Transformers - Movie

Michael Bay's Transformers is more than a fantasy action flick for me. It is proof that I'm still a child at heart, in love with all cartoons of the 80s that used to blow my mind. It's been ages since I bothered to think about the Transformers and now, here I am, searching youtube and altavista for anything Transformers related, and writing a review for this pretty, pretty good movie.

Instead of making a life-like episode of Transformers, Micahel Bay shows us the Autobots and the Decepticons through the eyes of a teenage couple. It was a touch which I found likeable and interesting (even though many fans disagree). Sam's evolving relationship with Bumblebee is nice, and the way Sam learns about the Autobots was (for me) perfect.

I am not going to give a summary of the movie, since 99.9999% of the people in this site have already seen it, so I'll just make a summary of my turn-ons and turn-offs of the film.

TURN-ONS

1) The robot design is awesome. I prefer it a lot more than that of the cartoon. I understand that many purists and die-hardcore fans of the franchise will disagree, but I my opinion stands. They look a lot more realistic in this design. Nothing bad to report here.

2) Special effects rocked, nuff said.

3) Michael Bay remembers from the beginning to the end of the film, that he's dealing with Transformers. The robots change back and forth during their battles, using whatever advantages their forms have at the right time. When Megatron wants to cover a distnce fast, he turns into a star-jet. When he needs to thrash optimus, he goes humanoid, etc. v 4) Michael Bay's portrayal of Star Scream. True excellence. Star Scream fights like the coward that he is, blasting his opponents from afar, and transforming into an F22 to retreat once Autobots attempt to engage in melee.

5) The human characters are alright, and likeable. The couple that stars in the movie are very capable teenage actors (for the needs of the movie anyway), but basically all actors do their part nicely (the British / Australian female analyst, the secretary of defence, the marine survivors, etc.)

6) Aside from a few jokes that aren't my style (Bumblebee's pee comment, and the mother's "were you masturbating?" line), the humour is very, very nice, and had me going in many occasions. I really liked Bumblebee's attempt to help Sam "score" with Micahela.

7) Aside from a 20-minute period in the middle of the film, the rest of the movie has a very good pacing. You never get bored, and you stay glued to the screen until the end.

8) Very nice soundtrack. I expect to see the REAL soundtrack of the movie available for purchase anytime now...

TURN-OFFs

1) Zero Decepticon emphasis. While this serves to alienate them from the viewer and make them more menacing, it must be noted that the Decepticon have a lot of fans (actually, more fans than the Autobots have) and should have some more scenes showing their brutal nature in something other than mere combat.

2) Soundwave's absence was felt, and yes, I know why he wasn't included in the movie, but that doesn't change the fact that a key Decepticon character was missing.

3) Prime got seriously thrashed by Megatron, which is a bit of a turn-off for me, since I've always pictured him stronger than Megatron. But I don't think that Prime was weaker than his cartoon counterpart; actually it was just Megatron who was "beastified".

4) Some autobots as well had little emphasis.

In conclusion, Michael Bay's Transformers is one of the best (if no the best) cartoon-turned-movie flicks I've ever seen. While Batman Begins remains my favourite movie based on a franchise, Transformers was done with love and care, and that is obvious on the little details. While many people will speak about racism and political symbolisms as they see the film, I only saw one of my favourite cartoons done right, in the most part.

So basically, thank you Hollywood.

Reviewer	Nikolaos Giannoutsos
Date	August 4th 2007
Score	(8 out of 10)
Reads	6324

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