thoughtless ramblings

wow.

perhaps not the best word i could use to describe the movie 'Transformers', but it was the first word i uttered when i saw Barricade transform. i mean, having read both negative and positive reviews about this movie, it was with mixed feelings that i stepped into the cinema. but i left it with a profound sense of child-like awe and wonder. kudos to michael bay for doing a spectacular job of bringing my childhood fantasies to life.

Optimus Prime. Jazz. Rachet. Ironhide. Bumblebee. Megatron. Starscream. Scorponok. Barricade. Frenzy. Bonecrusher. Blackout. Brawl.

all of them, brought to life on the big screen, gratifying that inner child in me. the transformation from their vehicle mode to their upright robot form is nothing short of amazing and wondrous. you can almost make out where each part on the transformer belongs on its vehicular form and the amount of detail lavished on each transformer borders on the impossible. despite the autobots and decepticons being totally cgi-generated characters, they were dosed with near-human emotions, the most prominent example of this being displayed by Frenzy, when his attempt at hacking the defence network was thwarted at the last possible second and he bashes his head against the monitor in cyber-frustration. that takes the cake.

apart from the visual eyecandy, the script itself was no letdown either. interjected with humor and the right amount of emotions coupled with the spectacular pyrotechnics, it stands out from the usual gigantic robot slugfest that most people would expect it to be (not to say that you don't get all the transformers duking it out with each other towards the end).

apart from a few loopholes (how does bumblebee get his voice actuators to work again? what happened to scorponok? wasn't Prowl supposed to be the police car?) which are very much forgivable, this is THE movie of the year to watch.

bashing out this post on my new keyboard, Microsoft's Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, was an experience in frustration. fingers kept going to the wrong position after having received years of conditioning on normal keyboards. d'oh. punctuation is going to be yet another problem. commas and periods getting all messed up.

gah. if all goes well, i'm going to hafta learn how to use Plone and brush up on my Java skills. hopefully by then, i'd have mastered this keyboard. else my neighbours are gonna hear some very colourful swear words emanating from my room.

"Autobots! Transform, and roll out!"