Transformers: The Movie

I'll try not to give too much away, but basically for those who don't want anything about the movie spoilt I can put this very simply; This movie was one of the most awesome movies I have ever seen. Now don't take that as gospel as my film knowledge is very limited in scope. However I think when a good movie comes along, I know how to spot it. Plus, for me to see a movie on its premiere date is pretty extra-ordinary considering going outside is not something I am a huge fan of without good cause.

*** For those not wishing to have any of the movie ruined, stop reading now***

What struck me most about this movie is that there is very little time wasting and the respect for the audience is at its premium. Without going so far as to say it has an all-star cast, Transformers has countless face you will know from other movies, many of which playing outside roles they are normally typecast to like John Turturro who jumps outside his usual comedy comfort zone. Rather than delaying the inevitable introduction of the Transformers which we all know are coming, Director Michael Bay, a maestro of these action films, rather than starving you, feeds you bit by bit, little by little.

After seeing some scenes from the Middle East where we see some "unknowns" attacking U.S soldiers which we of course known are Transformers, evil transformers (deceptacons). We are first introduced to the lovable Bumblebee who is bought by Sam Witwicky (played by a faultless Shia Lebouf) at the whacky car dealership of Uncle Bobby (Bernie Mac). Of course this is the beginning of what becomes a touching bond between man and machine. It's not surprise that before this crazy adventure, Sam was a sad dateless loser.

Then slowly like little bread crumbs picked up by the lumberjack looking for Hansel & Gretel, we are gradually introduced to more and more of the Transformers. The peak obviously being the point where we are introduced to the Autobots, namely the one and only Optimus Prime. Now I thought he was voiced by none other than Don La Fontaine however it turns out he was actually voiced by another familiar voice, that being of Peter Cullen whom we all known from his work on Winnie the Pooh.

The plot in summary is fairly obvious, the whole Autobots need to save humankind from the evil plans of the Deceptacons. But I think where the makers of Transformers make a really good move is that they don't bog the story down in tonnes of back story, rather they appreciate the audience (mostly kids growing up in the 90's) don't need all this explanation. So instead they sprinkle enough in to keep the n00bz happy and allow the enlightened to press on.

As I said the script itself is quite stock standard save the planet stuff, but where Transformers succeeds is some edge of your seat action & suspense with some transformer fight scenes that are a testament to the people who made the transformers come to life. The melting of people and the machines is almost unnoticeable, quite lifelike in my opinion.

Much like your movies like Independence Day, several plots are going on at once and all come together in the need to save the world. So with a lot of expected stock elements I hear you saying, "why on earth should i bother?" Well all I can really say is that, this kind of movie has not been done this well in many many years, for any self respecting 90's kid who watched the cartoons it is a must see and they don't change too much up from the original transformers you know and love.

Also, for anyone who has seen the cartoon movie, the ending isn't what you think. I'd have to say Bumblebee's role in this movie is far more integral than you'd expect and I must admit is does detract from making that quintessential connection with the mercurial Optimus Prime quite a bit. Basically what I mean is, you do like Optimus Prime, but you LOVE Bumblebee.

The only criticisms I could say of this movie is that as a friend said, they didn't get a well known band to cover the Transformers theme song and to the best of my knowledge, I don't remember Megatron being a plane? However from what I remember he was like a gun or something, which is pretty gay I guess.

Most impressive and surprising elements of the movie were obviously the technology used was state of the art (and I expect nothing less from Bay & Speilberg), the fantastic intertwining of the many different story lines and the vast amounts of good comedy scripted in between the action which must be accredited to the work of Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman.

Even better than all this and without spoiling your ending, as the credits roll and you think all is resolved, you see Deceptacon, Starscream who flies away into space. Which means only one thing:

SEQUEL

Head to the Hoyts website for all the session times so you don't miss out. 90's kids, who were born in the mid to late 80's, this isn't something you can afford to miss. Bring on a Beast Wars movie as well!