Pretty Much Just What Meets the Eye

In the last week, I've managed to make my way to the theater twice to see Transformers. Now that I've had a couple days to let the whole thing sink in, I think I'm ready to comment on it. You see, Transformers is an important franchise to me. It was the "in" thing during my formative years. I received an Optimus Prime toy for my fifth birthday, and never looked back. I cried when Prime died in the old animated movie. Me and the rest of the six year olds in the theater. As I grew up, I moved on from the now dead TV series to the comic books. After the comic ended it's run, I was presented with Beast Wars, and wanted to vomit. I hated Beast Wars. And not just because it changed everything. The story was a pathetic joke, which messed with the previously established story lines whenever it felt like it. As a teenager, I was looking for something more than good guys beating up bad guys I guess. More recently, a couple Transformers series' came out which were complete slaps in the face. I mean, even children knew they were just ripping off concepts from recent cartoons. Mini-Cons? Are you kidding me?

So I was understandably concerned when I heard about the new live action Transformers movie. It took the announcement of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime's voice to really get my attention. The original Prime was voicing the movie? Maybe this won't be half bad...

I was wrong. This movie was amazing.

I knew, back when I only heard they were making a movie, that things would be different. Every version of Transformers has been different. The movie is different in a good way. Some critics have complained that this movie focuses too much on the human characters. However, it's necessary to justify Prime's affection for the human race. He has to see the best humanity is capable of, to truly see we're worth defending. Otherwise, it really doesn't make much sense for the Autobots to be willing to die for us. Also, some of the human characters are performed admirably by the cast. Bernie Mac makes a great used car salesman. John Turturro, however, seemed wasted in the role he played.  While some of the human element could have been cut, it was mainly to progress the story. The fight scenes ranged from beautiful to way too shaky at times. While some dislike the look of the robots, defining them as "too alien," I have to ask: Isn't that what they are? Alien robots?

Honestly, even if you were too young to enjoy the stuggles of the Autobots and Decepticons, you will enjoy this movie. Even if you just watch it for the robot versus robot action. Wow, this is the most I've blogged in years.