Auto Assembly... is tomorrow!

Yep - not even the rioters can stop it! Exciting!! :-)

I'm still alive! Transformers 3 review, Bioware TV and Comic Con!

Can't believe its been two weeks since I last posted! I've just been so busy that the time has gone too fast!

At least that means that Auto Assembly is now less than three weeks away! :-)

Speaking of Transformers, I went and saw Transformers: Dark Of The Moon last weekend, in 3D no less. I didn't get a headache from the 3D for once, although my brain did feel a bit weird when I took the glasses off after!

So... a quick review for those who haven't seen it... SPOILER ALERT - if you don't want to know any more about the movie STOP READING NOW!!

Ok so...

I'm going to divide this into good and bad points. I like to finish things on a positive note, so I'll start with the bad points first!

The BAD points:

The character of Shockwave, for all the billing he got, is hardly in the movie. He has a very brief appearance at the start and then reappears during the big battle towards the end. He looks similar to his G1 incarnation (well he has the single eye) but that's where the similarities end. He doesn't speak (well, nothing intelligible anyway), instead he just growls a lot. This is a disappointment as G1 Shockwave was a super-intelligent being of cold logic. Here, he's just a growling badass that commands a robotic snake thing and smashes stuff.

The character of Wheeljack: what the..? That was my initial reaction. G1 Wheeljack is cool - a scientist that creates awesome stuff. Dark Of The Moon Wheeljack looks like a guy doing Transformers cosplay... badly! While I think about it... what the hell is the deal with the fibre optic hair in this movie? I like most of the robot deisgns in DOTM but Wheeljack is just a fail!

The screaming: The first 40-odd minutes of the movie seems to have lots of people screaming. Sam's screaming, then some Japanese guy is screaming, scream, scream, scream! Luckily, this doesn't happen throughout the whoel movie (well, not in as irritating a manner as at the start).

Now... the GOOD points!

Story elements from the G1 cartoon: there's elements of Megatron's Master Plan and The Ultimate Doom in this movie! First, the bit with the Autobots leaving on a spaceship is very similar to their exile in the formerly mentioned episode. The bit with pulling Cybertron through the Space Bridge is straight from the latterly mentioned ep. It's cool to see these elements in live action!

Lazerbeak: my God - what a creepy bastard this character is! The scenes where he appears and people end up 'committing suicide' are actually quite disturbing and certainly take things in a darker direction.

Sentinel Prime: a very cool character! Ok, so his motivation for changing sides isn't entirely convincing but he's voiced by the great Leonard Nimoy (Galvatron from the G1 animated movie!) and he's a badass! His vehicle mode is cool (a fire truck) and there's a good reference to Spock in Star Trek II in one scene too.

Overall, this movie is in no danger of winning an Oscar - what you expect is pretty much what you get - giant robots smacking the crap out of eachother for a couple of hours. The humour doesn't invade the story quite so much as the previous instalments and it's entertaining enough. As TransFan myself, there's a few niggles but I enjoyed watching this and will be buying it on Blu Ray in November.

The 3D worked well and added to the enjoyment of the movie. Oh - the last thing I will just add is the cavalier way in which characters are killed in this movie. Poor Ironhide in particular!

I'm hoping that the next director for Transformers 4 will perhaps concentrate a little more on the characters and treat them a little bit better instead of just killing them off in such a throwaway manner!

So, Transformers 3 is a fun movie but don't expect anything too deep... I'm not sure why you would - but don't!

So, what am I doing now? Well, while I'm typing this, I'm watching Bioware TV. What's that? It's a live stream from Bioware at the San Diego Comic Con. Right now, there's a panel discussing Mass Effect and Dragon Age stuff. Sounding very cool!

I definitely want to go to San Diego Comic Con one day. For now though, I shall probably be going to the London Comic Con!

Remembering my Dad

Today has been a bit of a difficult day for me. It would have been my Dad's birthday so that's been playing on my mind all day. Something like that is always a bit difficult - I always find myself thinking about what things would have been like if he hadn't died, what he would be doing now and the like.

I'm not a particularly religious person but I'd like to think that he is out there somewhere celebrating today.

Wherever you are, Dad - happy birthday.

Apology accepted, naughty mod! ;-)

Just got an apology off of them. I should think so too! Still, at least they said sorry and you can't say fairer than that! Naughty mods, eh? ;-)

Apparently this is a dating site? Ummm... what?!

Just been banned from a forum because apparently this is a commercial site or a rival to a dating site...? Um... did they actually look at this site? I'm thinking no. Someone's made themselves look rather silly! And the moral of the story? Try looking at websites first before getting too excited and banning people.

I've since created a new account and straight off the bat received a 'first and only warning'. Um... aren't you supposed to give warnings BEFORE banning someone?

Let's see where this goes before I say any more... do the mods have the stones to apologise for their mistake? Let's do what they didn't and give them a chance and see...

Silverstone F1 GP

Just watched all the Silverstone F1 GP coverage on BBC (including the F1 Forum) a little while ago. It was a good race - no British drivers on the podium sadly but Mark Webber managed third (although you could argue that it could have been second had it not been for the infamous team orders) and at least Fernando Alonso was first and not Sebastian Vettel for a change!

It's a pity about what happened to Jenson Button - I think he could have done well had it not been for mistake during his pit stop. If you didn't see the race - the lollypop man (is that really his job title?) told Jenson he could go but his right front wheel hadn't been secured as the guy securing it was reaching for another gun to secure a bolt on there when Jenson got the go ahead. Needless to say, Jenson just got up a little way up the exit from the pits when the wheel started to come off so that was the end of his race!

I've no doubt someone is going to be in a lot of trouble for that!

Other than that today, I've changed my pic on my profile as the old one was a bit too dark and moody. Now you get a nice shot of smiling face instead!

Oh - and I've decided I shall definitely be going to Silverstone next year! :-)

For the love of Gord!

Yes - it is a pretty crap pun, I know! It actually comes from a joke that started at a place I worked at a few years ago. Gord is obviously just a shortened version of my full name. There was a lady in the office who used to manage all the admin side of the IT Department (not IT admin - literally the forms, paperwork, holidays, etc.) and one of the things she had to do was let people know who was out of the office and when.

Well, I was taking a Friday off so a couple of days before, a standard email went out to everyone informing people of this fact, except it had a typo on my name instead of Gord, it said God. So we were all informed that God was out of the office on Friday.

Well, I was flattered she thought so highly of me! ;-)

Anyway, it sparked off a series of puns such as "for Gord's sake" and so on. And she never really did live that particular gaff down.

So now you know. Tell all your friends! :-P