‘Transformers’ is actually less than meets the eye
Those of you who were fans of the animated series could end up just as disappointed as I was by Michael Bay‘s live-action version of Transformers. It wasn’t necessarily a bad film but it certainly wasn’t as great as all the hype made it out to be.
The story takes place on earth as two alien clans, the Autobots and the Deceptacons, are continually fighting in a war for the Allspark (as if I had to retell a tale like this). This whole story SHOULD have been the main focus in the movie but NO!!!
Of course Hollywood has to downgrade an epic story like this, just like they did with X-Men. (Rogue, one of the strongest X-Men is a weakling? But I’ll save X-Men for a future rant.) The movie did not water-down the series so much, but like every movie that has such a large fan base, it’s hard to tell what could have, would have, and should have happened.
What Worked: The cinematic fight sequences weren’t as memorable as I had hoped. Of course, the design of the all of the bots was amazing. We didn’t see everyone’s weapons and only a limited use of Optimus Prime’s sword.
The storyline between Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBouf), Optimus and Bumblebee was one of the highlights. If the movie would have focused more on them it would have been way more entertaining, especially during a two on two fight with Optimus and Bumblebee v.s. two Decepticons.
Also, I love that they kept the sound when the bots transform.
The movie was funny, and of course entertaining. Look for a great cameo by Bernie Mac.
Still, the best and only fight scene that I loved was when Optimus uses his sword.
What Didn’t Work: The integration of a love storyline with Megan Fox (though she is hot) was not recessary. Josh Duhmel‘s back story (WTF?) also seemed to drag the movie down, as did Tyresse Gibson‘s bad acting.
Worst of all was the excessive amount of in-movie advertising for General Motors. Practically every vehicle in the movie was in some way connected to GM! The commercial marketing, and not exploring more characters and weapons really prevented this movie from reaching its awesome potential.
Verdict: I love Trasnformers……the animated series, not the movie. While I don’t hate Bay’s work, and I don’t hate the movie, I feel that, with a franchise that has been around for decades, there’s no excuse to make an OK movie. It should be great. And you should never commercialize a franchise just to make more profit.
Final Score: 3 out of 5
View a clip from the animated film here:
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Dude, wtf? Transformers was fucking awesome! The movie rocked.
The side story with the love interest was good because it allowed for the scene in which we discover that the ‘sector 7′ secret government agency which maintains alien stuff is actually not a great thing, but they are manipulative and take advantage of people and threaten them if they don’t rat out their parents. That, along with other subtle things like the writing on the side of the decepticon who turns into a cop car that says “to punish and enslave” (instead of “to serve and protect”), the raid on the computer hackers’ house, and the aloof/sexist way in which the president asks for ding dongs on air force 1, are important in portraying the post sept-11th national security state as something which isn’t all awesome, helpful, honest and heroic (like the state was in the late 90’s propaganda film “independance day”), but actually isn’t always led by the best people and can actually hurt the citizens as much as it helps them.
In transformers earthlings survive in spite of the American government, not because of it. For example, rank and file Iraq war veterans have to pull a gun on the sector 7 people to make them release bumblebee… without this breach of authority earth might not have been saved.
The effects and the fight scene rocked. Where else can you see a robot transform into an F-22, transform back to a robot and shoot down other planes, and then transform back into a plane and then fuck up two other planes 5 seconds later? That was awesome.
When optimus prime stabbed the guy in the face with his sword that was pretty bad ass, in a very T-1000 sort of way. I liked that you mentioned that.
Still, for a hollywood action movie today, this should have definately got a 4/5 or maybe a 5/5. What else did it need? Besdies sigorney weaver with a pulse rifle duck taped to a flame thrower I can’t imagine.
i was bummed out by 28 weeks later, spiderman 3 and surprisingly only slightly by die hard 4… best bet of the summer, super bad
I just saw this movie today and it was definitely better than I was expecting it to be. With Michael Bay’s previous track record of crap big-budget, low-content movies (The Island), I was expecting this to be a total disaster. Even Trey Parker ripped on Michael Bay in Team America with an entire song about how much Pearl Harbor sucked and the line “Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?”
I was happily surprised that it definitely wasn’t what I thought it would be. This is less of a credit to Michael Bay and more of a credit to Shia LaBeouf, who managed to say lines that would sound totally stupid in a way that made them funny and cool.
I was never hardcore into the animated series, though I did sometimes watch it when I was little. I’m sure if I had been really into it as a kid, I would have been more of purist about the adaptation. I’ve read some reviews by super fans who went ape shit that Optimus Prime was an extended truck in the film and not a flat-front truck like in the animated show or that Bumblebee was a Camero and not a VW Beetle like in the original.
Regardless, I actually ended up kinda liking Transformers, if only for its fun summer-blockbuster value. It was definitely one of the better Michael Bay films I’ve ever seen.
Oh, and I liked the soundtrack with The Used and Taking Back Sunday too.