More Than Meets The Eye

Obviously the new Transformers movie has gotten a ton of press. I finally got a chance to see it last week, but had managed to avoid basically all information pertaining to the movie. All I really knew is that a lot of the movie was live action, and all the transformers would be CGI. When I finally sat down in the theater, I had no idea what I was about to see. I didn't really have any expectations. I definitely wasn't expecting greatness, but I wasn't expecting a bomb either. I expected to not be bored, and that's about it.

About 5 minutes into the movie, during a scene when a military post in the Middle East is attacked by a Decepticon, I couldn't help but wonder "Why on earth did it take so long for someone to make this movie?" From the second that I heard the transform sound, I knew I was going to be in for one heck of a thrill ride. I really liked it. I don't think I've ever been so geeked up after seeing a movie. Ever.

The storyline was kind of cheesy at times, sure, but any points lost were more than made up for in other places during the movie. I'll try to highlight all the things I liked about the movie. I'm going off the top of my head here, so nothing is in order:

1) I really liked the shoutout to the old VW version of Bumblebee. During the scene where Witwicky is picking out the yellow camaro (the present day Bumblebee), the yellow camaro breaks the windows in the old beetle. Nice touch that they acknowledged this change from the original cartoon.

2) Man, the chick who played LeBouf's love interest (whatever his name is) is smoking! During the movie, I was fairly certain that they had gotten someone who was in her late 20's to play a high schooler, but actually this girl, whatever her name is, is something like 21 according to IMDB. I can live with that. Lots of innuendos, which was nice to see. I thought the turn towards the end of the movie where they revealed that her dad stole cars, and that she had a prior criminal record was pretty dumb and completely unnecessary. But like I said, the movie as a whole is good enough to overlook some of these minor flaws.

3) I absolutely loved the parts where Optimus Prime and his cohorts came down from space and became vehicles. That's the best way I can describe what happened. I got chills. And hearing Prime talk for the first time was awesome too. They actually hired the guy who originally did his voice in the cartoon to come back for the movie. VERY nice touch. I knew that he would be doing the voice beforehand, but I had no idea how much it would add to the overall experience of seeing this movie.

4) One of my only complaints is that other than Prime, the rest of the Transformers looked a little similar. The only other one that you could really pick out during one of the many fight scenes was Bumblebee. Not too big of a deal, but some distinction within the individual robots would have been nice.

5) I'm going to buy this on DVD as soon as it comes out, as long as they have some extra features that are worthwhile. I'd say there's about a 100% chance that a DVD will be released, and then followed up with a "collector's edition" a "special edition" and a "special collector's edition." Ridiculous. Just release one version of the DVD. There's no reason to nickel and dime us to death.

6) I'm jacked that the door is completely left open for a sequel. Obviously Megatron will not be involved, but I think that will be ok, since Starscream will be leading up the Decepticons. I think this actually happened in the cartoons anyway, if I remember correctly. Megatron didn't have much of a role in this one anyway, so who cares. As long as they bring back Prime and his voice, I'm on board for a second movie. And a third.

Basically, anyone who ever watched the cartoon as a kid needs to go out and see this on the big screen. If you sit around and wait for a DVD release, you're cheating yourself.

Big "thumbs up" for Transformers.

In Bauer We Trust