I saw Transformers 3 yesterday, which will have a review arriving very soon. Not to say too much before then, but it's a very weirdly structured movie. I don't mean that in an analytical critic-y way, but purely on the assumption that it was aiming to be a big 'dumb fun' summer blockbuster, yet spent almost the first two hours of its insane running time (155 mins!) doing set-up work with virtually no action and relatively little of the robots everyone was paying to see. After what feels like forever, it suddenly decides to make good on its promises and delivers about forty-five minutes of relentless shooting, exploding, crashing, shouting and transforming.
As I said, you'll have to check back later to find out exactly what I thought of the movie, but the writers' decision to pack almost all the action into the final third reminded me of a rather operatic word that, in a roundabout way, describes just such a situation. Your word of the week is...
Cadenza
Noun: A musical term of Italian origin (often translated as cadence, despite it confusingly not meaning the same thing) which refers to an elaborate flourish or showy passage, which takes place near the end of an aria or a movement of a concerto. Pronounced as written.
Example: Transformers 3 didn't have much going on for a long time, but Michael Bay rediscovered his mojo with a typically action-packed cadenza for the final act.
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