So, I am finally ready to talk about Transformers. I warn you, there may be spoilers. If you have not seen it yet, you should probably not read this.

Over the past week, I saw the film 3 times. It has taken me this long to come to any sort of conclusion in regards to how I feel about it. When I first saw it, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it at all. I wasn’t sure if I liked it. But now that I have 3 viewings behind me, each with a different audience, I am willing to say that, overall, I do like the movie. However, there are several aspects of the film that I really didn’t like, or thought could have been better. So, I’m going to cover the negative things before I talk about what I enjoyed the most.

Now, first of all, I’ll have to say that (unlike several other fans I know), I’m a realist. I understand that this movie is what it is. None of my points of contention with the film have anything to do with comparisons made to the original Transformers, or any other version for that matter. I don’t really care about that sort of thing very much. This movie has very little to do with the original Transformers cartoon, and thank goodness for that. Nor do my points of contention have to do with the human story, as I knew going into it what kind of movie this was going to be. There was no way that this could be a movie that focused mostly on the robots, because then the budget would have been astronomical. The human story of this movie helped to ground it all in reality and made the concept more accessible to a wider audience, and that’s a good thing.

The main problem I had with the film was that the Transformers didn’t talk enough. Especially the Decepticons. It’s fine for this to be a movie that gives more screen time to the humans than the robots. I understand that. But if that’s going to be the case, then the times that we do see the robots should have maximized the potential to show them as characters. As I was watching the film for the 3rd time, I couldn’t help but to pick out spots where an extra line or two of robot dialogue would have really helped solidify the personalties of the characters and reinforce the fact that these machines are living beings. When the Autobots disarm the Sector 7 guys, Ironhide could have said something funny about how wimpy their guns are and how his are much bigger. When Starscream flew over the city at the end when Sam had the Allspark and the military guys were trying to use the short wave radios since they didn’t know that he was not a real jet, he could have taunted them over the radio and then laughed maniacally. When Bonecrusher and Optimus Prime fight, there could have been some great dialogue there. Barricade had such a cool voice. He should have had more to say. Jazz should have said something before he fought Megatron. A lot of missed potential as far as that goes. It could have made the movie, as it is, so much better without changing anything significant. That’s what makes Transformers cool. That should have been an important point to showcase in a movie like this.

Speaking of voices, I didn’t much care for how Megatron sounded. Hugo Weaving was a fine choice for Megatron. but when that was announced I kind of expected that cool, Agent Smith kind of voice. Instead he sounded like a very generic super villain. If that’s what the people in charge wanted, then why not just use Frank Welker or David Kaye? Either of them could have done just as good of a job, if not better.

My other main sticking points are that this movie seems to try too hard to be funny. Some of the humor was just too crude and lowbrow for my tastes, and I don’t think that was necessary for a movie like this. Now, granted, pretty much everything I thought was stupid got a laugh from the audience, so what do I know? Also, and this is related, I really, really didn’t like Frenzy. I thought he was obnoxious, and I didn’t like all those stupid chattering noises that he made all the time. It seemed like he would be more at home in a Star Wars movie than in Transformers. And again I seem to be in the minority because the rest of the fanbase seems to really love Frenzy. But I didn’t think he was funny and I didn’t think that he needed to try to be funny either.

Now, with that out of the way, on to the good stuff.

The story with Sam and Bumblebee was very well done. It was entertaining to see Bumblebee trying to help Sam out before he knows that his car is a robot. It was clever. By the end of the movie you can tell that these two really care about each other, and that after the Sector 7 guys capture Bumblebee and start experimenting on him, Sam and Mikaela are the only humans he’ll trust. Bumblebee had a lot of personality even though he didn’t really talk.

The scene when the rest of the Autobots appear is an incredible moment that gave me goosebumps. The music had a lot to do with that. You could tell that these guys were the heroes. That’s the part that turned the film around for me.

What can be said about Optimus Prime? He’s pretty much the best part of the whole movie. Peter Cullen’s vocal performance was absolutely phenomenal. And that’s not simply because he was Optimus Prime in the original series. His voice just has this heroic resonance and grandfatherly warmth to it. I just don’t think I’d feel the same way if anyone else had that part. I totally bought that he was the #1 good guy, and his bravery and willingness to sacrifice was spot on perfect.

One character who really surprised me was Ratchet. Ratchet is not a cool character. He’s boring. But in the movie, Ratchet was awesome! He had a great voice, showed a lot of personality, and when he was fighting, he had some wild moves! So it’s a very good thing that this movie wasn’t anything like the original show, because then Ratchet would suck.

Jazz was pretty cool for the little we got to see of him. Again, more dialogue would have established him more firmly, like why he talks that way, but all of his movements showed off his personality. The movie’s portrayal of Ironhide was an interesting take on the character. He was still gruff and serious, but there was also sort of a nobility to him in his voice.

Of course, there was plenty of action, and I never had any doubts about that. The camera work and direction made all of the vehicles look like they had personality, and I guess Michael Bay is the right guy for the job as far as that goes. The final battle was intense. I just wish that most of the Decepticons had more to do at the end than show up and die. And what happened to Barricade? He just kind of disappeared there.

So, despite all the flaws I found, and all the things I think could have been better, I did enjoy the film. It took me awhile, but in the end I’ve decided to look past what it’s not and concentrate on what it is. For a fan like me, there’s a lot that’s missing from this movie, but what is there is pretty good. And most of all, I’m so glad to hear that both the fans and the general audience are responding positively to this movie. When I was interviewed by the Associated Press, I said that this movie was going to justify why people are fans of this great franchise, and how it was going to show everyone that Transformers are cool and always have been. I think it did just that. And so now that the basic mythology has been established in this movie, I have some high hopes for the sequel to expand on that, raise the stakes, introduce some new characters, and hopefully add some characterization. Much like the first X-Men movie, it’s a good start, but I hope that the best is yet to come.

Autobots, roll out!

Sayonara.

I got this message in my guestbook from someone called “Genesis“, and I have no idea what it means!

His artwork is not bad, it’s not good either! But it’s not bad. I assume your just one of those guys from TransformersCon that was making fun of him that passed a couple of months ago. It’s not nice.

I am quite certain that I don’t understand! Not only is the English painfully awkward, but there is absolutely zero context for me to try and decipher just what this person is talking about! Whose artwork is not bad? What artwork is it? What guys from TransformersCon? Making fun of who? Arrrgh! It seems like I’m being chastised for something… but what? I can’t even make any assumptions as to what is on this person’s mind because I’ve barely been given anything to work with here. What’s the deal?

Now, I’m all for anyone who wants to talk to me or leave messages or whatever. That’s fine and I welcome it. But is it really too much to ask for people to at least attempt to make sense? Sometimes it seems like it is.

Sayonara.

There was an interesting post in my guestbook recently.It’s from “Timo“. Not really sure what point Timo is trying to make here.

Nice….. just a bit too Japanime to be decent Comic book man….
sorry

Well, it’s kind of like a compliment and then it moves on to become… I don’t know… pity? Like it’s too bad that my drawings look too much like anime, because they can never be made into a comic like that. That’s pretty foolish if you ask me.

First of all, there are lots of comics that look like anime. Naturally, most of those happen to originate in Japan. Yes, Japanese comic books, or manga, are still comic books. Comics are comics, no matter what they look like. Furthermore, there are plenty of other comics from around the world that look a lot like anime. Street Fighter immediately comes to mind. And wouldn’t you know it, UDON, the studio that makes the Street Fighter comics, is situated right here in Toronto, where I live. So there is absolutely nothing stopping anime style artwork, or any other kind of art for that matter, from becoming a comic. All that needs to be established is that there is a market for it.

Which leads me to my next point. If we’re going to make this into a comparison between Anime and Comic books (which is stupid, but humor me), then let’s look at the facts. Comic Book stores nowadays have a hard time staying afloat in today’s marketplace, meanwhile Japanese comics published in English are kicking ass at retail outlets all over North America. So, with that in mind, if something looks like Japanese comics, isn’t that a good thing? Doesn’t that give it a better chance of finding success?

Furthermore, the way a comic is drawn is not everything that determines whether or not it’s “decent“. The only thing that can do that is, quite simply, if it’s decent or not! If people like and it’s done with quality arewhat matter the most. If it looks like “Japanime” has little to do with that, and in many cases, might actually help to get people’s attention.

And finally, the word “Japanime” is pretty much an anachronism, and can be considered offensive. The word is “anime“. That’s all anyone needs to say when they are talking about Japanese animation.

Anyway, I know Timo was just trying to help, such as it is, and I don’t take issue with anything said. Some things just need to be clarified. One way or another, my artwork is going to be put out there some day, and while I don’t expect everyone to like it, the fact that it looks like anime isn’t going to have any bearing on its quality at all.

Sayonara.

So, some things happened at Anime North. Some other things also did not happen, such as alien invasions (to my knowledge), but for the most part I will talk about things that did happen instead.

I’ve been writing a report of sorts for the past little while, but now that I look at it I think it might be too much for just a blog post. So maybe I’ll save it for now and leave it alone. If people tell me they are interested, I’ll do a proper report with more detail. For now I will just point out some of the highlights.

So, the panels I was on all went ok. But in all but 1 of these cases, I was probably the guy who knew the most about the subjects at hand. So, it sounds arrogant to say it like this, but I guess it was a good thing that I was there. The Transformers panel, however, went really well. This is thanks in no small part to my buddy Larry, who I had asked to be on the panel a month ago.

I had something of a goal for myself to win something, hopefully a DVD, by answering trivia correctly like I did last year. I accomplished this goal twice! First was at “Totally Lame Anime” for knowing that the motif of the super robot anime Diapolon is football. Yes, it’s a football robot. For this impressive victory I was awarded the DVD “Beauty and Warrior”, approximately valued at $1. The second win was at Anime Hell, for knowing that the guest attending the convention that year who had worked on the English version of the original Ultraman was Peter Fernandez. The prize for this was a Kimba the White Lion DVD, approximately valued at $1. I was immediately asked by a girl in the audience if I would sell it for $4. Now, I love Kimba, but I just can’t say no to making a 400% profit off of something I didn’t even pay for. So I took the money and used it to buy ramen and a Red Bull for the next day. I’d need it!

I didn’t have a hotel room, so I went home on Friday and wound up slumming it on Saturday night. I stayed in the all night video room the whole time, saw a few recent shows, and laid down on a row of chairs to catch maybe 2 hours of sleep, tops. So much for the 6-2-1 rule. I was definitely not the only person who did that, most of whom seemed to have more success at sleeping that I did. I can’t say I’d want to do that again, but it was an interesting experience for what it was at the time.

Other interesting things were the live wrestling featuring Raven in the main event, the “Yakitate!! Japan” panel, the Worst Toon Challenge featuring the South Korean epic “Solar Adventure“, and seeing people I have not seen in awhile, even though none of those encounters lasted very long.

I bought stuff, of course. I took home the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Limited Edition with box (not available at retail until this week), GaoGaiGar Vol.5 (Not available at retail until later next month), and the live action Cutie Honey movie.

On Sunday morning I lost my Decepticon baseball cap at the hotel. I would really like to get it back. If someone has found it, please contact me. I will give you free artwork if I get it back!

All in all, the convention was pretty good. About the same as last year. In retrospect I can look at the things I did and say I had an enjoyable time, but while it was all happening I have to admit that I was pretty lonely and didn’t like it that much. I missed a lot of the people I would usually see at this convention who I either didn’t catch up with or were not there. I’m glad that I did the panels though, because that made things more entertaining and gave me something to do.

Anyway, that’s all I feel like writing about it right now. Enough convention stuff for awhile.

Sayonara.

Finally, after searching for at least a year, I have found a copy of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for Nintendo DS!

Best of all is that I got it for $20. That’s pretty lucky, considering that this is supposed to be a rare game.

I can definitely see what all the hype has been about. This game really is truly enjoyable. The characters are all very well realized and there’s a lot of humor. Yeah, it’s kind of weird to be playing a lawyer video game, and you don’t really “do” a whole lot except look around and present evidence, but it’s fun! I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something really engrossing about it. I can totally seeing myself quickly going through the entire game in no time, and then picking it right back up and playing through it again.

It’s good to see that this game has not only been released in English, but also that it’s gained a significant fan following. We should have more games like this.

Sayonara.