Autobots Roll Out!

This may be a bit delayed, but I love Transformers!

I did go see it opening night, but because of the Fourth of July celebration I have been a bit delayed on posting my thoughts about it. I actually got to go see it on the 5th as well with my brothers.

To start off I want to say the opening statement is a bit biased. Growing up there was two kinds of kids; GI j.o.e. kids and transformers kids. While I liked GI j.o.e. I was always a transformer's kid. No other show or toy could touch transformers in my eyes. So all in all I was and am a huge Transformers fan. In fact I have a Transformer sitting next to me right now.

The movie just based off the movie (me not being a super fan boy) I think was just so so. I think this mainly because there was too many times where I either hated the characters on screen or just didn't care about them one way or the other. Between the robots and the humans in this movie there was a total of 20 characters. This was a big reason why at times I was a little well lets just say I was wishing there was a transformer on the screen somewhere... anywhere... maybe walking in the background chasing a butterfly even...

There were actual characters that I thought the movie would have been better had they not existed. There were scenes and story lines that could have been removed from the movie entirely and the movie would have benefited from it. I am referring to Rachael Taylor's character here a tech working for the government. Even if they didn't add anything else to the movie and just removed every scene with her in it; the movie would have been better all around.

The sheer number of characters made it very difficult to really have any sort of character development; and it really showed. The Decepticons (Bad Guys) had very little character development as a whole. The only evil character that really had any dialog was Megatron (the leader of the Decepticons), but even then it was just yelling at his opponents. Megatron was also the only read bad guy with any character development; and this was done during a narrative. A good narrative mind you, but for me that does not really give the viewer a real feel for how bad a bad guy is or can be.

As for the parts of the movie with transformers in it; they were great! The special effects were awesome. I never once got tired of seeing someone "transform". The fight scenes, and the chase scenes were wonderfully done. I didn't like the camera angles sometimes, but I think Michael Bay (the director) was trying to use these angels to help illustrate the size of the robots. The first fight / chase scene was by far the coolest thing I have seen in a very long time. It is hard to describe the pure thrill (as a fan) seeing a giant robot running then transforming into a mustang to make chase. I really was in awe at that moment. That moment alone made the movie awesome in my eyes despite everything that I have mentioned above.

Again that is just me being a "fan boi"

Michael Bay on the other hand is really not my favorite director. When Transformers was first announced I was disappointed that he would be directing the film. He didn't do a horrible job, but he didn't do a fantastic job either. He made this film into the "turn off your brain" action film that he usually makes (I know it's hard to really turn an 80's children's cartoon into a real "thinker" type movie). Michael also at times turned this film into his own personal political soap-box (something that I don't really like). I for one go to the movies for an "escape" not to be forced into a one sided political debate.