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Over the holidays I watched a pair of fluffy summer popcorn movies, Transformers and Spider-Man 3. My general reaction to each of them was pretty much the same, though for different reasons. I thought they were both pretty blah. They share the big reasons for that, a weak script and plot. Without a good script, plot or characters, it's hard to really get into a movie - no matter how flashy or fun it is. Even pure comedies at least need characters you can empathize with a bit.

I suppose there's some empathy for the characters in Spider-Man, but it gets ruined by the poor dialog and the giant goofy section in the middle - where we stop caring for them. In Transformers, true to Michael Bay fashion, they didn't even try. It was just a joyride from the start.

The Transformers did have one aspect that was very interesting; the effects were amazing. There were these giant talking robots interacting with people, and the whole time it just worked. Computer graphics have come a very long way. I remember when I saw Jurassic Park being struck by how real the dinosaurs looked, but you knew they were still fake, they looked both real and fake at the same time. We're past that now, things just look like they're actually there. It's a wonderful power to put in the hands of creative filmmakers. I love science fiction and fantasy, and to give filmmakers the ability put realistic looking visuals to the amazing things they can dream up is pretty cool.

Of course, sometimes they don't pair all that coolness with an intersting story, and then it's just an exercise is imaging cool things, instead of doing what great sci-fi and fantasy do: explore personal stories outside the constraints of our realistic world.

Labels: Movie

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