New article by Wil up now on Trashwire.com
Transformers is actually less than meets they eye
by Wil Chinchilla
July 20, 2007
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.
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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
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.
Christian
I guess it really depends on your perspective. I grew up watching Transformers and enjoyed the movie as well. I agree with you that it wasn’t the blow away picture everyone made it out to be but it certainly was not a bad one either. The audience wasn’t for people like me (I am in my twenties) but more for the younger crowd. Some of the negative points you made I think are also overblown.
-The love story did not hurt or help the movie. So its really not a bad point.
-Advertising. Clearly, you show your movie critic side instead of movie goer side here. There is advertising in most movies these days. We would like to assume 100 million dollars comes out of the sky but 99.9% of the time it does not. I noticed the advertising too but it didn’t take away from the overall story. If it bothered you that much, I bet you probably walked out and left when the Mountain Dew machine came to life.
Again, I enjoyed the movie, and for what its worth, I think its a solid 4 out of 5. The story was in sync, it wasn’t over the top, and they tried to integrate as much of the original story into the movie (unlike the Marvel movies).
If you don’t agree w/ me at least give them one more star for using some of the original voices. I am hoping as a “fan” you picked up on that.
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 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.
Well let me start by saying:
1)I am not changing my score because it would mean that I change my mind but I never do.
2)Feedback is awesome regardless if it is negative or positive.
3)I wanted to address my score and the responses.
Taking into consideration what everyone has said, yes I do use my movie critic side almost always, and it might seem I have pet peeves but really if you were to watch to the movie again (I agree with Alexis) it would be to laugh at Shia LeBeouf’s line because he really did steal the show. In saying that I am not trying to downgrade the CGI at all or the Bots. The integration between the CGI and an actual person was beautiful to look at and so was Megan Fox.
So even with a love storyline I still believe in what I said. The fights were not that memorable. It sucks that Sam just put the allspark in Megatrons chest and that was the end of the movie. I was like, thats it, thats how he is going to die, that was the stupidest way to end the movie.
In response to Dean, yeah I knew Peter Cullen would be the voice of Optimus, I’ve even met him at a pre-movie event for Transformers and he told me he was voicing Ironhide too, please everyone in the event was shocked he leaked such information. My friends don’t like Peter Cullen though (I do), they like Gary Chalk from the Beast Wars series. Also I agree with Dean, I think it definitely was for a younger crowd, you can tell by the language plus who grew up watching Shia on Even Stevens? Look past the surface people!
So I stand by my decision of a 3 out of 5.