Transformers Revenge Japan

POSTED BY DANNY CHOO On Fri 2009/06/19 20:06 JST in Japan
Went along with comrades from the web2.0 Tokyo scene to attend Tokyo Transformers Night held at The IMAX cinema at Lazona in Kanagawa.
In this photo we have:-
Zuco Pietro (+waifu) - Linux Specialist (AXA), Photographer.
Joseph Tame - Pod Caster, Photographer.
Frankiebit - Journalist, Tech Specialist.
JonnyLi - Photographer.
Steven Nagata - Photographer, Tech Specialist, Writer.
Mika Ueno - Pro Investor Relations & Corporate Marketing, Photographer.
iMorpheus - Photographer.
Ryan Pipkin - Sales Executive, Entrepreneur.
Florian Von Bock - Software Dev.
Danny Choo - Grass Cutter (Mirai Inc)
For those who are planning to watch Transformers "Revenge of the Fallen" - bring spare underwear - at least 20 pairs. Its that good! Have still not seen Star Trek to compare yet but Transformers is a must see for Sci-Fi fans.
On the way into the cinema they gave us this certificate to show that we were the first to watch the first public screening of Transformers Revenge in the world ^^;
Zooming back in time to the end of the office day. Been working on the figure.fm relaunch. Here is the avatar creation screen. Now you dont need to worry about making your own - just upload any image and drag/resize the box.
UI needs a bit of work.
Just before six, some of the lads come over. I take the opportunity to get rid of my unwanted rubbish - I mean useful stuff.
Ryan in my chair came over to Tokyo as part of the Geeks on a plane tour - Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing - Tech company visits and networking.
Then its off by car to Kanagawa - about 30 mins drive.
T'was a lovely evening's drive while listening to Ridge Racer R4.
Was just before 6pm so the roads where relatively clear.
Arrival at Lazona - a huge shopping complex that opened recently-ish.
At Bic Camera to check out the transformers goodies.
Mass produced so the quality in terms of detail isn't really there - looks decent though. Would probably look better with some weathering.
Was thinking of picking this up. Want to spray it gloss white and wear it with my armor - TransTrooper ^^;
The Bumblebee voice mixer below. There is also Bumblebee's plasma cannon which looks quite good if painted to match my armor - love the recoil action. The helmet available at Amazon.com for 44USD and the Plasma Cannon also available from Amazon for 39 USD.
Have you seen these Robo Q robots before? The worlds smallest robots with some sort of intelligence apparently. Steve Nagata just happened to have one on him. You can control them with the remote and if they spot obstacles they they will walk around it. 3150 yen.
After looking around in Bic Camera, its time to look for dindins.
Didnt have time to explore this time round.
Prawn with menchi katsu. Delicious.
T'was one of the more traditional places where you get a bowl to crush your nuts. Sesame nuts.
Dinner done and as we near 8pm, we hear more Transformer noises. How would you spell the transforming noise? I make it out to be something like Kuewchukukukoo ^^;
Optimus Prime and Bumblebee in sight! So thats what the Pyramid was all about! Opens officially tomorrow. When does it open in your neck of the woods?
Grabbing some grub.
I've heard a lot about these IMAX cinemas and didn't expect too much apart from a bigger screen - completely exceeded my expectations.
The screen is a bit curved and the whole cinema rumbled with the explosions - a completely different experience and well worth it.
If you are tempted to watch a cam version then don't - you will completely ruin the experience for yourself. You should feel most satisfied with the money you pay to see this flick. Our seats were 2000 yen each.
In the first film, we had to watch until half way though until we saw Transformers action - in Revenge - its right from the beginning - a ton of it! Trailer 1 below.
This time round, there are many varieties of Transformers - many surprises in store. The things that they can transform into are very surprising indeed ^^;
I did find some of the action hard to see - combination of the fact that the screen was huge and that you had to move your head left n right to catch the action, and also because of the designs of the transformers - some of the battle scenes ended up looking like scrap clumps of metal flying about - hard to distinguish what was what at times.
Trailer 2 below.
The battle in Eygpt was full of intense action. They had this huuuge Decepticon which was formed by many construction vehicles. Optimus Primes extra "Super Parts" where kinda Macross-esqe.
Not going to talk much about the plot but I loved it - liked this one more than the first as we were blessed with Transformer action from the start. The film is 2 hours and 40 mins but never has those boring bits so you are pretty much wide awake for the whole show.
Many laughs to be had too - LOL at "Humping Decepticon" ^^;;
Would love to watch again but this time sitting further away from the screen so that I can catch any action that I missed.
Cant wait for the 3rd film...