Batson's Blog

Just when you thought the Transformers franchise had jumped the shark and was dead, they go and make one of the best Transformers movies there was. I liked Transformers . Transformers 2 was a little long. Transformers 3 seemed to follow too many superhero movie stereotypes. Age of Extinction had the awesome dinobots and they did a good enough job with Mark Wahlberg's character, but it didn't have the same magic as the first movie. The Last Knight was interesting, but wasn't amazing . Rather than go forward, they went the prequel route with an origin story for Bumblebee . How did the Transformers end up on Earth and how did Bumblebee lose his voice? It's all explained in Bumblebee .  It makes sense that Bumblebee is the main focus since he's been, arguably, the biggest focus in the Transformers franchise so far. Optimus Prime is the Transformers' leader, but Bumblebee is the connection to the humans in the last five movies. Bumblebee follows t...

This was ... a Transformers movie. Simply put: it's what you'd expect out of a Transformers movie. It's number five in their ongoing series of movies and was, once again, directed by Michael Bay, so if you've seen any of the other movies, you probably know what to expect with this one. A lot of people have mixed opinions on the Transformers movies and Michael Bay's big 'boom/bang' style. I don't mind it.  The movies don't measure up to the ensemble Marvel movies (like Captain America 3 or The Avengers movies), but they are entertaining and tell a decent story. If it weren't for the length (that almost makes your butt numb from sitting for so long ... 3 hours including the previews), I wouldn't have much negative to say about it. This movie included more of what fans of the previous 4 movies liked, plus some new elements. This is the only movie I can remember that had one Transformer assisting in the age of King Arthur and a...

Some things in life just need to be known, so the following is an FYI. Maybe you’re already familiar with this next little tidbit. I wasn’t. If you weren’t aware, all you movie buffs should enjoy this. I noticed it when I started watching Armageddon the other day. The opening credits started and a very familiar name popped up. Jerry Bruckheimer’s name popped up. I had no idea he produced Armageddon! The revelations didn’t stop there. Armageddon was directed by Michael Bay ! The man who went on to help make the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise popular and the future Transformers director worked on the same movie – way back in 1999! As far as I know Bruckheimer and Bay haven’t been involved in the same project since. I don’t know if that’s by design or if their careers just went in different directions. Nonetheless, it’s kind of cool to see where they started out and where they ended up going. Related Content: • The Wolverine - reviewed. • Hollywood's co...

Dreams do come true! Alright, this may not qualify as a dream coming true, but it is pretty cool. It was announced this week that Sony Pictures is in final negotiations to make a live action Captain Planet movie is in the works . I've already blogged about what direction I think they should take with the movie and why I think it will work . I hope it's successful, the way Transformers have been. The project is already off to a good start since they have some good people on board. Don Murphy (one of the producers in the Transformers franchise) and Mark Gordon (a producer of Speed, Saving Private Ryan and Grey's Anatomy) are producing the adaptation. Related Content: • Could a more bad-ass Captain Planet work? • TV Shows That Should Come Back • 10 TV shows and movies that aren't on DVD, but should be • The Big Bang Theory (Seasons 1 - 4) - reviewed.

In Chinese culture it may be the year of the snake , but globally, it seems to be the year of The Rock. Years ago (feels like a loooong time now that I'm at the elderly age of 27), when I first started watching pro wrestling, The Rock was just starting to break out on his own. I started watching in 1997, less than a year after Rocky Maivia debuted.  He was supposed to be a fan favorite, but when fans weren't reacting favorably, the World Wrestling Federation made him a heel (or villain). That's when he showed some personality and became very popular -- a household name in fact. Still, predicting that he would one day be a box office draw for major motion pictures would have gotten a lot of laughs. Yet that's exactly what happened. I figured he'd do well in the action genre, but I had no idea that he'd end up being all of the place. On May 24 he'll be in Fast 6 . That will be the fourth movie he's been in this year. He's signed on to be i...

I recently brushed up on the latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot (now renamed Alien Turtles ). Turns out I haven’t been keeping up on the news very well. Michael Bay (director of the Transformers franchise) is the director and he broke the news on his blog that Megan Fox (the woman he booted from the Transformers franchise) has a spot in the TMNT movie. One has to assume she'll be playing April O’Neil, the dedicated and fearless TV reporter who always manages to get captured. It’s actually not a bad choice. I’m not sure she would have been my first choice, but I can see it working – in an updated, not-like-the-cartoon kind of way. I was watching the first two Transformers movies last week and Fox is a decent enough actress. She may not win awards, but she can get the job done in an action movie. If Bay can revive the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the way he did the Transformers, then Fox may have a couple of box office hits coming her way. Fox being cast as O’N...

Happy National Alien Abduction Day! Strangely enough, March 20 is known as alien abduction day. To celebrate, I present to you the friendliest and least friendly aliens from entertainment history. I made the list for IMDB , which I recently joined. I always used it to look up information, but I never realized that it’s actually a pretty fun website too. You can give movies ratings, make lists that rank movies and characters, and write movie reviews. It's not as addicting as FarmVille, but I've spent a few hours on it already. Here’s a look at the top five aliens from each of my lists. 5. 3rd Rock from the Sun aliens They came to Earth to study it. To do this, they took human form. Over the course of their mission they realized the pitfalls and the positives of being human. Once the mission was completed, they left. It seemed like they'd be singing the praises of the planet in their future travels. Granted, there were several points when the Big Giant He...