Robots in disguise

On Thursday I dragged Ann along to the Imax, at Pacfic Quay to see the new Transformers movie on the big, big screen.
To begin with I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't in 3D but it turned out to be a blessing, as we would have left with a serious headache otherwise.

While I did enjoy the film, it does suffer from an overuse of the cgi camera. Directors can now use computers to achieve pretty much any shot they want, no angle or camera movement is out of bounds. But just because they can make the camera do a 360 spin, shoot up the side of a building, through an explosion and then fall to the earth doesn't mean they should.

The second half of the film is told almost entirely through this ever moving camera, which constantly flies up, over or around the Transformers, who themselves are made of thousands of constantly moving parts.

I find that the constant movement while effective in moderation during fight sequences does have quite a distancing effect. I think subconsciously the brain knows that the movement the camera is going through is not actually physically possible and it draws your attention to the fact you are watching a film. While this can be used intentionally to a directors advantage for example the sectional pans in David Fincher's Fight Club it is just off putting in your average blockbuster where its sole use is to be flashy and show off.

In saying all that, it is a film about giant alien robots coming to earth to have a big fight so I probably am being a bit harsh. Don't go looking for high art, go looking for popcorntastic big old robotic fights, a bit of humour and some high speeding chases. The first half of the film is good fun, with our young hero first coming into contact with the big robots to humorous effect and showing off the bad guys at their genuinely menacing best.

The last hour or so however all gets a bit busy for its own good, with a huge raft of characters introduced for not much reason and with the bad guys lacking the killer punch they displayed at the beginning of the film.

At £8 its a bit pricey but the film does show off the Imax massive screen to good effect and I think it is probably worth the cost.
Harry Potter 5 is also still on in selected showings with the last half an hour a full 3D spectacular. Ann is keen we go see that while its still on. The Imax website has info on times and dates for these two films along with their regular short film format which gives you the Imax experience at a cheaper price.