NOTE: This review will contain spoilers.

Like The DaVinci Code [...]]]> As the cover says, The Lost Symbol is written by Dan Brown (author of The DaVinci Code).  Many people believe this is Brown’s third book overall, but in fact it’s merely the 3rd book in the “Robert Langdon Trilogy” (it’s actually Brown’s 5th novel).

NOTE: This review will contain spoilers.

Like The DaVinci Code and it’s predecessor Angels & Demons, this book follows Dr. Robert Langdon as he goes on a treasure hunt.  Set in Washington, D.C. and dealing with Freemasonry, The Lost Symbol is an outstanding follow up to Code.  Langdon gets an early morning phone call summoning him to Washington for a last minute speaking engagement on behalf of an old friend.  When he gets there, Langdon quickly realizes that he’s been set up and there is no speech to be made.  In reality, Langdon must use all of his training and cunning to save his friend’s life while solving the riddles that have been put before him.

The villain in all of this is the tattooed Mal’akh who has an obvious obsession with Langdon’s friend Peter Solomon who happens to be a 33rd degree Mason with access to all of the Mason’s most guarded secrets – including The Lost Word.  Mal’akh has kidnapped Solomon and will kill him unless Langdon follows the clues that the Masons have left throughout history.  In addition to the Mason’s clues, Mal’akh proves to be a brutal advisory that Langdon must outwit while trying to elude the CIA who’s also on the case.

COMMENTARY:

This is not an “easy” read by any stretch of the imagination.  Brown’s got some sentences that seem to run on forever and the stuff that he’s talking about while fascinating can be confusing at times.  Brown does an amazing job of describing not only the character of Mal’akh but also the brutality that he emits.  I couldn’t help but thinking of the “Dragon” character from The Red Dragon when thinking about Mal’akh.  The tattoos are an obvious correlation, but the mentality of the character is what really got me.  He really thinks that what he’s doing is completely justified.

You can tell when a book is well written when you continue thinking about it long after you put it down.  There was one chapter in particular that really got me – the drowning.  The way it is described is stunning and really had me on edge after I closed the book.  Pure brilliance.

I don’t think this is Brown’s best Langdon novel (that title lies with Angels & Demons) but it’s definitely worth the read.  Brown has an uncanny knack of keeping you guessing till quite literally the final page.  With the success of the previous books and movies you can pretty much guarantee that Tom Hanks will play Robert Langdon once again.

Amanda and I were living in Washington, D.C. [...]]]> I feel compelled to write something today – the 8th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.  and the fourth plane in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  2,993 people died that day and millions more were affected.

Amanda and I were living in Washington, D.C. and I remember it like it was yesterday.  The Internet came to a crawl because everyone was trying to figure out what was going on.  Phone lines were jammed and cell phones were unusable.  A co-worker’s father was in the Pentagon that morning.  He was not able to contact him until much later that evening.  I can only imagine what it was like for people living in Manhattan.

I’ve often talked about getting a tattoo.  For years I’d said that I didn’t have anything sacred enough to me to put on my body for the rest of my days.  Now that I have children their names certainly are special enough to fit that bill.  And ever since 9/11 I’ve been toying with the idea of getting the American flag with the words “Let’s Roll” underneath them.  Those two words describe the American spirit to me.  To this day I make an effort to shake hands with every service man and woman that I see.  I get choked up every time I do it whether I’m walking through the airport or in the mall.  I’m teaching my boys to do the same.  They don’t know why yet but they will.

It pisses me off that the majority of the country has forgotten.  We get bogged down by politics, health plans and other stuff that in the grand scheme of things just doesn’t matter.  Sure you’ll see a ton of flags today and everyone has it on their mind… but that day changed our lives forever.  Please don’t forget when the clock strikes 12 tonight and it becomes September 12th – I know I won’t.

The Transformers

More of [...]]]> I’m going to write this review in much the same style that I used for my review of the original movie.  Before we get started realize that this will contain spoilers so if you want to watch the movie fresh skip this post and come back after viewing.

The Transformers

More of the same goodness that we got in the first movie.  Optimus Prime kicks MAJOR ass in this flick.  At one point he roars “I’ll take you all on” and I literally got goose bumps.  That was of course until he went and got himself “killed”.  Silly Optimus.  Megatron is back from the depths of the ocean in this one and he’s still a bad ass.  Making their first appearances in live action are Soundwave and Ravage.  If you remember them from the cartoons Soundwave was the little tape player and Ravage was one of the cassette tapes that went in him.  For obvious reasons they don’t take on these forms in a movie set in present day (as they’d have to be antiques in order for it to make any sense).  Soundwave is used very well and Ravage is AWESOME in his action sequences.

The title of the movie takes its name from another new Decepticon: The Fallen.  Think of him as the main bad guy.  In fact, he’s the guy that made Megatron bad to begin with.  Without going into too much of his back story he was one of the original 13 Transformers also known as the “Dynasty Of The Primes”.

Two other new bots of note are Jetfire and Devastator.  Jetfire is a geriatric Decepticon turned Autobot who has been in hiding at the Smithsonian in Washington for decades.  Devastator is a Decepticon who is formed out of multiple bots to form one super bot capable of “eating” anything in its path.  Both of these characters had cartoon versions and seeing them on the big screen was super cool.

Finally I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention “Alice” played by Isabel Lucas.  She’s originally introduced as a dorm mate of Sam at college who has the hots for him.  It turns out she’s actually a Decepticon posing as a human.  This is one of the big problems I had with the flick.  I have not problems suspending disbelief but this was a bit much for me.  For what it’s worth… Isabel Lucas is smokin.

The Humans

More of the same here.  If you enjoyed Shia LaBeouf (Sam Witwicky) and Megan Fox (Mikaela Barns) in the first film you’ll enjoy them here.  Shia talks like he’s on speed the entire movie and Megan wears outfits that should probably be banned.  If possible Megan Fox is hotter in this flick than she was in the last.  Wow.  Back again are Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson playing U.S. special forces and John Tuturro as former agent of Sector 7.

Sam’s mom and dad are once again played by Kevin Dunn and Julie White.  These characters are given an over the top treatment in this flick culminating with mom mistakenly eating pot brownies while visiting Sam at college.  While kind of humorous, it’s this type of stuff that could have been left out.

Ramón Rodríguez plays Sam’s roommate Leo Spitz who runs an Internet site all about conspiracy theories.  Of course he’s got a ton of information about the events of the first film which Sam denies.  His character is included more from a slap stick humor perspective as opposed to a true plot-driver.

The Backlash

This film was pretty much universally destroyed by critics.  Based on that I went into it with pretty low expectation but as I said in a previous post I was still really excited to see it.  After seeing it I really don’t know what all the uproar is about.  The problems that I had with the first one are still present here:

1. It’s difficult to tell who’s who when the robots are fighting one another.
2. The human dialog is WAY too fast and tries to be too witty.
3. Most of the time the Autobots / Decepticons aren’t really introduced

Again, these are things that I had problems with in the first one.  Michael Bay is known for being an ACTION director.  If you’re expecting Hamlet you’re going to be disappointed… but shame on your for expecting Hamlet.

I do have a couple of issues with the film outside of what I’ve outlined above.

1. The Fallen – he’s supposed to be some supreme bad ass and Prime kicks his ass relatively quickly.  I know this is a minor thing but I thought I’d point it out.
2. The whole “human into robot” thing described above.  I know it’s a movie and I’m supposed to give some leeway but this was a bit much for me.
3. Sam going “into the Matrix”.  While it was COMPLETELY AWESOME to see the Matrix Of Leadership on film it was kind of crazy for a human to die, go into the Matrix and gain knowledge from it (A la Optimus in the Red Dust episodes from the cartoons).

Recommendation

All of those bad points aside you really should see this flick.  If you enjoyed the first film I don’t see how you can’t enjoy this one… it’s more of the same stuff PLUS you get quite a few new characters.  The bottom line is this – as long as Michael Bay is making movie about big robots that talk and transform I’m going to be in line to see them.  As of this writing, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen has grossed $339 Million.  That to me sounds like an equation for more Transformers movies in the future.  Get out there and see it!