As usual Paramount created a mega event for the Hollywood red-carpet premiere of “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen.” The red carpet that looped between the Village and Vista theaters in Westwood village in Los Angeles was jam packed with all the film’s stars from Megan Fox to Peter Cullen. An elaborate after party was set up that included a Linkin Park concert and an elaborate spread. All of this was set up to be part of the LA Film Festival, which is amusing because LA Film Fest generally supports “independent films” and Transformers is anything but.
Fellow Transformers fanatic, Steve, and I arrived around 4:30pm which I thought was far too early for a movie that started at 8pm but we didn’t want to take any chances. After several failed attempts we finally found a ledge we could stand on to get a good view of the spectacle. The press and fans were out in full force and unlike the 2007 Transformers premiere, there actually seemed to be a lot of Transformers fans! There was even a fan decked out in a very nice Transformers movie Bumblebee costume. The stands around the red carpet were filled by some extremely lucky contest winners, many of which seemed to be fans as well. These lucky bastards got exclusive Transformers badges, popcorn buckets, cups, glossy photo tickets for the premiere, lithographs for the celebs to autograph, seats just in front of all the celebs in the theater and apparently access to the after party. Yes, I was insanely jealous. Transformers stars Megan Fox and Tyrece Gibson went out of their way to say hi to the fans and sign autographs.
Although I was not invited to shoot interviews on the red carpet, I did get some decent B-roll and did talk to a couple Transformers fans at the event. When it came time to get seats for the premiere, I realized that our super expensive $36 tickets were not going to get us the best seats in the house. We actually had to leave Westwood village and travel to the AMC Avco across from Wilshire where the movie was shown in a much smaller theater without proper air conditioning and a print of the film that was constantly out of focus. Unlike at the other theater where popcorn and drinks were on the house, we weren’t provided any refreshment…some premiere!?! And no, nobody came to introduce the film. A total rip! I will say that the manager of the Avco, Emma, was very gracious afterwards and provided complimentary tickets as an apology. So no bad words against AMC from me. The LA Film Fest, run by Film Independent is an organization I have been a part of for over five years and I generally support. Although their events are usually outstanding, I do have to say that on this one occasion they definitely dropped the ball.
So getting past the technical difficulties, the film itself, it was amazing! So densely packed with action, characters and details that it could have been expanded into two films. It was also non-stop action, more big robot butt-kicking battles.
