SHAH-AZZ, INCORPORATED

Recently, Jamal and I watched “Die Hard 4.0”.It wasn’t been originally planned, but since we need to kill off some time before going back to our home, we thought that this was a good idea. Initially, “Transformers” came to our mind but the show time was too late for us. Never mind. In fact, I always want to watch DH4.0 at one point. As you know, my favourite movie genre is those with actions, full of guns, explosions, and someone who kicks some ass. I’ve watched the previous trilogy before, so I am quite familiar with John McClane’s blabby mouth. My personal favourite is the 2^nd, the one with the plane crash. It is so horrendous, so tragic that I too, cursed that blasted no good son of a ****h bad guy that responsible for that.Grr...

Ok, back to 4.0. This time, it is about cyber-terrorism. Yup, hackers and stuffs like that. But this is a full-blown attack from every direction, so devastating that almost everything, like the military, stock market, traffic flow, mass media, power grids, even the White House has been taken over by them...Of course, with this McClane guy, he knows the way of reversing all of this with his typical style of saving good guys and killing baddies.

There is one scene, almost as tragic as the 2^nd movie’s plane crash, at the road tunnel (ala SMART tunnel or Karak tunnel). Both of the lanes is closed to traffic (the terrorist did that, of course), but McClane and that kid, Mat Farrell somehow managed to get through. Then the terrorist open the traffic from the other side, so all those cars come through and against them. McClane has to U-turn back or they’ll be hit by those cars. But it doesn’t stop there. Now the terrorist redirects traffic flow from this side to enter the same tunnel as the one McClane (and the entire opposite car) trying to exit. That means, both side are entering the same tunnel and they’ll surely collide against each other! To add the misery, the tunnel’s light is turned off by the terrorist, and all the drivers didn’t have the time to switch on their headlights, so it is a complete darkness. As a result...can’t tell, spoilers...ha-ha...but are McClane and Farrell safe?

Two of my favourite scenes are 1) when McClane drive a car up a ramp and then fleeing it before it collides with the airborne helicopter, thus destroying it. 2) The jetfighter-truck chase, where McClane has to avoid missiles from the jet. Eventually, McClane hopped on the jet and hopped back to the road when it was going to blow.

It’s been a long time I haven’t seen these kinds of action movies, and this one is simply mind-blowing...I’ll rate 4.75 out of 5. If you like raw action, with less CGI (almost non-existence), this is the movie I would recommend to you.

So what about “Transformers”? It has been one of my favourite cartoons during my wet nose year. That was a long time ago, so I forgot the conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons. Will this movie help me to remember those nostalgic moments?

I took the liberty of watching it for the 1^st time in my life at the IMAX cinema at Berjaya Times Square. (and I watched it alone, pity me ;|) I knew a little about IMAX. It claimed that it has 5 times larger screen size than what normal cinemas has. It is also said that it has separated soundtracks from the film so surely it would have a high quality audio. And finally, the ticket price is twice as expensive as the normal cinema tickets. So it is worth it?

Yup, when I entered and took a seat (I’ve got an almost middle section of the seat, so this supposed to be my almost total IMAX experience), it can be seen that the screen is large. So ok, nice. But before the movie starts, it stated on the screen that this movie “is not an IMAX experience movie”. Huh? What is the prerequisite for a movie to be an IMAX experience movie? 3Ds? rocking chair? special goggles?

My first wow factor was the helicopter scene. The one when we finally see something transformed into a robot for a first time. Yes, you can hear the trademark transform sound. The EMP shockwave released by Blackout (that the chopper's name) that shattered everything surrounds him is so cool, and the movement is reminiscent of the ones in MechWarrior-series computer games, which I like. The sound when he thumps this feet to the ground, when his torso turns, when he starts blowing the base up. I have to say, wowwowowowowww!!!

Another one of my wow factor is when Optimus Prime arrived for the 1^st time as a truck and transformed to himself, together with the rest of the Autobots in front of that Sam Witwicky kid and his chick (that’s one hot stuff). And then, when we see Megatron for the 1^st time at Sector 7, then the final battle scene...that was spectacular.

However, after I exited the theatre, I DID NOT feel same as like when after I watched 4.0. Yup, sadly, I exited with the feeling of “hmmm...ok" Why is that so? Don’t get me wrong. The movie is great. It is even greater when you are a die-hard or a fanatic fan of the cartoon or the comic, or even the toys. But there’s one factor that snaps almost everything of my Transformer experience.

It’s the excessive shake of the video camera. It was SO ANNOYING.

It was so apparent on most of the fast-paced scene. It shakes too much that I thought “Why the heck are they doing this? They couldn’t afford to buy a Steadycam or what? Even Die Hard with its raw action has more stable view than this.

Then, there’s too much alternating scene-to-scene. I mean, switching from one scene to another, then switch again, and vice-versa. Combined with the above camera-shake-thing, this multiplies my irritation tenfold. Of course, you movie-lovers might say that I should review the storyline itself, not these technical movie issues. Hey, it snaps my experience, what could I do? If you like it, that’s good. I DON’T LIKE IT.

And why Megatron dies so easily? I thought “That’s it? Shoving that cube to his chest and he’s dead?”...and It’s not because that Optimus killed him, its Sam. I read that there would be sequels for this movie and yet, the movie’s main antagonist will no longer appear. Maybe Starscream is the new leader, or a Megatron revival?

Another thing that saddens me is that this movie and the sequels did not and will not have the appearance of my favourite Transformer robot of all time. Yup, it is one of the factors I actually watched a Transformer TV-series cartoon often, and the one I would always want to have as my favourite toy.

The Omega Supreme.

Of course, I did not really expect that Omega will show up as probably the producer’s thought that the size and complexity will surely ramp up their production budget. I also read that both Hasbro and Takara no longer have the rights to reissue this robot. But still, if Omega did show up, he could kick Megatron’s butt and the rest of the Decepticon in the movie with a single flick of his ‘fingers’ (the rocket’s base stabilizer...I dunno the actual name), or blast with his plasma from the tip of his another hand (the rocket’s head), then the movie will end too quickly: p

I would rate this one 4 out of 5. A bit low you say? I would give a perfect 5 stars if that camera shakes didn’t annoy me. Watching in an IMAX theatre didn’t help that much. After all, for this movie, the difference is that IMAX has a larger screen than normal cinema, nothing special. Hopefully you would find this review a bit helpful.