时间:2018-12-19 作者:英语课 分类:2007年NPR美国国家公共电台


英语课

Special effects make Hasbro's toys hugely engaging -- but the humans keep slowing the film down


It must be summer because a new Michael Bay film is in theaters. He directed Armageddon, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, and now Transformers. Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition film critic Kenneth Turan has this review.

Once upon a time, within the memory of those still living, if a film was successful, it inspired toys. Now, apparently 1, it's the other way around.

Transformers is based not on a novel or a play or a screenwriter's inspiration, but on a line of hasbro toys which have been hot tickets for more than 20 years. If you revere 2 those toys, you already know that. If you don't, there isn't enormous reason to care.

Transformers, as any small boy can tell you, are robots from outer space with the ability to change shape to cars and other machines. Having fought each other for eons on their home planet, the good-guy Autobots and evil Decepticons transfer their battle to planet Earth, the improbable new home to an enormous object that is the source of all Transformer life.

"An emergency Pentagon call, I need you. Do you understand this is an emergency Pentagon..Ah....."

Paradoxically, the problem with the movie is not with those Transformers. Computer technology has insured that watching these enormous toys come to life is everything fans could hope for. If this film were a lot shorter than its inflated 3 2 hours and 23 minutes, and kept its focus on the toys, it would be hard to argue with.

Humans, however, inevitably 4 enter the story. The Transformers turn out to be looking for an 11th-grader played by Shia LaBoeuf, who spends his time dreaming about a potential girlfriend (as well as his first car).

"Considering the semi-classic nature of the vehicle with the slick wheel and a custom paint job. "

"Yeah, but, but the paint is faded."

"Yeah.., but it's custom. "

"It's custom faded?"

"Where is your first car we are expecting to understand."

Too much of Transformers is spent with teenagers — who, as the key audience demographic, are fated to save the world.

The actors who play them look as much like 11th graders as I do, but the film has bigger problems, like keeping everyone awake while the toys are off the screen. Any film whose most resonant 5 line of dialogue is spoken by a robot who says, "It's you and me, Megatron" has no business being 2 hours and 23 minutes long — no matter how good the toys are.

Kenneth Turan reviews movies for Morning Edition and the Los Angeles’ Times.
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Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) is an American toy and game company. It is one of the largest toy makers 6 in the world, second only to the toy giant Mattel. Hasbro is also the publisher of the world's most popular board game, Monopoly. The corporate 7 headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States.



1 apparently
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
2 revere
vt.尊崇,崇敬,敬畏
  • Students revere the old professors.学生们十分尊敬那些老教授。
  • The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven.中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。
3 inflated
adj.(价格)飞涨的;(通货)膨胀的;言过其实的;充了气的v.使充气(于轮胎、气球等)( inflate的过去式和过去分词 );(使)膨胀;(使)通货膨胀;物价上涨
  • He has an inflated sense of his own importance. 他自视过高。
  • They all seem to take an inflated view of their collective identity. 他们对自己的集体身份似乎都持有一种夸大的看法。 来自《简明英汉词典》
4 inevitably
adv.不可避免地;必然发生地
  • In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去,毫无疑问是会散伙的。
  • Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。
5 resonant
adj.(声音)洪亮的,共鸣的
  • She has a resonant voice.她的嗓子真亮。
  • He responded with a resonant laugh.他报以洪亮的笑声。
6 makers
n.制造者,制造商(maker的复数形式)
  • The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
  • The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 corporate
adj.共同的,全体的;公司的,企业的
  • This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
  • His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。
学英语单词
-phasia
advanced rural transportation system
ancillary resources
andrologia
arcus frontalis
bacteriomes
battlestars
betula populifolias
Big, large,
Castiglioncello
CC (channel controller)
chinne
Chlormuron-ethyl
chromospheric bubble
close in for the kill
colloidal graphite for fibre glass
conjunctive proposition
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delete capability
disassure
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electronic ceramic device
fat vacuole
follicular hydrops
footpad
formals
fourvey
fruitbat
Fua'amotu
geochemical dispersion
glaucarubin
green water deck wetness
grid plate characteristics
inch-meal
inference procedure
intermediate frequency signal
irregular nature of traffic
jumptv
La Virgen, Cerro
Lagarosolen hispidus
landside slope
lead compensation
lignaloe oil
logic control
logrolling legislation
maunching
mearstone
mincing knife
Mitteleschenbach
mole blade
myrons
narrow-leaved white-topped aster
natural theology
Neonalium
neuroautoimmune
new-land
niche differentiation
No power
occupation forces
octothorpe
out of collar
parthenocarpous fruit
Pedicularis pseudocephalantha
pension program
photoepinasty
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Portballintrae
property insured
quasi peak
radiation analyzer
reverse conducting thyristor
Rhogogaster dryas
rubidium indium alum
saouma
Saxifraga aristulata
Simchat Torah
simulation centre
sinusoidal trace
skirt
soil erodibility
sour mushroom
stochastic perturbation
submerged coastal plain
taxed product
telectorate
tephrosia
through phrase
thudding
top-hinged swinging door
truth table reducibility
understudies
UnitName
virtual core
virusin
wavelength plate
wild apples
WILKIE
windowless presenter
withdraw an action
workers' management
working dogs
worth his salt