MGF Movie Review: Transformers
Go. See. This. Movie.
For once, Michael Bay gets it right. After the over-inflated and over-hyped kerplunks that was Armageddon and Pearl Harbor; me and my fanboy/fangirl buddies were resigned to the fact that this movie was is going to SUCK! After watching the trailers, we agreed that the special effects were going to be AWESOME! But c’mon. It’s MICHAEL BAY.
Thank goodness we were wrong. By a lot.
Transformers was an entertaining 2 hours and 23 minutes. The 10:45 pm crowd that took over the movie theatre on Tuesday night rather enjoyed themselves. I don’t think the word “suck” ever left anyone’s lips after the lights went down. In fact, what followed after the credits was one fun ride of a movie.
The premise of the movie follows the basic structure of The Transformers cartoon series that aired here in the U.S. during the 1980s. The Autobots, led by their fearless leader, Optimus Prime come to Earth in order to help their war torn planet, Cybertron. Battling against their intentions is a gang of Decepticons with Megatron in the lead (but very little screen time). What makes the battle a little different this in this version is that both groups are after the elusive Allspark – a mysterious cube that holds untold power. As I watched the movie, I came up with the following cinematic analogy:
Allspark : Transformers :: Windex : My Big Fat Greek Wedding
That’s right…the cube is a cure all. So naturally, everyone wants it. In the eyes of the Autobots, it can end the war and save Cybertron. But because they’re the universe’s bad asses, the Decepticons just want it to destroy everything. Even if it means crippling our planet and enslaving humans as pets.
Speaking of the humans – the cast of characters is highlighted by Shia LaBeouf’s portrayal of Sam Witwicky (“Spike” for you purists). LaBeouf just knows how to play the loveable (and cute) geek that you still want to hang out with at the end of the day. I think I laughed the hardest at Sam’s initial pursuit of the film’s ingénue, Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox). With a little assist from Bumblebee and some 80’s tunes. Rounding out the ensemble human cast are some big names like Josh Duhamel (NBC’s Las Vegas) and R & B singer Tyrese Gibson as members of a special forces squadron; John Turturro as a secret government agent; and Jon Voight as Defense Secretary John Keller.
But Lily...WHAT ABOUT THE FREAKIN’ ROBOTS!?!?!
For once, Michael Bay gets it right. After the over-inflated and over-hyped kerplunks that was Armageddon and Pearl Harbor; me and my fanboy/fangirl buddies were resigned to the fact that this movie was is going to SUCK! After watching the trailers, we agreed that the special effects were going to be AWESOME! But c’mon. It’s MICHAEL BAY.
Thank goodness we were wrong. By a lot.
Transformers was an entertaining 2 hours and 23 minutes. The 10:45 pm crowd that took over the movie theatre on Tuesday night rather enjoyed themselves. I don’t think the word “suck” ever left anyone’s lips after the lights went down. In fact, what followed after the credits was one fun ride of a movie.
The premise of the movie follows the basic structure of The Transformers cartoon series that aired here in the U.S. during the 1980s. The Autobots, led by their fearless leader, Optimus Prime come to Earth in order to help their war torn planet, Cybertron. Battling against their intentions is a gang of Decepticons with Megatron in the lead (but very little screen time). What makes the battle a little different this in this version is that both groups are after the elusive Allspark – a mysterious cube that holds untold power. As I watched the movie, I came up with the following cinematic analogy:
Allspark : Transformers :: Windex : My Big Fat Greek Wedding
That’s right…the cube is a cure all. So naturally, everyone wants it. In the eyes of the Autobots, it can end the war and save Cybertron. But because they’re the universe’s bad asses, the Decepticons just want it to destroy everything. Even if it means crippling our planet and enslaving humans as pets.
Speaking of the humans – the cast of characters is highlighted by Shia LaBeouf’s portrayal of Sam Witwicky (“Spike” for you purists). LaBeouf just knows how to play the loveable (and cute) geek that you still want to hang out with at the end of the day. I think I laughed the hardest at Sam’s initial pursuit of the film’s ingénue, Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox). With a little assist from Bumblebee and some 80’s tunes. Rounding out the ensemble human cast are some big names like Josh Duhamel (NBC’s Las Vegas) and R & B singer Tyrese Gibson as members of a special forces squadron; John Turturro as a secret government agent; and Jon Voight as Defense Secretary John Keller.
But Lily...WHAT ABOUT THE FREAKIN’ ROBOTS!?!?!
Oh Prime, you had me at "rollout."
There have been some conflicting numbers as to how much the budget for this movie was. Since the robots and the humans were going 50-50 on the screen time, the CGI costs ALONE could bank roll a small Third World country. Regardless, IT WAS WORTH EVERY PENNY!!! My two favorite Transformers of all time are Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. I would have cut a bee-otch if Michael Bay had screwed it up. In fact, when I found out Bumblebee was going to be a Camaro, I almost didn’t go.
They’re flawless. Perfect. It makes you want to cry when you see Prime first transform from a Peterbilt truck to a stories-high tower of might. And they aren’t shot/programmed with trick shots. Oh no, when you see the robots, they’re on screen and they’re LIVE. They move with fluidity that has not been seen with computer generated graphics. The Autobots and Decepticons are characters all their own. Don’t believe me? Check out Frenzy’s performance and tell me he isn’t better than that pansy hack Gollum.
Of course the movie has its flaws. The movie script is a three pronged storyline. Only two of them really mattered. You could have dropped the computer specialists and used the additional time to smooth out the fight scenes. And the fight scenes themselves, while awesome in its robot death matches, often times seemed like a jumbled Katamari Damacy of noise, sound, and blurs of action. More punches, less wrestling please!
And while I can appreciate Bay’s attention to the fact that giant robots fighting can and will turn a city into rubble – I find it hard to believe no one was severely injured with all the falling debris from buildings, laser blasts, and robo-destruction. I know we’re supposed to suspend our belief and that giant robots are FAR from reality…but give us a little credit (even in a PG-13 environment)!
Despite all this – I LOVE this movie! As a fan of the cartoon series, I think Bay did a good job not letting the fans down (Did you hear that BRETT RATNER?!). Bay kept the characters we loved intact and kept the franchise honest. If you’re a non-fan, I think you’ll find enough in this movie to keep you entertained!
They’re flawless. Perfect. It makes you want to cry when you see Prime first transform from a Peterbilt truck to a stories-high tower of might. And they aren’t shot/programmed with trick shots. Oh no, when you see the robots, they’re on screen and they’re LIVE. They move with fluidity that has not been seen with computer generated graphics. The Autobots and Decepticons are characters all their own. Don’t believe me? Check out Frenzy’s performance and tell me he isn’t better than that pansy hack Gollum.
Of course the movie has its flaws. The movie script is a three pronged storyline. Only two of them really mattered. You could have dropped the computer specialists and used the additional time to smooth out the fight scenes. And the fight scenes themselves, while awesome in its robot death matches, often times seemed like a jumbled Katamari Damacy of noise, sound, and blurs of action. More punches, less wrestling please!
And while I can appreciate Bay’s attention to the fact that giant robots fighting can and will turn a city into rubble – I find it hard to believe no one was severely injured with all the falling debris from buildings, laser blasts, and robo-destruction. I know we’re supposed to suspend our belief and that giant robots are FAR from reality…but give us a little credit (even in a PG-13 environment)!
Despite all this – I LOVE this movie! As a fan of the cartoon series, I think Bay did a good job not letting the fans down (Did you hear that BRETT RATNER?!). Bay kept the characters we loved intact and kept the franchise honest. If you’re a non-fan, I think you’ll find enough in this movie to keep you entertained!
posted by Lillian T. White @ 8:23 PM
2 Comments:
Okay, I was a fan back in the day, but how in the hell do you remember all of this stuff? I mean, sure I remember some of the main characters, but I vaguely remember what the storyline was all about. You must have been a HUGE fan of the show.
That was a very good review and now I look forward to seeing this after believing it would may be disappointing.
And please stop using words like "Katamari Damacy". I thought it was some type of exotic food and that doesn't seem to be the case. In fact, all I could find on that phrase was a game, which is what I hope you were referring too.
Thanks for the great review.
To tell you the truth, I remember this stuff because as cool as I try to be, I'M A TOTAL GEEKY FANGIRL!! LOL...my mind is a bottomless pit of trivia, memories, random thoughts, and lyrics to every song conceived.
My years in the Old Folks home are going to be entertaining...
I would love to hear what you think about it Antmeister! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did :-)
Oooh...sorry about the Katamari Damancy remark. Blame AZSpeechCoach...he has me watching G4 TV all the time (and yes, it's a video game about a big ball of "stuff.")!
- Lily
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