Who Killed the Electric Car?

Who Killed the Electric Car?
2006, directed by Chris Paine

Ah, how time marches on. There's a lengthy passage in Who Killed the Electric Car? about how pie in the sky hydrogen fuel cell technology has been used by the Bush administration and the rest of the fuel cartel as a public distraction to already viable alternative fuel technologies such as the batteries in the electric cars. The movie then explains how in the 90's the government started taking steps to force car companies to develop electric cars. But then the car companies spent all of that decade whining and complaining and then Bush swept in and gave them incentives to make Hummers and SUVs (groan). But then comes the most interesting part. The laws of the 90's convinced the Japanese auto makers that electric cars were the future of the automobile industry, so they ended up putting all their resources into developing electric cars. So today, everyone and their grandma wants a Prius, GM's hybrids get half as many miles to the gallon as Toyotas, and the Hydrogen car is still limited to a few gas stations in California. Then the movie talks about how hybrids are the future and that within a few years hybrids that can be plugged in will be on the market.

Now, I don't want to seem like a capitalist apologist, but it seems like, in the market worked. The GM EV1 may have been shredded into a million pieces, but the electric vehicle technology found its way to the forefront of the auto industry anyway. A hybrid may be inferior to a pure electric car, but its a step in the right direction and according to the film, plug-in models will be in the showroom in just a few yeras. So all the strong arm tactics the auto industry pulls throughout Who Killed the Electric Car?, while sad in their shortsightedness, really just highlight the idiocy of the auto industry for not sensing a good thing when they had it. Sure the demand for clean air vehicles was substantially lower in the mid 90's than it is today (cue 9/11 reference), but simply, GM and Ford had the opportunity to be at the forefront of the market and today, they doubly lag behind the Japanese. And that means that Who Killed the Electric Car? works less as a propaganda piece and more as a ironic lament to American arrogance (There's no shortage of those).

There's also a bit near the beginning about solar powered cars. I hope GM and Ford don't drop the ball on that one. They probably will, though.

Transformers

Transformers
dir. Michael Bay, 2007


Turns out Michael Bay isn't the devil. Watching Transformers (and catching a bit of The Island the other day), I even got the sense that he's developed his own signature style. That is to say he's developed Tony Scott's style (who developed Michael Mann's style). He's even lengthened his edits from on every two seconds to one every seven seconds (which falls to five in the action scenes). But even more important than the visual style is the revelation that Michael Bay has developed a sense of humor. Sure there was always a little bit of the standard humor of the genres Bay traversed in, but usually was more dependent on the actors than anything Bay did (my favorite line from The Rock "Losers try their best, winners fuck the prom queen" is made all the more funny because it's coming from Sean Connery's mouth). A little relaxation in tone allows Bay to up the energy of the more mundane scenes of the movie's first half involving lonely Shia Lebeouf and Megan Fox (whose sure to be Maxim fodder by the end of the month, if she's not already). Before all the tomfoolery about the cube and the mysterious government organizations that not even the President (hilarious Bush insertion) and Secretary of Defense know about (Independence Day anyone?) show up, Transformers has a ball showing how awesome having a car that transforms into three story tall robot would be to a seventeen-year-old dork who wants to impress the hottest chick in school.
Once all the battles begin, however, the movie takes a turn for the serious and you can see the less geeky members of the cast straining to deliver loving speeches about taking stand and showing loyalty to a bunch of alien robots. The special effects are amazing (I can't even imagine how much work had to go into those transformation scene), but Bay kind of loses track of his explosions in the end battle scene (a key death is show almost in passing). The characters start to fumble too. Who cares whether Ms. Fox has a juvie record? There's fucking alien robots from outer space shooting rockets at each other!
Also, I know comic sensibilities require the guns to be big and the breasts even bigger, but I grimace whenever a super-genius government scientist is played by a smoking hot person who looks like she spent more time on her hair than her education. I know that undoubtedly there are a few superhot chicks in top secrete laboraties somewhere, but whenever I see one in a movie, I can't help but think that the actress in the role cringing as she talks about firewalls or chemical reactions or whatever.
Post script two. The hot chick who loves to work on cars. I would say this is the number one fantasy of 95% of American men ages 10-89.