Transformers

Although the film's topic aligns itself with childish whims, there's no denying the appeal to those of previous generations that grew up with the Autobots and Decepticons. As well, even though the story kinda lagged in areas, the film as a whole proved to be a great action film.

None of the actors in this flic are A-rated (except the supporting cast of Turturo, who does a great job making the audience hate his character, and Voight), but they all succeeded in their portrayals. My only reservation to that statement concerns the portrayal of the Autobots. In the earlier scenes following their final unmasking/introduction, they were portrayed as almost oafish teenagers. THIS IS A POTENTIAL SPOILER: an example is the group attempting to hide outside the main character's house while he searches for an important artifact. The yard is trampled, none of the Autobots can follow simple directions even though militarily trained, and the dialogue/interactions are sophomoric. That knocked them a rung on the ladder of respect and awe as giant, robotic crusaders. At least despite Bumblebee no longer being a Volkswagon Beetle, his character suffered no loss of identity save a lack of the scratchy, blues voice. So there is redemption.

The dialogue was tongue-in-cheek, but never suffered because of it-- and in many instances it was highly successful-- until the final confrontation. However, at the end, perhaps as almost an effort of comic relief, the lines became a tad silly. The smaller characters were also a little, well, unbelievable. I'll leave it at that, since none were major contributors to the film.

Where were the Decepticons?! That's the biggest question. A greatest part of the stories of yore involved the idea of evil turning upon itself. The Decepticons always defeated themselves. Here, I suppose due to budgeting, most of the old characters-- Autobots and Decepticons-- were not developed with personalities. This deprived the audience of the grand interactions and intrigue I knew so well from childhood. Didn't anyone else want to see some conflict between Starscream and Megatron aside from a single line of dialogue? I know these are skeptical observations, and I am not saying the movie suffered. The effects were great, as was the choreography in most of the battle scenes. That said, the movie was aimed at new audiences rather than loyal viewers of the past (i.e. at the kids of those loyal viewers).

So, overall, I give this one a rare (for me) 9/10. It's an action movie, so I wasn't expecting an Ingmar Bergman film, and neither should anyone else. Effects were great, and the original Optimus Prime voice certainly was icing on the cake. Lots of action, with pretty good segways throughout. If you like action and/or comic books, this is certainly the movie to see.