Autobots, roll out!
Filed under Reviews on July 5, 2007
Keywords: Autobots, Bumblebee, movies, Shia LeBouf, Transformers
The wife and I saw Transformers on opening night. We both have been anticipating this movie for quite a while. I grew up watching the cartoon show and playing with my dinobots. I still have Optimus, Bumblebee and Jazz packed away in a box somewhere. I was surprised to learn that my wife really had little exposure to Transformers.
My blood started pumping as soon as I heard the “transforming” sound during the Dreamworks logo animation. I found myself transported and immersed during the first 2/3 of the movie. Shia LeBouf does a remarkable job, the scenes are full of wit and humor, and the pacing is good.
I loved the scene at the car lot where Sam (Shia) chooses Bumblebee as his first car. There was a lot of whining when it was revealed that Bumblebee would be a camaro instead of the classic VW Bug. Well, in the scene, Bumblebee is parked next to a yellow bug. When Sam’s father won’t pay the asking price for Bumblebee (as a 70’s camaro with some wear), the car dealer moves to the Bug. Bumblebee dents the driver’s side door of the Bug with his passenger door to stop the sale. It was a great send-up and gesture to the fans.
I was also pleased to see the ranks of the Autobots filled with familiar names (and voices). Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the Decepticons. Only two of the named villains were familiar to me. They also had a “boom box” character that would have been a perfect reimagining for Soundwave, but they called it “Frenzy,” which was actually the name of one of the tapes.
Minor plot holes in the last third of the movie started to pull me out of the story. I won’t go into specifics for the sake of avoiding spoilers, but it felt like the location of the final battle was contrived and should have taken place elsewhere. Still, there were some awesome fight scenes that made it easy to overlook these shortcomings.
It appears that Dreamworks/Paramount/Michael Bay have the start of a successful franchise. My wife absolutely loved this movie. I can’t wait to see which Transformers make their appearance in the next installment.
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July 5th, 2007 at 10:53 am
I wasn’t that excited to see this until the last trailer. I just missed the “transformaer was a part of my childhood.” My younger brother collected the toys and was a fan. I just got one or two, but they mostly sat on my bookshelf. I enjoyed the cartoon, but wasn’t a fanatic.
But the more and more I hear of this movie, I think I’m going to drag my wife out to see it.
(By the way, the last line of your review could be a spoiler, if I’m reading the insinuation correctly… Not a big deal for me, but maybe for others)
July 5th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Edited the last line to remove any hint of spoilage.
July 10th, 2007 at 5:47 am
Much to my surprise, I enjoyed the film. However, I think the first 1/3 of it was painfully slow and the threads were too many and too disparate. Also, there was an entire thread (the blonde computer expert and her comical companion) that did not even get finished. We have no idea what happened to them or their plan. I found that annoyingly sloppy.
In general, though, not bad.
-Ed
July 16th, 2007 at 5:52 am
I concur with all of you. I had somewhat low expectations for the movie, but was delightfully surprised to have really enjoyed it. Yeah, it had a few straining, cheesy moments, but all in all it was excellent. Optimus Prime was cool, and Megatron’s reimagining worked for me.
I’m always annoyed in movies, though, when you have governmental specialists baffled…so it takes the hip, young techno-geeks to solve things. C’mon!
July 31st, 2007 at 10:23 pm
I’ll put the movie in the ‘ok to rent once’ file. I thought Sam, the main character, was overdone. Looking fwd to the Iron Man flick…great casting for Stark in my opinion. Downey Jr. should be able to play an alcoholic pretty well !
August 1st, 2007 at 7:21 am
I caught the Comic-Con preview on YouTube. Looks pretty good. I agree the casting is ironic.