Transformers 3 - Dark of the Moon - My Review

I was privileged to watch a premiere show of Transformers 3 two days back. Not having done my homework (in fact I was confusing this movie with Schwarzeneggar's Terminator - till we hit the theatre) - I was initially at a loss about the movie.

Here's my take on the show!

Of all the irrelevant things in the movie - the worst is the title. Dark of the Moon has very little relevance to the actual movie. Return of the Cybertron or something lke that would have made more sense.

What was the movie about?

How can an entire planet (Cybertron) be transported back to earth? Wont they clash? Come on - we are scared stiff and predict wholescale destruction when a tiny meteor comes close. An entire planet....puhleeze!

Shia LeBeouf in Transformers 3

What exactly was Shia LeBeouf's role in this edition of Transformers? Other than providing some cute moments and running from pillar to post for no apparent reason - he could have been written out of the script - and the movie would have remained the same!

Can Autobots be Killed?

How exactly were the Autobots or the Decepticons killed? They seemed to reform themselves at their will and no one seemed to have a clue how to deal with them - till the last few scenes when the snipers are instructed to go for the eyes!

The Final Mission

Now what was that last mission? I thought it was to take a hit at the "pillars" that were to teleport the Cybertron with the single shot left. However that seemed to be forgotten and everyone just seemed to be fighting each other, the NSA, the Seals, the Bots - till Shia LeBeouf remembers about the pillars!

What a Looonnnng Climax!

The climax was way way too long! Clip it off by 20 mins - movie would be fine. i mean one can only so much spfx of autobots and decepticons fight with humans caught and mangled in between and still manage to come out of it in one fine piece.

Having got out of the way my grouse against the movie - I must admit I enjoyed major portions of it. I am not really a bot and sci-fi and action movie fan. But I have had to adjust my tastes to watch movies with the children. So last week I had to watch Green Lantern - and now Transformers. And Transformers 3 was way way better of course.

Here are some reasons why.

Rosey Huntington - Whiteley

She was fun, sexy and a slightly toned down version of Cameron Diaz.

She was the perfect antidote to the tedium of men and machines. Having not watched the other two prequels to Transformers - I cant compare her to Megan Fox. I have a feeling she will be a great hit. I especially liked the part where her Mercedez (gifted by her boss) turns into a Dr. Ock kind Decepticon, to her shock!

Bumblebee and the Bots

The loyal Bumblebee and Optimus Prime really stole the show as the good guys leaving the men far behind. Even though it is a mystery to me why they chose to protect mere earthlings over their land Cybertron - I couldn't help but be grateful for it at the end. In fact they emoted much better than some of the queer earthlings!

John Turturro

John Turturro and Alan Tudyk as Simmons and Dutch had some of the best sequences in the movie. Turtorro as a writer and ex - Security man who has been paralysed in a Decepticon attack, was sharp and fun to watch.

Special Effects
This shouldnt be a surprise. The Transformers 3 is all about Special Effects. Starting with the moon sequence - the movie has dream SFX. In the last hour of the movie, the plot was all but forgotten to showcase some amazing scenes! There was an amazing airmen free fall sequence, a slide down the side of a collapsing glass building, a great number of autobots and decepticons fights and much more.

First Half of the Movie
The top half of the movie was a treat to watch. There seemed to be a real plot developing with Optimus Prime waking up Sentinel. There were Megatron and Sentinel Prime in a secret pact. Simmons and Witwicky were fast discovering the extent of the plot. Buzz Aldrin was meeting the training autobots. There were two cute autobot pets who kept up the interest. Rich playboy Dempsey and Diaz look alike Rosie Huntington- Whiteley provided the distraction.

As the mosaic of the plot came together - one didnt have a clue it would fall apart (literally) so dramatically in the later half of the movie!

Verdict - Worth a watch - and in 3D!

Originally published at Xomba.com at
http://www.xomba.com/top-5-reasons-i-didnt-transformers-3-dark-moon and
http://www.xomba.com/top-5-reasons-why-you-can-watch-transformers-3

Watch Prince William and Kate Middleton Wedding Live Online Free Streaming at The Royal Channel on Youtube!

The Royal Channel is streaming live online free the much awaited Royal Wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton for us plebeians! So whichever part of the globe you are you can see the Prince Say I Do!

The Youtube Channel Says simply

"The Royal Household Invites You to
Watch the Wedding of
Prince William and Catherine Middleton
29th April 10 AM London Time
Live on the Royal Channel"

Here is the link to the much awaited nupitals. With the reaction and coverage from around the World one would be blamed for thinking it is a divine wedding!

Youtube Royal Channel

Meanwhile here is the wedding invitation. And being the real Princely invitation it has no need to be pretentious!

There is more news for the Royal Wedding Watchers - Westminister Abbey will be tweeting the Wedding Live. Follow the Wesminister Abbey Tweets here

http://twitter.com/#!/wabbey and get the Royal Wedding Tweets live!

Attend the Royal Wedding on Facebook here.

http://www.facebook.com/TheBritishMonarchy

Audrey Hepburn's Little Black Dress from Breakfast at Tiffany's

Are you in search of the perfect cocktail dress? Go Black! The little black dress has a rich history and you will be in the exalted company of Audrey Hepburn, no less - who made the black dress so famous. Yes, the gamine, petite, elfin, waifish Audrey Hepburn went black in Breakfast at Tiffany's and created history and a dress eventually auctioned for £410,000!!!

But looking for the perfect black setup is not going to be easy. After all - every designer is not a Givenchy! Some will be too short, some will be too slitty, some necklines might actually touch your navel while some might presume that everyone who prefers a LBD is Audrey Hepburn. So unless you want to look smarty instead of slutty - try out all the LBDs you can get your hands on - there might just be the perfect one for you there somewhere!

Read this to find out more about Audrey Hepburn's Little Black Dress from Breakfast at Tiffany's!

The Perfect Little Black Dress - Audrey Hepburn Having Breakfast at Tiffany's

BEST REVIEW - TOP 3 HARRY POTTER BOOKS

Who says Harry potter is just for teenagers? I have loved the series from day 1 and waited and waited for the books to come out when Rowling was in the middle of the series. However the movies dont really do justice to the complicated world of Harry Potter. They are good - but not really classic like the books. So if you have heard of Harry Potter - first read the books before getting hold of the DVD!

BEST REVIEW - TOP 3 HARRY POTTER BOOKS 2011 - HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, HARRY POTTER BOOKS, BUY HARRY POTTER ONLINE, PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, SORCERER'S STONE, GOBLET OF FIRE

Watch IPL T20 Live Free Streaming Online - OFFICIALLY @ ipl.indiatimes.com

Yes IPL 4 is live online free streaming online. So all those facebook addicts, net watchers and internet addicts - you dont have to leave your laptop to catch the IPL live streaming online. And you dont need a shady digital or dubious channel to watch the 20 over cricket. Indiatimes has bought the rights for this ediion of IPL (IPL 4) to webcast all the matches of IPL 4.

The site has already had a huge influx of visitors for the first couple of matches. The matches can be caught live ANYWHERE in the world!

Meanwhile get the ipl complete schedule and fixture at

Espncricinfo/IPL Fixtures

Watch the ipl 4 live online at Indiatimes at

world.ipl.indiatimes.com/

Watching India Win The World Cup 2011

(Some portions of the article originally published at Xomba.com - http://tinyurl.com/3ep62c4)
 
Is Tendulkar the greatest of them all? His teammates think so. They chaired him around the grounds and acknowledged his contribution to Indian cricket in public. I am sure no accolade in sports is greater than the one given by teammates - with whom one has toiled and sweated for years. It would have been pretty unfair if the 38 year old were to retire without THE Chalice in his hand!

This article is however just my first hand experience of watching India win the Cup - not on Tendulkar.


I was not savouring the win from a box seat with the celebrities at Mumbai Wankhede Stadium - but the view and emotions from my sofa seat at home, watching with friends was just amazing. India won the Cricket World Cup after 28 long years. We have grown up remembering the moment when a smiling Kapil Dev with Mohinder Amarnath beside lifted the trophy 28 years back on 25th June, 1983 - while firecrackers went off outside and the drawing room literally exploded! Then we have spent decades watching TV replays of the same images of Kapil Dev spraying champagne and lifting the trophy!

Now finally after a wait of almost three decades the images will be changed and hopefully India wont have to wait too long to savour another such moment of cricket glory!  Instead we will have replays of Tendulkar being chaired by teammates, the team all speaking for each other, Dhoni keeping a low profile and not really (or at all) hogging all the limelight - and everyone saying it is for Tendulkar. It is for India too.

The Man of the day is undoubtedly M.S. Dhoni. India's coolest captain by far. He is also the bravest, luckiest, smartest and the best. In four years of captaincy when he started out as the T20 Captain - Dhoni has got the T20 World Cup for India, Made India the No. 1 test team, won the IPL and ICL trophies for his Chennai team and now finally the biggest of them all - the Cricket World Cup with a super duper innings of 91! I think he should just retire and savour his victories - he has won 'em all!

Dhoni was undoubtedly brave today - coming out to play in the finals with India needing 160 odd runs with 3 wickets down. He was not in form, he wouldnt have been blamed if he had come down the order. Maybe he remembered Yuvraj's duck against Pakistan or just decided to tease the opposition with the thought of Yuvraj and Raina still being in the pavilion. Whatever, he decided to come after the third wicket fell and took the game away from Sri Lanka with an awe inspiring chanceless innings of class and bravery. lets not forget Gambhir's innings of 97 or the 83 runs partnership between Gambhir and Kohli. Zaheer and co too did a great job restricting the strokeplay of the openers while Sangakkara was snapped by team mascot Yuvraj Singh. Even Sreesanth had his use. He is apparently the team's lucky charm!

Just another thought that no one will be voicing - would India have won if Sachin had scored a century - unless Sachin carried his bat through. Some kind of atrophy seems to seize the rest of the team the moment the great man performs! All in all I am happy - the team still managed to win inspite of the moment of despair at 31 - 2!


Here is the India vs Sri Lanka Final scorecard of the ICC World Cup Cricket 2011 Finals.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/engine/current/match/433606.html

See some world cup 2011 final photos here

http://mylittlelogbook.blogspot.com/2011/04/india-win-world-cup-pics.html

India Win World Cup - Pics

Many of the Pics are initial shots from TV from my iPhone. Sorry for the awful quality!