Jenn and I have been going to movies monthly (or more frequently, last little while) and for whatever reason there seemed to be more movies in the previews I was wanting to see. And my question was: is exposure to the previews increasing the number of movies I am aware of, therefore increasing the number of movies I wanted to see -- or was exposure to the previews lowering my standards for what would constitute an acceptable movie?
This becomes relevant because the previews for Transformers 4 looked like it had the potential to be a good movie. And Jenn said not to get my hopes up because she'd been watching Transformers 2 on an airplane -- where it was free, available, and there was a lot of time that needed killing -- and despite all that, she'd still turned it off.
So in the run up to Transformers 4, Transformers 3 made it on to TV. To whet everyone's appetite or something. So we recorded it, because how bad could it really be?
And:
A) My god, this is terrible. I mean, not *terrible* terrible, but still terrible; and
B) Jenn says this is *better* than Transformers 2.
I was pre-disposed towards liking this movie. I wanted to like this movie. High tech robots clobbering everyone? Leonard Nimoy? My history of watching the original animated Transformers? All biases in favor of this movie. It created a very, very low bar to clear. And it failed to do so. Heck, it smashed through the barrier like it was a truck that couldn't jump.
There's so much wrong with this movie I don't know what to say. How about:
- none of the apollo missions went to "the dark side" of the moon;
- it isn't "the dark side"; you might call it "the far side" if you are earth-centric, but really the only thing you can call it is "the other side";
- some guy had a nice model of a Saturn-V rocket on his desk -- in 1961, before the rocket had been developed;
- none of the astronauts noticed the tracks around the crashed alien spaceship? There's no erosion on the moon to wear tracks like that away;
- when the Autobots go to the moon, there's a nice apollo lander sitting there -- including the part that should have left with the astronauts when they returned to the orbiter
The end orgy of violence in Chicago was incomprehensible to me. I could not follow who was doing what, let alone allegedly why.
I'm watching it for free and frankly I'm paying too much.
So now Transformers 4 is off the table for the theatre. I may give it a try on TV when it comes out, but based on what I recall of Transformers 1, Jenn's abandonment of Transformers 2, and… THIS… well I don't see how I can justify spending money on it.
