any you must keep in mind that for a 15 second, grand robot fight, every single frame is basically manufactured, rendered and created by computer artist gods. In an actual real life action sequence you’d spend a fraction of the cost and could go on for 20 minutes to even come close to the cost. So I understand that time and financial constraints are what hold back the ultimate battle scenes, which is why you’d rely on a better script and execution to get the “pop” you’d want from the audience.

Make no mistake, watching the freeway scene / the HALO diving and flying through the air / almost every transformation / every hand to hand battle between robots; all where amazing. Including the use of 3D. This is what 3D was made for. This was on par with the excellence of Avatar. While 3D is over used in so many movies, such as Thor where you hardly noticed it and really just added to the ticket price, you got your money’s worth out of the 3D in Transformers 3. I’ll be glad when only a select number of films are made with the intent of having 3D and actually pull off the effects this precisely.

I’ll get back to my point so we can finish this up. With all the great things that can be said about this movie, I feel that it truly is time for Michael Bay to move on. He’s clearly tired of the franchise. I think like any genius he gathered himself and wanted to prove that the second film’s flaws could be fixed. The issue is that the heart as sole where gone. Where I could see passion was in the performance of the great “Dr. Jeong”. He’s great and to add him to the cast was fantastic. The humor of his paranoid character, which ultimately proves correct, was so funny. The other new actors, Malkovich and McDormand, weren’t needed and seemed to be over castings. Ultimately who cares, so they got a few million to be in the film, a drop in the bucket.

I can’t wait to see what Bay does next. He’s proven with these three movies that there is nothing visually that he can’t pull off. Bay has proven to be the lord of the BOOM and can take any script and turn it into a action spectacular, such as Con-Air or The Rock. Unbelievable stories but true escapism for a summer time audience.

Bay’s had to basically create actors from nothing, and I’m not talking about his female leads. I’d like to see him tackle a script that has to work around humans, even if it’s a sci-fi world, and put all the money and talent into what happens around them.

Even though I’m left a little empty and feel as though the director is clearly done with these characters, I can’t wait until Bay’s next project. The same can be said for the Transformer franchise. With the money that it’s making, there’s no way that they don’t do another film or set of films. I think it’s also proven that they can spend the money on special effects and not worry if it will make it’s money back. So imagine the right director that has an unlimited budget and also has a great story to tell. That sets up for a great Trannies 4!!!

I’m already getting excited.

As I told friends going into the movie; all I want to see is big robots transforming and blowing each other up. That’s certainly what I got.

Dwayne McDuffie

To try and pretend that I knew much about Dwayne McDuffie would only be a cruel disrespect of the man. I can’t say that he was my favorite writer ever. I can’t say that I followed him so devoutly as others have stated in recent memorials. But what I can say is that he made an impression on me. The biggest was, it seemed that every DCU animated show that I watched in the last few years always had his name appear somewhere on it. Either as writer, producer or just about any other creative-executive job one could have. He touched many of the shows that I watched and enjoyed.

When I came apparent that this guy was popping up a lot I seemed to remember the name. I went back and discovered that he was around for the comic boom in the ‘90s but was a key person in the Milestone comics, which brought minority characters to the forefront of comics. Again, I bought and read some of the stuff from back in those days but was never overly impressed. Then again, I was mainly looking at the pictures during my comic book development years and never really focused on knew what the writing had to do with comics.

What is true is that Dwayne McDuffie touched and shaped what I was learning to love. Whether I knew it or not, he was part of what I know as comic book lore. Sadly he may never get to know his impact nor the will the people who where impacted by his work know him as well as they should. He may be the reason why you’ll see a black Nick Fury in the upcoming Avengers movie. He may be the reason that DC animated shows and movies are generally better than the competition. His impact will be far greater in the long term than he may have ever realized during his life.

For all of this and including his long work in the industry that I do love, a simple thank you is what I can offer. Thank you for leaving this world with something better than it had before. There are many that work but few that impact. Thank you, Dwayne McDuffie, for everything you’ve meant to comics and the surrounding mediums.

Avengers Prime steak or just Chuck roast?

It does kill me to knock comic books. They give me so much pleasure and I always try to be a glass half full kind of guy when it comes to reviewing. I know it takes so much time and effort to put out just one book that I don't want to beat up on anybody who's out there creating.

I can feel a little better about this next part because there wasn't much creating going on here and if anything, it took some unbelievable skill to make this book even readable.

Avengers Prime, a six part mini series is far from Prime. This isn't even the cheap marinade crap you'll get from the mexican markets. That's actually enjoyable after you wrap it up with some cheese and rice; right off the grill MmMMMMMmmm.

Where do I start? I guess I'll have to list them since i think I can just come up with a bunch really fast:

1) Time to publish
-It'd be one thing if this story came out right after Siege. But in all the other books that these characters are in we've moved on. There is no reason to tell this story, that again (and you'll hear me say this again and again), could have been told in a million other places and ways. This book too 2 months per issue to come out. It's been almost a year since the end of Siege. Hell, Iron Man is onto is 2nd or 3rd new armor by now and Cap's already running an Avengers team AND acting as top cop in the Marvel U.

2) I feel like Marvel is cramming these characters down my throat as the 3 biggest they have.
- I'll get more into this later

3) This story didn't do anything for anyone or any character except for the stupid "super sword".
-After 5 issues we're left with nothing but these guys friends again, which is stupid that they had to go through this adventure to become friends because they really didn't meet back up until issue 4. They should have been forced to be stuck together and through their bickering they found why they're friends and why they have the eternal / spiritual / warrior connection. But after all this nonsense, we now have a "repaired" friendship and a magical all powered sword that's given to a guy with no room to even put it in. He's specifically instructed to put this sword somewhere safe?!!?!? Asgard is lying in ruins, where would this safe place be?

4) Ripping off the readers money by making us think that this has anything to do with anything.
- At least if this was just a One-Shot, I'd have felt like they got 3 - 5 bucks out of me but moved the characters along. NOOOOO, they milked me for 5 issues so that's over $20!!! to do nothing.

5) It trips over itself to get these small character moments in when this could have been done in a one-shot or in the characters books or any of the other Avenger regular books.
- I realized I'm saying this a lot but it's totally true and deserves it's own number as well.

6) I'm even more confused to what the "9 realms" are supposed to be.
- The biggest problem with Thor and what I see is with the upcoming Thor movie is how do you integrate this mystical world of Asgard into the real world? Thor always seems to me to be a device that no one has quite understood how to use. By himself and in a vacuum I like his stories. But trying to make the "god of thunder" and all that goes with it join into the world of humans is just odd. I can believe that an alien baby came along with super powers easier that I can that a Norse god came or was sent to earth for whatever reasons. First you have to believe in a God or Heaven, then you have to believe that instead of God, Ala or Jesus is not real but instead a Viking god from an ancient culture is. It just doesn't add up. Especially when you're trying to tie him into a team of and Industrialist, Spies, Super Soldiers or experiments gone wrong.

7) Not one of the ancillary characters made sense.
- The Elf girl that helps Captain America seems to be the only friendly character in the entire city / area that he winds up in. He's fighting an entire city of ugly warriors but then magically runs into this single hot elf that take him in and helps him? I'm waiting the whole time for her to turn on him, then once I've convinced myself that it will happen she still doesn't. How is she even in this city where everyone but her is ugly and miserable and want's to kill Cap and the legendary Thor?
- Iron man is trapped in this one place where an old man has the power to turn into a crazy Fing Fan Fum dragon. Iron man, whose suit is old and not working and literally ripped off of him somehow survives long enough through his wit and charm? But he's not charming, he's an idiot and why don't these enemies just kill him. I don't recall how he's allowed to escape. Even if they hear and see signs of the god of thunder, Tony's still just human. Kill him, eat him, stab him with something before you go investigating what made that noise.

8) This is supposed to cement in that Thor, Cap and IM are the Big Three like DC has in Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman?
- Has anyone ever heard of Spider-man or the Fantastic Four or Hulk or the X-men... One of the best things about the Marvel Universe is that there are so many stars. I understand this is for marketing purposes because of the upcoming movies. But really, is there any potential movie goer dashing to the comic book store to read the story of these three lost in a mashed up, 9 dimensional world?


The fact that the writing and art keeps you even going is a miracle. I don't know if this means Bendis and Davis are great because someone had to have came up with this idea. I would say that I do enjoy some of the tongue and cheek moments that flesh out the "big 3"'s relationship with each other and the Marvel U, but they are few and far between for a 5 book series. Like I said, we're not talking about Tarantino-like scenes. These one liners could easily be placed in other places. AND I can only think of two or three off the top of my head.

The whole idea and push on this book was stupid and and insult to avid fans and even the poor sap that's maybe just buying a few books every now and then. This is the type of stuff and rip off that pushes people away. I hope it wasn't Bendis' idea, I can almost be positive that it was not because it feels like a total money grab which leads me to believe he was told to do something like this and made it as good as he could. Let's hope that's the case.

Davis' art is very serviceable. That might sound like a slight but it's not. He does a fine job and even on some very impressive 2 page splashes creates some great war scenes with a ton of characters on the page. There's nothing bad at all, but at the same time I was rarely blown away. Again, it was good and I think it serviced this horrible mess just fine.

I'm glad I got that off my chest. It's rare that a book, even a bad one, will get me so worked up. I fall for a lot of these money grabs and unnecessary stories. 90% of the time I don't care and can find enjoyment out of them but this was too much. When I was done I truly felt FUCKED over. (Aren't you all surprised I waited this long to curse!!)

Iron Man's Legacy?

I’ve got stacks. Literally stacks of books built up. I don’t know how because I always seem to be reading but I guess there is just no catching up.

So the other day I started reading Iron Man Legacy. I wasn’t too impressed with the covers. Not that the art was bad, I just didn’t see anything that was going on during the first 6+ issues I had stored up. I liked the design of the last few that I had from the Industrial Age arc, but nothing that was reaching out and telling me that I had to read this book.

This is one of those stupid gifts, one’s procrastinating things where it actually rewards you. I love this book. I don’t understand where this is supposed to take place? Does it revolve around the movies or the current Iron Man books? I don’t know. Either I’m completely out of it or it’s never fully explained, but the best I can do is that these are just a variety of stories from all over Iron Man’s past. Which is cool. You just need to know the basics and the creators will get to tell any story they want, whether it’s when Tony Stark is at the top or bottom of his game. He’s been through so much, there’s tons of unexplored time where you can jump in and tell a story.

I guess if you’re looking for continuity for years to come, this is not the book for you. This is, a few issues, telling a good solid back story to explain a time in the character’s past. I like it.

The “Industrial Revolution” plot that I’m in the middle of is just fun. You get a ton of surprises, such as the Pride in a good role. Being from Los Angeles, I’ve always been disappointed that the west coast gets no real superhero love. The Pride was a great way to explain all of that really quickly and easily. But now that Marvel has this “Pride” I’m glad to see capable hands using them to better stories. The fact that they fear that their territory is being attacked by a broken Stark is great. The fact that they’re own fears will probably what makes Tony stronger in the end is something you can see a mile away but it’s a good footnote. And you can never go wrong with Tony being Tony while the world is crumbling around him. It’s not just that he’s a genius but he truly believes that bad environments can change and be changed if by only one man.

When a cheap little back story can get you to see how Tony sees the world even when every thing has been taken from him, you realize that maybe as much as Tony needs Iron Man…Iron Man needs Tony. Tony sees the ghetto and wants to make it better. not by just buying it up and fixing it but also, if need be, by necessity and doesn’t even realize it. He needs start up cash. He holds a town hall for the entire city and explains how a company can be started, owned, and create it’s own jobs just by the people of the city coming together.

Dealing with the economic market in my real life, I marvel at the simplicity of Tony’s idea is. Maybe it wouldn’t actually work but at least the idea is brought up. people are loosing their jobs and companies are sending the work overseas. What if a town bought a factory and everyone had a small ownership in that factory and that factory would give good jobs out and you wouldn’t need to worry that the factory wasn’t going anywhere because the people of the city owned it. There wasn’t a board that you needed to show yearly growth and how much more profits are this year than last. It’s all there for the people by the people. If only real life was as easy as comic books.

Let’s not forget the art. Steve Kurth is killing it. I see a lot of Frank Quitely in some of these shots. But there is certainly a different style. No shot seems to big for Kurth. I think that I’ve seen a lot of that lately. There seem to be a lot of good artists that get the job done. But not a lot of them can do camera breakdowns with so many in’s and out’s and different page layouts that totally flow. An artist that can give you a close up on Tony’s snarky face and then back out the camera to see an abandoned where house is really stretching the “scene” and can give you that life that sells a joke or makes the comic punch. I like it. Some artists can do the close-up and others can do the backgrounds but to have the same balance and detail to both is rare, especially with the tons of different books out there.

I won’t leave out the writer, Fred Van Lente. He’s doing a great job. Again, it’s not always easy to take a character from different times in their past and create his history. You’ve got to live in the minds of the reader. You’re telling stories about the times in between. We as readers know Tony went from rich to poor. Here it shows one of Tony’s first sober moments and how he starts to regain his wealth. Like I mentioned it also give a chance to see what’s made Tony the person he is today.

Bottom line is read it. Hell, it’s not going to kill you. You could be reading worse and I’m sure you are.