Transformers at Larcomar

This afternoon, had my second trip to the cinemas, so far on my trip (last time was in La Paz). Chris, Sharon, a few random Israeli guys, and myself went to the upmarket shopping mall of Larcomar — which is built into the side of Lima's cliff-ridden shores, very cool construction — and watched the new Transformers movie at the screens there. Very nice cinema, and an excellent movie. Although it was (obviously) chock-full with special effects, predictable romance, and a hair-thin plot, it was still much better than I expected.

Larcomar: very unique and very upmarket cliff-side shopping mall.

Here in Peru, at the cinemas they give you a choice: see the movie dubbed in Spanish; or see it with English audio, and Spanish subtitles. As you'd expect, we chose one of the sub-titled sessions. Watching a movie with Spanish subtitles is a great way to practice your Spanish (when you can be bothered reading the text), and it means that you get to hear the movie in its original, all-American form. Much better than the Spanish dubbing (what they usually show on TV and in buses), where it's pretty hard to understand the dialogue, and where 90% of the time it's dubbed really badly. Sometimes, it's also funny to watch a movie with subtitles and with dubbing, and to laugh at how the two are completely different; and how half the time, they're generally both plain wrong.

I don't want to give anything away with Transformers, but basically, it's a movie that's not nearly as bad as it rightfully should be. The humour in movies like this is generally very lame, very made-for-five-year-olds, and very half-hearted; but in this case, the humour is one of the movie's biggest strengths. Very clever dialogue in many parts, and a lot of satire on America and on life in general. The special effects are, of course, a significant part of the movie; but they're very well done, and in my opinion, they're really not overdone. And as for the inevitable teen romance element: well, I guess it is a bit cheesy; but hey, the chick is really hot, so that makes everything OK. Just go see the movie: highly recommended.