000118 - Transformers

Transformers to me was a pretty significant part of my childhood. While it wasn't the best tv cartoon series for me (I rate Astro Boy, Macross/Robotech and Gatchaman above it), the toys themselves provided hours of entertainment and a good ice breaker for new friendships for a boy who hardly knew any English when I first arrived in Australia. It's amazing what pieces of plastic that transforms from vehicles to robots could break all sorts of language barriers.

Was somewhat hesitant when they first announced the new live-action movie of Transformers because, well, this was a pretty important part of my childhood and although I don't specifically own the property of Transformers, I'd prefer if my wonderful memories weren't tainted by an awful Hollywood revision. However, after seeing the movie over the weekend, I'm happy to say that I was not disappointed but the movie far exceeded my expectations!

Transformers the movie is going to be massive. I predict it will break all kinds of box office records and reintroduce the toys to a new generation of kids. It's been a while since I've seen a movie that makes me want to see it again and again before it even gets on DVD.

When they first released the images of the new movie versions of Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, I wasn't exactly jumping out of my chair and giggling like a school girl. But like all movie adaptations of toys or comic book characters or video games, I got over it and just accepted that this is just another version of something I once cherished, no use getting bent over it. When they released the trailers, that got me excited because I thought from what little they showed of the robots in disguise in action, it already looked awesome. I was excited.

For most of the first half of the movie, it's mostly setup and introductions of the main characters. The story follows the lead character of Sam Witwicky played by Shia LaBeouf, who I think did an awesome job. There's a lot of humor and comedy sprinkled throughout these parts of the film and it got everyone really laughing and into the characters. Both the Transformer Autobots and the Decepticons are also fantastically executed in their CG gory. The battle scenes are just crazy with huge explosions and massive destruction as you'd expect when giant robots collide. I do wish they had done more wide shots during these battle scenes rather than in-your-face shaky camera closeups of their bits and gears. A lot of the times, I wish they did more of those shots when it came to post-climax of the battles, such as parts would fly everywhere when Optimus Prime went against Bonecrusher. Speaking of which, in terms of the robot designs, I wasn't really that much of a fan of all those exposed gears and machinery parts to be honest. Nor did I like Optimus Prime's lips or Bumblebee without his horns. But oh well, only minor quibbles.

Other minor things I'd noticed includes the sometimes choppy editing. I noticed at least two major scenes where it started off as middle of the day but quickly turned into sunset or night time. This seemed really weird like either they had to cut out quite a bit to reduce running time or there were poor communications with continuity. Some of the cinematography or camera angles were really interesting, too. Like a camera on the back of Sam's bicycle when he was chasing Bumblebee to the scrap yard or the camera in the backseat of a car watching the robots battle outside.

While I don't love all of Michael Bay's previous movies (I liked Island, both the Bad Boys and maybe a little bit of Armageddon), I have to admit he was the perfect choice for this movie.
Before the movie came out, I remember that crazy bike chase scene from the Island and already I thought he'd be a great director for Transformers. Most of the music, which were mainly rock, were also very appropriate and reminded me of the animated movie. Although, I couldn't stop thinking about the environmental messages from the music video of Linkin Park's "What I've Done?" song.

Overall, I really enjoyed Transformers and hope to see it again and again. Sequels have already been green lit apparently and my favourite Transformer, Soundwave, might look like will be in the next movie, as also the Dinobots and Constructicons. I certainly hope the focus shifts more on the Decepticon's side as they got less focus in this first movie.

And finally for those who's seeking a more traditional Transformers experience, especially from the original toys design point of view, check out this awesome article on PingMag!

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