Transformers 3

As I mentioned in the previous entry, we had a nice time celebrating a birthday party of one of Idlan's classmate at the cinemas. And Transformers 3 did not disappoint. Cue the usual Michael Bay hyperbole, over the top special effects, slow motion macho shots, hot babes and understated heroes.

Of the three movies on the chain, this was the best. The focus of the movie we're clearly on the Transformers themselves rather than the hot babes or the human characters. Even the special effects were tone down to make it more believable, and not to undermine the main action. And actions they were. The storyline this time around was more on the struggle of Optimus Prime in dealing with his identity, specifically dealing with the place where he was from, Cybertron. The idols that he worshiped in the past were not who he was ..... and I shall leave it at that.

The human characters from the the first couple of installments were back, except for Megan Fox of course. But to be honest, we did not really miss much without her as the new love interest was equally as hot. The main protagonist this time was more on Optimus, with the antagonist being Sentinel. It was action-packed as you would expect, but the usual comedic moment - watch for Deep Wang. Even John Turturro was back to reprise his role.

Of the three movies in the series, this must have been the most matured in terms of story development if you can call it that. There were many gaps in the story however, and some of the conjectures being made took some believing. The first part of the movie however reflected the director's, Michael Bay frustration with the general reception of the first couple of movies. The main character, Sam found himself jobless despite saving the world twice, paralleling what happened to Bay in essence. Despite making blockbusters after blockbusters, he has yet to find any formal recognition of his efforts. Once the melodramatic was over, the real action picked up, and it was relentless from the first 30 minutes onwards.

I left the theater with a broad smile. If it was a feel good movie, it certainly succeeded. The pace was furious and despite the movie running over two hours, I hardly felt it. Initially, my boys were restless, but once the action started picking up, they were glued on to their seats. By the end, they were asking me to get them the toys from the movie - clearly a success on the Bay's part. I had reservation however concerning taking young children to watch the movie. Some of the scripts were rather crude - especially for children who do understand English - and some of the sequence - the humans disintegrating into skulls upon being shot by aliens and the blood-like material coming out of some of the Decepticon characters after being hit - we're quite gruesome. So, parents discretion were very important.

TGV Birthday

A couple of years back, when we were planning one of Idlan's birthday, we made a few enquiries about where to celebrate. We have done the usual - house party, clowns, biggest cakes, restaurants, halls, play gym. We wanted to do something different. We settled for the Bird Park. Amongst other things we came across was to do a party at a cinema, a pool and outdoor garden theme.

The cinema one was unfortunate because there were no big releases during the boys bit days at the time. The place we discussed at was at Pavilion. The package did not come cheap, but it does come with memorabilia, all fitting the theme of the movie. It would have been great to have the Rio theme for instance. The cinema would provide a private sitting area - for those who had been to the Gold Class foyer at GSC at Pavilion, you would know what I was talking about.

Today, we had one such party at TGV Wangsa Walk Mall, to celebrate one of Idlan's classmate's party. The movie was Transformers. The party began at 11, when we picked up our tickets at the foyer, then being ushered into the theaters hall. The friend of hours actually paid for the whole theatre, all filled with friends and families, with the birthday boy and his friends sitting in the middle row. Before the movie begin, we had the usual cake-cutting, sing songs and tidbits. Not much food though, some sausages and popcorns. The movie then begin right before noon.

Speeches before the cakesIt was a great idea actually, although I would have wished for more food. I could see throngs of people buying the tickets outside while we were ushered into the hall. I would personally struggle to fit in that me people though. I would need close to 200 people to fill the hall. the other problem if found was the whole party was done inside the movie theatre. There were not much room to maneuver as we had to walk across the row to get in and out of our seats. We also had problem to stash our food as the seats were pretty cramped.

The cake-cutting was done at the front of the theater, and after that, we had to queue for food on the side. It would have been better if the food were served in a bigger area, maybe the main foyer - unfortunately the main foyer at the cinema was rather too small. There was some delay clearing the food before the movie started, making the children really restless. I would blog more about the movie later.

Movie Starting

We were bow packed into the theatre and waiting for the cake-cutting and sing songs. The boys getting grumpy understandably. Movie starting in 20 minutes. Havoc!

Getting Set

Yup! We needed to get moving. It would e an early birthday party today. The boys were looking forward for it. Daddy was looking forward to it. It was going to be at a cinema. The theme was Transformers. And the party would be topped up with a movie, Transformers, Dark Side of the Moon. Couldn't miss that!