movies: transformers

Way, way, way back when they first announced that they were going to do a movie based on the 80's Transformers cartoon (the original series of which I watched RELIGIOUSLY!), I was a little bit sceptical... I mean, c'mon... how were they going to do my cherished childhood memories justice?

But then I saw the teevee ad for one of the car companies, Audi I think, where their car transforms into a giant robot and goes speed skating around a frozen lake... and I figured if they could do such good work on a very short teevee commercial, imagine what they could do with a feature film time frame and budget...

And yes... the 2007 version of Transformers did actually ROCK!

Brief aside... I don't know if it was the time we were going to see it, or the fact that it only came out last Thursday, but this is only the second time ever that we've had to line up for a movie at Arndale... the first time was Return of the King back in 2003... and I think that was only because we went on a Saturday afternoon or something... luckily we slotted into the second place in line behind this amusing couple (the boy of which was HIGHLY fuckable... but that's a whole other story), and still managed to get our usual seats.

I have to say that I had dopey smiles on my face at more than one point during the movie, especially when they pretty much did a bunch of big tips of the hat to the cartoon series... putting an old yellow VW next to the new (non VW) incarnation of Bumblebee... just hearing the voice of the original Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen... the names of the Autobots, all of which were familiar from the cartoon (for the record, in addition to Optimus and Bumblebee that would be Ironhide, Jazz and Ratchet... I'm such a dork)... some of the transformation sound effects which were updated versions of the original sounds... and the little tag scene during the credits with Starscream doing what Starscream does best.

Added to that is the big nerdy, dorky, geeky thrill I got seeing Optimus transform for the first time... actually watching any of them transform for the first time, but specifically Optimus... I know I'm gunna sound like a big geek (yeah, because admitting you recognised the Autobots from their names wasn't a big giveaway), but it was just COOL!

I will say that it was a looooooooong movie though... not that I got really fidgety or anything, but at 144 minutes, it's still a big chunk of time... longer than I realised or expected to be honest... so I was a little shocked when I looked at the ticket and saw the running time.

And, as I've complained about before in other movies, some of the actions scenes, with two giant robots fighting each other and rolling around and lots of quick edits and slightly shaky camera work... well, it's not always easy to see who's doing what to who with what... I do take my hat off to the digital artists though, because you know that it's got to be ten times as hard to animate over a blurry, moving plate, than it is over a nice safe static plate.

Thinking about it now, there might have been a few too many subplot going on... I know in these types of movies we like to have all the different groups of characters who are all approaching the same issue from different sides, and who unite at the end to face it (ala Independence Day)... but I just felt like maybe they stretched that idea out a little bit far.

I'm also not sure about the scene at the end which essentially amounted to Autobot voyeurism... a little bit creepy I have to say...

It is a hell of a rollercoaster of a movie though... maybe a little sluggish in spots at the beginning, but once it gets going, there really isn't anything to do but hang on.

Can't wait to see what they do with the sequel!

yani's rating: 4 mysterious cubes out of 5