A couple of weekends ago my pal Gary came up to stay, and we went to see "Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen" at the cinema. I really liked the first film, as it was a fun and dumb romp with some cracking visuals.....typical Michael Bay really. The sequel delivered exactly what I expected (over the top action, military types in slow-motion photography, etc) but with far more robot action this time around, and some slapstick comedy thrown into the mix. I loved Wheelie - what a great character! Bay and his fx wizards move the camera a tad too quickly in the action set pieces for my liking, and the film is over long, but other than that, I really enjoyed it. Most of the humour worked for me, although some of it was unnecessary (did we really need so much screen time devoted to two comedy relief robots acting goofy?) but where the film delivers is in the scope of action set pieces and visuals. The fx's on the robots is stunning - ILM's most complex CGI models. The whole end sequence of the Autobot v Decepticon battle at the Pyramids was very exciting. I like the cast as well. Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox are now Hollywood's most successful young stars. "Transformers: ROTF" is already the highest grossing film of the year with $315million in the bank.******
Michael Jackson died from a heart attack a couple of weeks ago, just a few weeks before his comeback concerts in London were to start. He was 50 years old. I was surprised at how this got to me. It sunk in about a week later and then for some reason I felt quite sad and muddled for a few days. I guess this was because Michael was (and remains) an entertainment icon from my childhood and teenage years. Maybe his passing reinforced issues of mortality and age to me. Not sure. Anyway, as a little tribute, I played "Thriller" for a few days running in the car on my commute - what a wonderful record! I also bought two special magazine publications about him.Michael in a promotional shot for the "ET Storybook" album, 1982.
I think my first memory of Michael was in the promo video for "Blame it on the Boogie" from the Jackson's "Destiny" album in 1978. Great video effects in that one! I'm sure "Top of the Pops" showed the video, if not, I saw it on another show like "Swap Shop". I also fondly remember the Jackson's TV show shown as a repeat on Children's TV on summer mornings, shown alongside such fare as "The Littlest Hobo", "The Pink Panther" and "Why Don't you...?" I remember Jackson's singles from the excellent "Off the Wall" album in 1979 and 1980 in the charts, and then of course the hit singles from the "Thriller" album which were played constantly on the radio and on television. I also recall watching the John Landis video for "Thriller" for the first time on late night Channel 4 - Friday December 2nd, 1983, wasn't it? Then there was other stuff like "Bad", "Dangerous" etc, although even before the 1993 allegations, I was distancing myself from his stuff and finding interest in other music. Still, Michael was always in the news for some reason, so you couldn't really get away from the latest hullabaloo surround him, such as the 1995 Brit awards when Michael's Christ-complex-like performance was interrupted by a bemused and annoyed Jarvis Cocker.
For me, the memorial service broadcast from the Staples Centre in Los Angeles last week was a interesting (if very 'Hollywood') thing to see, but I'm sure it provided some form of closure for Michael's family and countless fans. I found it telling that some key people, such as Diana Ross, Quincy Jones and Elizabeth Taylor did not attend. I think the highlight for me was when the Rev. Al Sharpton addressed his children with the line, 'I just want to say to you children. Wasn't nothing strange about yo' daddy. What he had to deal with was strange.'
There was a lot of dross in the show, such as some politician spouting on and on, and Mariah Carey's performance was very poor. I'm glad I watched it though - one of those events that will be talked about in the future. The worldwide audience was thought to be around 1 billion people. Wow.
Anyway, I doubt if the press will let this whole thing go yet, as it sells too many papers. Even today, the Daily Star had a headline suggesting his death was actually murder. I don't know why, as I didn't actually read the article. And tomorrow, Channel 4 has a show on about his last days. MTV and a host of other music channels have shown his music videos on repeat over the last two weeks. Many of his hit singles are in the charts again. Hmmm, I wonder what will happen to his adopted children? No doubt the media will follow their every move from now on. Let's hope they don't become more victims of stardom.
A couple of years ago Carla and I read The Magic and The Madness, which is a fascinating document of Michael's life: the lack of a real childhood, an autocratic and overbearing father, stardom at a young age, the plastic surgery, highest selling album of all time, the chimp, the fanatical fans, the allegations, it's all there. I hope the author goes ahead and completes the story now. What a bizarre life for a very talented (if rather strange) man.
R.I.P. Michael.
