Transformers 4

I hate the Michael Bay Tranformers films.  I hate them for all the reasons people have said but the biggest problem I have had with them is the fact that they're just JUVENILE movies.  They try to be funny and fail miserably.

Transformers can be really cool and they have butchered that which I loved as a kid.

Now they're making part 4 and there are going to have the Dinobots in it even though they really should have appeared sooner.  Swoop was one of my favorites.

Another favorite is appearing, too:  Hound.

Now if this is real then I must express my dislike.  For those Batman fans who didn't like Batman&Robin?  You know how I feel then times FOUR.

Now I will give the films credit in the special effects but if you throw enough money at anything (or have the name Spielberg behind your project) then you'll get the best special effects money can buy.  I will give credit to the films too in regards to the look of the Transformers.  I thought I was going to hate it back it 2007 in the first movie but I actually like the idea how inhuman they look in appearance, the decepitcons especially.

I had so hoped Bay was going to step away from Transformers...

Well hey, Hollywood is rebooting everything, maybe they'll reboot this.

My Name is Kahn

I don't give spoiler alerts.  That's the chance you take when you log online.  Deal with it.

Where the HELL do I begin with Star Trek Into Darkness?

Okay I'll start with what worked.  It started off great and I was happy to see that it was better than the first.  A good, cool plot and lots of drama in regards to Kirk and his career.  There's this guy, a traitor who killed a bunch of people and they need to track him down.  A starfleet admiral wants him dead but Kirk decides to bring him in.

So far, so good.  Then one line ruined it all:

"My name is Kahn."

That's when the movie goes south and doesn't recover.  I had a feeling that was where they were going, with rumors and all, but I wish they hadn't.

I will say this:  At first I thought that Kahn surrendering was a ploy, part of his master plan, like we haven't seen that before.  But in reality he surrendered for legitimate reasons:  saving his crew, his family.  They did that in the Avengers and in Skyfall, glad they didn't do it here.

I'm also happy that they didn't just thrust Carol Marcus and Kirk together.  They sure hinted it at the end and as fans we KNOW what happens but it's a good thing it was only a hint. 

What really sucks is that if you take the name "KAHN" out of it then it could have been a worthy sequel, BETTER than the first.  Oh what could have been.

But it sucks that yet again, the writers and filmmakers decided to go back to the original Trek, to what worked before and try to not necessarily "copy" it...but relive it.  Hey, it was bold but sorry guys, you gambled and it didn't work.

But what angered me about the first Trek (besides the plot holes) was the fact that they used time travel and Leonard Nimoy instead of wiping the slate clean and trying to make something both unique and yet still Star Trek.  Here, I'd prefer that Benedict Cumberbatch just play an original character, an agent of Admiral Marcus.  But noooooo...

Klingons looked pretty cool, though.

Iron Man 3

Saw it twice this weekend, one with family and the other with someone special.

I liked it for the most part though it's not what some fanboys/girls were expecting and there are some spoilers that are already driving some insane.

I will say this:  apparently this story is based loosely on an Iron Man story from years ago and upon hearing some of the specifics of that story, I'm glad that the writers/director took some liberties.

Speaking of which, Shane Black (who might very well have one of the coolest names in history) is to be commended on this being only his second film directing.  Though upon reading his IMDB page, I had NO idea that he wrote the Monster Squad in the '80's.

But still...

He made the movie "darker" for sure but ironically it's the funniest of the three.  Jon Favreau is to be commended on getting the franchise started on the right foot but I think over all the film works.  If you're a fanboy of the comics then you're gonna be pissed.  I think the plot twist in the middle was daring and you didn't see it coming but I don't know if I agree with it.  Would have been better if the Mandarin was who he said he was.

Kind of a shame that Happy has more to do in this film and is quickly dispatched, but at least they didn't kill him off like Cyclops.  Shame that the Iron Patriot gets hardly any screen time and it was kind of pointless that they changed his name.  Also Pepper was a better character than Mary Jane Watson was in the Spidey films but here she is kind of subjected to just being the damsel in distress.  Still a pretty good character all in all.

Now when it comes to movie trilogies to which the over all story arc is not present in all three (Star Wars was in essence one story in three films) then I think film makers would be wise to look at the Iron Man trilogy and learn from what it did right and where it stumbled.  I think it succeeded more than it failed.

Way better than The Dark Knight Rises.