Michael Bay’s Transformers

Michael Bay has a lot on his plate, but I think he is going to pull off the screen adaptation of the popular 1980s series.

The latest trailer, hosted at Yahoo! Movies, makes the film look like a rip-roarin,’ smash ‘em-bash ‘em funfest, and shows that the movie is banking more heavily on series nostalgia than previous trailers revealed. Fans have been critical of the robot designs, and their departure from the Television series’ concepts, but I think the added detail will help them make the jump to live action. I was excited to hear the “transformation” sound from the series as Optimus Prime takes his robot form. IMDB says that legendary voice actor Peter Cullen has returned to do Prime’s vocals– This will also help boost the film.

The only thing that has me worried is Tyrese Gibson’s “Get’em!” (or something similar) exclamation at the end of the trailer. Hopefully, Bay has kept these fanboy outbursts to a minimum. I am really excited to see this show. If it makes the grade, I hope the TV series’ fans will embrace it. Bay is a great director (I really enjoyed Pearl Harbor– Not an incredible movie, but has great atmosphere, in the same way that atmosphere saved The Fast and the Furious) and I think he is going to pull this one off.

I’ll give my reaction to the Ain’t It Cool News footage from Sly Stallone’s new Rambo film soon…

iGoogle’s virtual world implications

After having my homepage set to my GMail, I recently set it to iGoogle, Google’s personalized homepage for users. The page allows you to add your own widgets, or “Gadgets” as Google calls them. The variety of gadgets is really great, and iGoogle even allows you to add subsequent tabbed pages, with their own gadget content. There is even an “I’m feeling lucky” feature that sets up the page according to the title you give it– For example, “Entertainment” gave me news from EW and other sources, along with movie listings for my area– Very cool.

Most interesting to me, however, is the customizable themed header. Although it seems to be a few hours behind, it updates, dependent on the theme’s setting, the weather depicted in the scene, and the time of day, based on your zip code and time setup, which it can ascertain from the weather and clock gadgets.

These headers are rendered in a vector-influenced, Asian style, described here: Link as “kawaii,” a Japanese word meaning cute or cuteness, with reference to consumerism.

Although I tend to rise against the current incredible surge of Asian influenced design and art, I think these graphics have been pulled off really well, and I really admire the way they happen to capture the essence and feeling of a scene– The sights, smells, temperature, sound, music, et cetera. This kind of data-based imagery has great potential in creating virtual worlds. Imagine a site that would update its graphics and css based on your location, culture, weather conditions… I’ll write more about my ideas later.
Read Google’s blog post about iGoogle

HBO’s “The SOBpranos,” Entourage

The Sopranos

David Chase’s show is really losing it.

Season 6.2 has obliterated the normalcy of our beloved Mafiosos. Tony has developed a bad-luck gambling affinity, seemingly out of nowhere (and counter to his fear of disgracing his father’s memory), Christophuh has been killed-off with very little build up, and A.J. has taken over Paulie’s place as the show’s crybaby (I quit– But you’s the manager!)

I doubt Chase put enough thought into the structuring of his sieres’ demise. It seems to be stringing us along– LOST style. Hopefully the last few episodes will bank on series nostalgia, and give us a fitting end for Tony and the boys.

Technically, last week’s episode (83 – Kennedy and Heidi ) slipped from the show’s usual standards. The Chrissy death-scene buildup (driving in a car at night) was terribly lit. On the HD broadcast, there were areas of the picture where there was NO contrast depth. Really disheartening.

Entourage

Entourage, however, hit a home-run last week. After that awful 20 minute episode a few weeks ago, I really thought the show had “jumped the shark.” Now that the foursome is back with Ari, the show is pulling on its roots, and the jokes can start coming– Fast N’ furiously.

We’ll have to see what tomorrow holds…