by Matt | Jul 11, 2007 | Reviews
Going into Transformers I had very mixed emotions. Every geek part of me wanted to scream “giant robots are awesome!” but every fiber of my movie going bias was saying “oh shit, it’s a Michael Bay film”. I had high geek pride and low movie expectations. I’m happy to report that Bay didn’t completely fuck this one up. Actually it was good, really good. He hit it out of the friggin’ park.
Walking out of the theater I had a gigantic smile on my face. The kind of smile a 12 year old has when he opens a shiny new toy for the first time. Giant transformable robots are something that as a child, playing with the toys, you were left to imagine in your head. What if this thing was real? What if my parents car in the drive-way was really a 50ft ass kicking machine? When you’re a kid you love to imagine things like that. Before seeing this movie I pulled up every memory of what I thought giant walking, talking, fighting robots would be like and the effects team in this movie pulled it off perfectly. That’s not surprising, especially considering it’s ILM we’re talking about.
The story itself is slightly off from the cartoon, but is a non-issue. Instead of trying to collect multiple “Energon Cubes“, the movie focuses around the fight over a single”god cube” from which all life sprung. 6 of one, half dozen of the other. It’s a cube and they’re fighting over it, that’s good enough for me. I was also not really bothered by the paltry acting from the human aspect of the movie. In reality, they’re just there for backstory. The real movie is hot robot on robot action, and man does it deliver.
The action sequences in the movie are almost too awesome. When you finish seeing one, you brain doesn’t have enough time to digest it before the next one starts. A great example, and I’m trying not to give anything away, is the awesome highway fight scene you see in the trailers, which when completed, flows immediately into a city wide brawl. The former is so compelling that by the time more carnage has started you’re only part way through saying “holy crap, did you see that?” There are a few kinks in the armor, I won’t lie to you. It’s far from a perfect movie. There is a heavy amount of “shaky cam”, so shaky that you’re often confused. Coupled with that is the fact that the robots themselves are far more complex than simple cartoon versions. So complex in fact that when things start to get intense and robots are tangled up in high-speed wrestling matches, it’s hard to tell which part is whose. There are pieces flying every which way and if it weren’t for the occasional blur of color you’d have no idea if Optimus Prime was fighting Megatron or if a building was coming down… or both. Basically, they went from this to this.
That said, the real only distraction was the human acting. Don’t get me wrong, I like the guy as an actor, but casting John Turturro as some sort of special agent is just silly. The special-ops guys did a good job, and so did John Voight, but the kids got on my nerves a little. In the end, they did a good job and I think it worked well. Personally it would have made a little more sense to make Sam the mechanic (as in the cartoon) and not the girl, but whatever. I was actually very happy with the way this movie turned out. The CG was really top notch, the action scenes were well put together, the pacing was good (read: non-stop). It was a great experience and a great “popcorn flick” as people say. It’s a really fun movie to see, especially when you grew you in the 80’s. It’s all those good geek memories brought to life.
Way to go Bay, I’ve almost forgiven you for Pearl Harbor… almost.
[rating:93/100]
by Matt | Jul 7, 2007 | Personal
Last night, in celebration of Lauren’s accomplishment, we went out for dinner. Wanting something special, we decided to try a restaurant we had never been to, but had heard good things about. We ended up at Brenner’s Steakhouse, which, according to the back of the menu, has been a Houston tradition since 1936. Since it was purchased in 2002, it’s been the pet project of a guy named Tilman Fertitta, who owns and operates dozens of different restaurant chains.
Since I’ve moved to Texas, I’ve always been impressed by the quality of the steak down here. Most restaurants in Texas know how to cook a good steak, it’s a basic requirement. Brenner’s has not only reset the bar, it’s smashed it to bits. Last night, I had what I considered to be the best steak I’ve ever had in my lifetime. Words simply don’t do it justice. I’ve never had steak so tender and juicy that is literally dissolves when you eat it.
Not only was the steak completely off the hook, the rest of the meal, the deserts and coffee, the staff and the atmosphere we also top notch. It was the kind of place that I’m going to now and forever return to on special occasions.
It was that good.
by Matt | Jul 6, 2007 | Personal
A big giant congratulations party is in order for Lauren, who just found out this morning that she passed her NCIDQ exam and is now and will forever be a fully licensed and professional designer. The NCIDQ is a long, stressful and extremely hard test that designers have to take to get certified in whatever state they’re practicing in. It’s akin to the BAR exam for lawyers. It’s that hard. Most people fail one of it’s three sections their first time up. Lauren nailed all three in a single go. I’m so excited for her. This is a huge accomplishment. We’re definitely throwing a party this weekend!
by Matt | Jul 5, 2007 | Reviews
By now, most of you will have heard of Twitter. That horribly slow, painful to use “instant-mini-blog” piece of internet 2.0 bloat that everyone seems so attached to lately. Essentially IM, only slow and unfriendly, Twitter makes mini-blogs out of “what you’re doing at this exact second”. Perfect for 12 year olds, functioning alcoholics, people with ADD and geeks in general. Heck, even I have succumbed to it’s wiley ways, though indirectly. I started a mini-feed with one of it’s direct competitors, Jaiku. I don’t use it. It’s simply impractical for me to keep a browser window open 24/7, or near me at all times. I don’t live at my desk, I’ve got shit to do. Plus, while I don’t think anyone cares about what kind of food I’m eating at lunch, I could never think of anything more meaningful to put on those damn things. You’re not supposed to. They’re “mini-blogs”, snippets, tiny pieces of what you’re doing. They’re also horribly boring and I don’t give a crap. Neither do any of you.
There is however, something a bit more interesting. Pownce. Brain child of Kevin Rose and various Digg crew members, they’ve come up with something I might actually use. Basically, Pownce is a few things rolled into one. It has Twitter mini-posts. It has IM functionality, although it’s more along the lines of PM’s. It has link sending, event planning, feed tracking, all sorts of goodies. Most importantly, they’ve written an Adobe AIR wrapper around it, so you can use it as a desktop app. Personally, I can’t be checking web pages all day, but I can respond to messages from this little gray and green box in the corner of my screen. So, basically, take MeetUp or EVite, add Twitter and (insert IM system here) and basic ftp, and you’ve got Pownce.
The main appeal for me is that I can use this at the office. I can send files back and forth between the people here, they can do the same, we can send each other notes, reminders, links, all that good stuff, and it’s not nearly as distracting as IM. IM is, by definition, instant. So, if you get an IM you feel compelled to answer it, you’re having a “conversation”. Sending someone a note saying “remember to buy more lighting gels” isn’t exactly a conversation, so the distraction isn’t there. Pownce just sits there quitely until you’re ready to use it.
I’m sure some people will love Pownce because it’s exactly like Twitter, perhaps Twitter on steroids, which in some ways it is, but I like it because it has the convenience of IM and file transfers, only with half the distraction. That, and my boss in on board, so, I get to actually use it.
As an added bonus, I signed up for an invite the day it was announced, so, just a week later, I have my invite codes. Plus, as an early adopter, I get first dibs at the cool screen names.
If you’d like an invite, let me know. I only have a few, so I can’t send’em out all willy-nilly. If you have an account already and you’d like to add me, the screename is simply: Doc. That’ll be my home account. My work account I’ll keep secret until you sign up and I can add you as a friend.
Check it out at Pownce.com, and let me know if you want an invite. Also, check out my profile here: http://pownce.com/Doc/
Matt out.
by Matt | Jun 29, 2007 | Personal, Web
Anyone ever wanted to write a novel? I have, on a daily basis, been thinking about doing just that. Something about spies, black-ops, explosions, that sort of thing. In case you haven’t noticed the “Now Reading” sidebar, I’m on a bit of a spy/thriller novel kick. I have been for the past 3 years. So, thinking in my head that I’m a far better writer than I actually am, I’m adding “write a spy novel” to the list of things to do before I die. Not that I’m going to get around to it any time soon. Writing something like that is the sort of thing you do when you’re 65 and retired. I don’t know why I felt like mentioning that, it really has no bearing on anything at all. Except maybe to illustrate that while I have grandiose plans, I rarely actually accomplish anything. Plans, like those for SavvyNation.
To be blunt, I don’t have the voice for radio. Hell, I don’t even have the face for radio, let alone the voice. I tried several recording of myself talking about various things and none of them seemed post worthy. It’s a terribly sad realization that you sound like an aggravating 12 year old with a nasal sounding voice and a bad habit for saying “ummmmmm….”, especially when that opinion is coming from yourself. Let’s just say that I hate my own voice and wouldn’t force anyone to listen to it.
So, what’s the fall back plan? Not much. Instead of posting a review for a movie/game/thingamabob here, I’ll post it there and direct people to it via a link from here. Something to the effect of “oh, by the way, check out SavvyNation to see what I thought of (insert newest thing here)”.
I can’t really think of anything else to do with it. Sad, I know. So, scratch “have a radio/podcast show” off my lifetime to-do list and insert “write a book”. It seems far more likely I’ll be able to annoy the world with words than I will with speech.
Matt out
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