Tuesday, July 10, 2007

More than meets the eye...


I got goosebumps in the first 30 seconds. To hear his voice, THE voice speak in low booming tones about the dawn of their war was just… just… so wicked I cant even describe it. I need to digress a moment and share with you something about me. I have a visceral, living attachment to my childhood that is fed by my vivid, visual imagination. I feel a deep connection in all of my senses to my childhood memories and icons. I love them dearly. One of these connections is to the world of giant robots from a planet called Cybertron… THE TRANSFORMERS.
Given that I have this connection to the subject matter I was a little concerned about the changes to the designs and some of those kinds of things in the movie but I am happy to say they were quickly laid aside when I saw how much thought had gone into the writing and characterization of these beloved characters of mine. No doubt some folks out there will say the sheer fact that I liked this movie is proof I am not as die hard a fan as I say I am but let me prove them wrong by point out some bits of minutia that bugged me:

1) Ironhide is a Texan, not sure why they didn’t get Peter Cullen to do his voice as well as Optimus, but making a weapons freak British is weird and kind of threw me a bit.
2) The Decepticons aren’t in this nearly enough, the Autobots are the main focus as any good guys should be but they really did end up coming across as generic. This shouldn’t happen as they are just as cool and interesting as the good guys. Also, while I was glad that the Autobots were all characters I was familiar with, it bugged me that most of the Decepticons were new designs with old names or completely new altogether. I like a lot of the Decepticons, not just Megatron and Starscream.
3) The whole ridiculous adherence to making sure the audience is confused with issues of mass. For example, Frenzy the boombox ends up being a small robot because he cam from a boombox whereas in the original cartoon Soundwave was a tape player and turned into a hulking menace. I don’t care where the mass comes from when we are talking about giant robots beating the crap out of each other! Physics and logic waved bye bye a long time ago, I don’t care about realism in a movie of this type!



Other than a few of these types of things I had a blast with this film. The writing is somewhat of a joke in terms of storyline and stuff but I liked that. In fact that was what really made me feel like this was an actual Transformers film. Let’s not kid around here, the stories in the original series were flimsy at best and rarely made a heap of sense and that is the case here. What the movie retained was the humor and characters I loved so much from the series. I found myself laughing a lot, and greatly appreciated the tongue in cheek way that Michael Bay even skewered himself in the film. Good stuff. I really felt Speilberg’s touch in this department and felt the humor and dialogue really reflected a lot of his early 80’s films like ET and Indiana Jones. It had a sense of heartfelt realism I really like.
I gotta say Shia LeBeouf may not ever win any kind of Oscar but dang this kid was awesome in this movie. He made the show believable and conveyed the appropriate sense of wonder as Sam “Spike” Witwicky that I needed. Spike was always kind of annoying in the cartoon, but here is a lovable dork who is very enjoyable to watch and I personally look forward to seeing more of his films. If you asked me who else mattered in this movie I would say maybe his girlfriend but other than that the other humans are just people who move the plot along. John Turturro got a few laughs, but the Jesus doesn’t really fit in this universe well. He hams it up pretty good here and got a few laughs but ultimately felt flat to me, even unneeded.
The real stars of the show are the Autobots. That voice at the beginning is none other than Peter Cullen, the original, unbeatable Optimus Prime. It was beyond cool to see that character again and personally that is what absolutely made the movie for me. It’s weird how a voice could do that but as different as he looked the moment he opened his mouth I just about cheered out loud. The paint may be different but it was still him. He still talked the same way, had that same deep booming voice and just geeked right out. Bumblebee was easy to swallow as a new Camaro instead of his usual VW bug self. And I thought Ratchet, Ironhide, and Jazz were awesome and for the few lines they had reflected their counterparts well. Characterization isn’t really going to be strong in a movie like this, I don’t need to see Optimus at home in a wifebeater struggling with alcoholism or anything, I want him rolling out to kick Deceptichops. I don’t need to know anything other than the fact the Autobots will stop at nothing to make sure we are safe.
I loved the little homages to the original series. The fact that Megatron had a mace in his one arm and Optimus a sword was a stroke of genius. It didn’t invade the scene or come across as overly obvious, just as a cool wink and nod to the fans like the producers were paying attention.
I don’t think I can love this movie enough. I made me feel good, happy, excited, and just over the top like a little kid again. I wanted to cheer at the top of my lungs when I heard, “One shall stand, one shall fall.” Coming out of Optimus’ mouth! This is officially my favorite movie of the summer so far because it spoke so strongly to that childhood imagination in me. This for me is what big loud summer movies are all about! That’s it for me…

Transform and roll out!

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