Transformers: Movie Review

[3113]

So I saw Transformers...and I'm not quite sure how to review it--as a movie separate from its source material, or in relation to the source material which, alas, I know little about.

As a movie, well, it's Michael Bay. That means that, story-wise, it makes little sense and is completely unapologetic about it. It's filled with long action sequences and a lot of characters who have their personalities rubber-stamped on their foreheads. Each switch between characters is like a switch between movies (now we're in the high school movie...now we're in the "Aliens" movie with the soldiers...now we're in the "geeks-cracking-the-secret-code" movie with wacky men in black....).

The girls look great in tight skirts and cropped tops. The heroic guys are either generic-but-sympathetic teen or brave common soldier. There are tons and tons and tons of car crashes, chases, military weaponry including jets, helicopters, tanks, and soldiers themselves. Things get blown up real good (and very loudly; this is a noisy movie) and our heroes manage to survive the most amazing amount of falling rubble and being thrown around.

Best of all, there are big robots with cartoon dialogue who have more character and pathos than any of the humans and turn into nifty cars and jets and helicopters.

I'll be interested to see what our resident expert, Trom, has to say about the movie, but as someone who knows little to nothing about Transformers, and as a movie goer who (let us keep this in mind) isn't even close to the target demographic for this film...it seemed to me a forgettable and fairly typical Michael Bay film. I liked the robots, but not much else.

 

[cloudy]

Best commercial spinoff has got to be the one for Burger King...probably better than the movie itself. But, I have a seven-year-old, so I'll probably see it, and very soon.

 

[Guest]

Best commercial spinoff has got to be the one for Burger King...probably better than the movie itself. But, I have a seven-year-old, so I'll probably see it, and very soon.

Same here.

We'll live vicariously through our young son and cheer for the good guys and marvel at the loud explosions.

Then we'll get ice cream.

(It's what we do.)

 

[flavortang]

I'm taking my son to see it tomorrow. I can't wait! The critical reviews have been mostly positive, so that's a good thing. I'm a fan of most of Bay's work because I just appreciate the movies for what they are: loud, crash-bang, roller-coaster, joy-ride movies. I don't think every movie needs to try to change the world.

When I was growing up I wasn't a fan of the cartoon because the toys were so damn expensive, but I am looking forward to the movie.

 

[scriptordelecto]

I'm taking my son to see it tomorrow. I can't wait! The critical reviews have been mostly positive, so that's a good thing. I'm a fan of most of Bay's work because I just appreciate the movies for what they are: loud, crash-bang, roller-coaster, joy-ride movies. I don't think every movie needs to try to change the world.

When I was growing up I wasn't a fan of the cartoon because the toys were so damn expensive, but I am looking forward to the movie.

We just got home from seeing it, and as devoted fans for the last twenty years, Dark and I loved it. Our seven year old has watched the original Transformers animated movie every night for the last three weeks, and she was just as excited as we were.

I hope you have a great time.

 

[elsol]

*burp*

A little perspective... it's a movie about robots that turn into sundry vehicles and are at war with each other.

Too many damn humans!

And I want dino-bots!

 

[MrsDeathlynx]

I have yet to see it, though perhaps we'll go see it in the next week when we both have the time off and can go to a matinee.

But the cartoons are pretty much about robots fighting other robots, a few human kids getting involved but that's pretty much it. I watched it but never had any of the toys, was a big fan of it actually, lol.

I do love the commericial with Optimus trying to go through the drive through, that was great and made me laugh my ass off, hehe.

 

[MrsDeathlynx]

And I want dino-bots!

I want to see the cassette tapes! *giggles*

 

[S-Des]

I'm seeing it later today (I really have no life ).

As a movie, well, it's Michael Bay. That means that, story-wise, it makes little sense and is completely unapologetic about it.

That's all you had to say to let me know I'm going to love it.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I'm tempted to see it this afternoon. It's got to be showing at the multiplex I go to, right?

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I had the opportunity to see it last night. I flatly refused to go.

 

[flavortang]

I get to see it in two hours! I can't wait!

 

[Guest]

Best line I heard in a review on the radio "Featuring the aptly named, Meghan Fox."

 

[Recidiva]

We all went yesterday. And we're all nerds. So many nerd inside jokes and so many bits and pieces of nerd trivia all worked in. Parents at 40ish, daughter at 18ish, son at 9ish, all loved it. Opening day packed audience. Fantabulous fun.

I cried a few times. Yup.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

The Drive-In here in our area is showing it along with Oceans 13. I have a desire to see Transformers because of Trom. We'll see it because of my son, too, but honestly I just want to see it because our resident AHer likes Transformers. lol....

Oceans 13... eh... never cared for the other two, so I hope to fall asleep at the drive-in while it's playing.

 

[flavortang]

Well, since the bitchin' thing was sold out yesterday!, I'm seeing it today at 12:30.... Eye cunt weight!

 

[Trombonus]

lol, well here I am. You all knew it was only a matter of time before I spotted it.

So I went to see it on Tuesday at the earliest opportunity possible.

I'd like to point out at this point that it broke Pirates 3's number's for a Tuesday opening by over 12 Million.

This movie was FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!!!!

I know a lot of other Transformers fans have been nervous about this movie at best for quite some time now, and many refuse to go see it. I went in realizing it wasn't going to be the same Transformers I grew up with, and I think that's the key for a TF fan to be able to enjoy this movie.

For those that don't understand the story, if you knew Transformers you would. my recommendation is to go to a local Barnes and Nobles or comic book store and find the Movie Prequel Graphic novel, and maybe even the actual graphic novel adaption of the movie. This will help matters significantly. They should have an and cap or section of some kind with a bunch of TF graphic novels and books, but even if they don't you should be able to find a copy fairly easy.

I was very pleased. One major concern of mine was that the humans would play too big of a role in the movie, however after seeing it I was relieved that it wasn't that big of an issue, and it was in fact very balanced. Shia was great as Sam Witwicky. Spike was always a character that I just flat out HATED in the cartoon. I mean how stupid can one kid be? However, I really enjoyed the new take on the character. Megan Fox was there for eye candy, and I'm totally ok with that. I thought most of the other characters were well cast as well, although most seemed kinda superfluous.

The Transformers themselves were awesome. They were really animated well, and I thought most of the voice overs were pretty good. The Transformations were incredible. I thought the fight scenes were really well done for the most part too. My favorite flat out fight was the one between Bumblebee and Barricade, but my favorite scene of all was the in flight action between Starscream and the other fighter jets. I just thought they accurately portrayed his aerial skills.

My only complaint is the name change of the character Brawl. In the movie he called himself Devastator, which I think is not a good change. That pretty much cancels out any hope for a gestalt of some kind. For those that don't know, a gestalt is the combined form of several Transformers. Devastator is the combined form of the Constructicons, so we can pretty much assume that we wont see the Constructicons or any special teams/gestalts in future movies. I also think we can safely assume that there wont be any cassette TF's, at least the one's we're familiar with. They're kinda out-dated now, and Frenzy was in this movie already as something other than a cassette (I wont spoil it for those that don't know).

Yes, there will be future movies, The script for Transformers 2 is already under way, and Megan Fox has signed on for it according to my sources. This shouldn't really be a surprise though. There is also a rumor that the next movie may include the Dinobots, so Elsol be on the look out for that. I also think we haven't seen the last of Megatron, and I'm positive Starscream will have a huge role in the next movie. Expect to see many more Transformers in the next one. I think we'll see a migration of sorts of both Autobots and Decepticons. The ending of the movie pretty much garauntees it for me. Also be sure to check out the extra scenes during the credits. Don't sit through the whole thing though, there's a couple scenes with the Witwicky family, and one other scene with a certain Transformer, and then that's it.

And on a final note, the first thing I did when I got home Tuesday was watch the original Transformers movie, and now I'm going through my TF season DVDs.

 

[Trombonus]

PS: I'm still REALLY REALLY HYPER!!!!!

 

[elsol]

DINO-BOTS!!!

DINO-BOTS!!!

My favorite part was the Optimus Prime 'little' lectures like in the cartoons.

My girlfriend was like "huh?"

And I was like... BUT THAT'S OPTIMUS PRIME!!!

Not enough of Optimus's gun though.

And the best part was that the first thing Megatron does is bitch-out Starscream!

 

[Trombonus]

DINO-BOTS!!!

DINO-BOTS!!!

My favorite part was the Optimus Prime 'little' lectures like in the cartoons.

My girlfriend was like "huh?"

And I was like... BUT THAT'S OPTIMUS PRIME!!!

Not enough of Optimus's gun though.

And the best part was that the first thing Megatron does is bitch-out Starscream!

Starscream was just bad ass throughout the whole movie. they had so many one-liners from the old show, and did you notice that the first transformation scene with Blackout utilized the original transformation sound from the cartoon?

I agree with you on the Optimus thing, and the Dinobots. We need to see Grimlock kick some butt/bot.

P.S.: We need to see Prowl too!

 

[Darklove666]

Yeah, I just had to come here to say it was freaking awesome!
I saw like 10 people I went to high school with there, and 4 other people that work in my mall.

Continuing with the money update Transformers now holds the record for best 4th of July sales and highest gross for a non-sequel on a Wed.

I hope to see it again soon.

 

[SCAR3CROW]

I almost cried at the end, i wont explain which part exactly for the ppl who havent seen it yet, he is one of my fav's.

hopefully in the next movie we I will get my wish and HotRod will make an appearance!

As for the movie itself i saw it twice in three days and cant understand why ppl bag Michael Bay so much, i think he has done impeccable work and i love all his films. The sfx and vfx were A+ and the soundtrack wasnt bad either. A little to lovey dovey at the end for my liking but hey it was expected. One of my favourite parts was when bumblebee kicked the kids out the car and scanned the new camaro.

Also it was great to see that they used a bit of the old toon sfx in the transforming scenes!

 

[Recidiva]

I almost cried at the end, i wont explain which part exactly for the ppl who havent seen it yet, he is one of my fav's.

hopefully in the next movie we I will get my wish and HotRod will make an appearance!

As for the movie itself i saw it twice in three days and cant understand why ppl bag Michael Bay so much, i think he has done impeccable work and i love all his films. The sfx and vfx were A+ and the soundtrack wasnt bad either. A little to lovey dovey at the end for my liking but hey it was expected. One of my favourite parts was when bumblebee kicked the kids out the car and scanned the new camaro.

Also it was great to see that they used a bit of the old toon sfx in the transforming scenes!

I think Michael Bay gets trashed because fantasy and games and nerd-dom are a bad word for lots of people.

I compare it to going to a horse show...do you adore the animals and feel a kinship and see they are being presented with care and love, or is it that all you notice is that it smells and there are flies and horses can be dirty?

Fantasy/game movies come from a fan base. If you're not a fan, you're missing a huge amount of what makes it FUN. If you're a fan, you're already on the playing field, you know what to expect. I think it had a bit more nuance and depth than I expected.

Saying it's not Shakespeare is obvious. If I wanted to see Shakespeare, I'd go see Shakespeare.

But then someone's going to bitch that Shakespeare is hard to understand.

 

[Trombonus]

I almost cried at the end, i wont explain which part exactly for the ppl who havent seen it yet, he is one of my fav's.

I know what you mean, that was brutal.

Also it was great to see that they used a bit of the old toon sfx in the transforming scenes!

I almost jumped out of my seat when I heard it.

 

[flavortang]

Well, I just saw it and thought it was great. Stuff for everyone, My five-year-old said it was "Awesome". lol