Transformers 2 and District 9 Conversed!
Posted by Stephen Fairbanks on May 2, 2009
I’ve been in somewhat of a Sci-Fi mood of late. It may have something to do with current events such as economical and epidemical disasters (or Credit Crunch / Swine Flu media hysteria) and wanting to escape them, or it may just be down to the fact that I very much enjoy Science Fiction.
As to qualify the previous statement, I’ve recently re-watched the Star Wars prequels , and decided that I much prefer them to the original trilogy. This is probably a topic in-of-itself, but in short, I was only ever interested in being a Jedi, the prequel trilogy (particularly AOTC and ROTS) has way more undisputedly cool Jedi moments… it just misses a roguish Han Solo character.
Elsewhere I’ve taken to catching up on Battlestar Galactica, which I’ve heard very good things about. So far (I’ve just started Season 2) I’ve been very impressed. Far more intelligent and philosophical than your average space-situated TV fodder, and raises the big questions about faith and morality and whatitistobehumanandwhatitistobealive which are pretty much the big topics in the genre.
I’ve also been catching up with the X-Files, and I’m also very exicted about seeing J.J. Abrams Star Trek re-birth. Let’s hope it’s not shit.
But anyhoo… this post is a tale of two-trailers. Namely, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and the much more interesting Peter Jackson-backed District 9.
Firstly, Transformers 2. Hmm. I just about remember being a fan very early on in my life. And I only ever remember Optimus Prime and the yellow one…. Bumblebee, or whatever.
The film, directed oh-so-obviously by Michael ‘explosions’ Bay, was terrible -in my opinion, at least. The most obvious problems; script, acting, direction, rubbishness – isn’t really what bothered me. It was the transformers themselves… to me they were just a huge mess of fast-moving CG crappery sprayed across the screen for what felt like 4 hours. It seemed like one of those magic eye things you need to stare at for ages before discovering; ‘Oh, that was Optimus Primes head’.
But, whatever… it made £400 billion because everyone went to see it. So the studio green-lit about 8 sequels, and the final trailer for the 2nd film can be seen below. (Enjoy?)
Much more interesting than the above is District 9, which I know next to nothing about. Which is great. The trailer is also interesting, starting off as a (not-entirely convincing) documentary-style take on a quasi-racial/social/discrimination-y camp. A camp which turns out to be made up of aliens (with pixelated faces, it turns out).
Reader Comments
Woa. District 9 just took mew by suprise there. nice one Ste. it looks like another (different) take on something such as cloverfield.
Iv got another one for ya, See the New GI Joe trailer? The first trailer I didnt think much of but this new trailer had me go warm inside – it looks like it could be a real buzz high action film. check her out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7jJahUhQnY
p.s. woodhead will be pleased to see frenchies die
I saw a few pictures of GI Joe ages ago… I thought: “Oh, dear.” The trailer looks like Crysis! And why do they always have to destroy famous monuments? Bastards!
I’m looking forward to District 9… looks quite interesting. I’ll probably be avoiding Transformers 2.
I quite enjoyed Transformers despite its many flaws. It was never going to live up to all the hype. Nor was it going to be better than what we remembered the cartoon to be. Nostalgia is a strange thing. I appreciate what they were trying to do, though. And for that reason I will see the second one when it’s out. I’m not asking for much. In the first one it was fun to see Jazz and Ratchet. In this second one I’m looking forward to seeing Soundwave and the Constructicons (and them turning into Devastator, my favourite character from the cartoon). If they can get those right then that’s all I’m asking for.