Majin Planet

Transformers (2007)

First thing is first, this movie is by far one of the best thrill rides I have every seen. It really does bring the kid out of you. There was lot going on in this movie. Some might say it was too long, but I disagree as there was just enough of everything in the movie and the story really flowed well. I was also wrong about the love story factor I though was going to be over play in the movie, it was anything but just in the background and what I really like about this movie is it started right off the bat, there was no boring long intro to the movie or over done setups.

So lets get down to it shall we? The cast is made up as Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes, Josh Duhamel as Captain William Lennox, Tyrese Gibson as Staff Sgt. Epps, John Turturro as Simmons, Jon Voight as John Keller, Rachael Taylor as Maggie Marconi, Anthony Anderson as Glenn and Bernie Mac as Bobby Bolivia, who has a very small role in the movie. The autobots are voice by Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime, Mark Ryan as the voice of Bumblebee, Darius McCrary as the voice of Jazz, Jess Harnell as the voice of Ironhide and Robert Foxworth as the voice of Ratchet. For the Decepticons only a few of them where voiced and mostly have limited lines in the movie as most of the talking is done through alien language with text on the screen they are Hugo Weaving as the voice of Megatron, Charlie Adler as the voice of Starscream, Jess Harnell as the voice of Barricade, Reno Wilson as the voice of Frenzy and Jimmie Wood as the voice of Bonecrusher. The rest of the cast Blackout, Scorponok and Devastator.

Now before I get into what was good about this movie let me get into what I thought needed some work, Brawl who was going to be in the movie, however it was named Devastator in the final cut. I did some research on this and in fact as the script was coming together it was place in as Devastator, who we all know (or most of us do) that Devastator is the name of the super robot that is created from the Constructicons. There was lot of fan backlash for this, and it was stated many times that it was not yet decided on what the characters name would be as he had zero lines in the film itself. As we reach close the final release of the film it was known the characters name was going to be named Brawl, I even believe the movie toy is named Brawl. However it is said that for some reason it was not change in the film and that Hasbro’s edited name not being altered in time to make the final cut of the film. So I’m sure that will be fixed in the next one.

Scorponok was by far one of the coolest characters and not to give away to many spoilers, lets just say some fans my be disappointed in his role of the film. Blackout is the only Decepticon not to be named, however there was a point in the movie when all the Decepticons did a roll call as they where heading to the final battle and I believe he did say Blackout, but I would have to see it again to be sure on that. The next little issue I had was that the story seem to be more about the humans then the transformers which I guess for the most part is okay being that this is the first one after all. As you can tell these are just small issues I had with the film which in no way really hurt my overall rating of the picture.

So to the good stuff, as I said this movie will really bring the kid out of you, this is by far one of the most action packed summer blockbuster movies I’ve seen in a good long while. The CGI was really good and at no point in the movie was I even thinking about if the bots where fake or not. They totally looked real and this is the first time in a very long time that I not only had a great time, but I was totally sucked into the movie itself and didn’t even think about it. Yes this movie is very cheesy and has some really bad over the top lines, such as Optimus Prime saying “My Bad” which I thought was just funny as hell, over the top really. What shocked me was that this movie seem to be more of a comedy then a action filled blockbuster and I think being that this movie didn’t take itself to seriously and never lost touch of the story it was telling. The characters we all got to love and you really care about them, even the robots. They had some really cool Easter eggs in the movie and what happens at the end was great.

The battles where of a Batman Begins style in such they where fast, close and quick to the point it was hard to really follow. Some people said that is what hurt Begins, but I say it was perfect as that really feels more real then watching a battle from afar where you see everything. Even know lot of my comments I said about a year ago in my article “Ten Reasons why the Transformers Movie will suck” I can safely say that I can now eat my words. The biggest one was the fact the little teaser trailer we all got a year ago and the comments about it not even being in the movie was dead wrong. The clips of the mars shot was indeed in the movie, however never once did or was it said they where from Mars.

I want to take this time to talk about the Bay haters and the people who hated on this movie, yes I will agree I’m not a fan of Bay’s movies, I didn’t like most of his films. In fact the only one I can really say I liked was Armageddon and that on itself was about the same as this movie in terms of just being a fun movie that doesn’t care if it makes or changes the rules. There is ever a funny Armageddon joke in the movie and it was indeed funny. Too all the fans who hated on this movie because it wasn’t G1 or because they bots designs where so changed and really after watching it I knew who everyone was and I thought the movie gave the fans what they wanted. All day today I was just waiting and waiting for this movie. The last time I got that pump up for a movie was Batman Begins, which was 2005.

On the subject of being pump up, in the last 3-4 years I have seen lot of movies, some really good, some okay and some down right bad. Even in those films that where really good never once was there clapping at the end of the film. The closes I got to hearing lot of it was Spiderman 2 but that was at the start of the movie on the title screen. Not only did Transformers get that starting off, but also at the end which totally below me away. I will say that when the fighting started about mid way the crowed was quite and some may say that’s a bad sign, however when something really kick ass happen people would cheer. Everyone laugh at the jokes and even at the sad parts you could feel the energy in the room, there was no comments what so ever unlike what I got at Spiderman 3.

Overall I have to give this movie a solid 5 out of 5 stars. Why a perfect score? Simple. The movie was not be to be big on story, characters or even to be the best movie of all time as some people always say about great films. Will it break all the box office records, chances are very high. It does what it was met to do and that is to take you on a thrill ride for two hours that ever really stops, the ending great, even may not like it. Yes lot of people may not like the film because of Bay and Co. I think it does its job to bring fresh new light into an aging franchise and appeal to not only the general public but to the fan boys. The critics are wrong on this movie, most of the bad reviews are from nobody’s just out to say something bad about Bay and that’s too bad that the critics can’t tell the difference between a really good film and a really bad one. I guess that’s how it works and to tell the truth I don’t even think people listen to critics anymore (thank god I’m not one). In the end of the day Transformers is indeed more then meets the eye.