Tonight, we went to see the Transformers movie. I got three words for you:
Giant. Robot. Mayhem.
I grew up with Transformers. I had the toys. I watched the cartoon. I saw the (first) movie. I even dabbled with the later (and much worse) series. I am as close as you can get to a fanboy and still be married, living far away from the home I grew up in, and am (generally) regarded as being (relatively) normal.
But still … GIANT ROBOT MAYHEM!
Ahem.
Yes, I liked the movie. Freely admit it. I liked it barely five minutes in. There were people who thought this was slow. Slow? What kind of whacked out drugs could they possibly be on to consider this slow? The movie hits the ground running and doesn’t stop.
For the record, I was hopeful towards this movie, but held reservations. It’s not an easy thing to turn a toy line with an existing universe into a live-action blockbuster. Leave it to good ol’ Michael Bay to make it work. Mr. Bay, in case you don’t recognise his name, brought us such wonders as Bad Boys 1 and 2, The Rock, and Armageddon (which a lot of people seem to not like, but ranks as one of my favourites). Okay, yes, he also brought us the less-than-great Pearl Harbor, but let’s be honest — the attack sequences were astounding.
If there is a director who could make it work, it’s Michael Bay. Name another big director in Hollywood whose previous life included making car commercials. This is a guy who knows what paint jobs should look like.
One of the big plusses of this movie, aside from the insane action, is the return of Peter Cullen, who was the voice of the original Optimus Prime in the cartoons. Damn straight, and sounds awesome! There were chills up the spine, man! That’s what a movie like this should do! Sadly, for whatever reason, none of the other cast returned, nor did Peter provide the voice of Ironhide, which he also did in the cartoons. (Megatron and Starscream were voiced by Hugo Weaving and Charlie Adler, which although cool, wasn’t quite as cool as it could have been.)
I gotta say, hearing Optimus Prime say: “Oops, my bad!” was classic. Along the same lines as hearing Darth Vader say “Heebie Jeebies”.
If you saw the cartoons, if you played with the toys, you need to see this movie. Trust me.
