Review: Transformers

Transformers

Disappointed, thats one way to summarize the movie for me. Maybe I was hoping the movie would stay true to the original cartoon or maybe I was hoping more then just a handful of transformers in the movie but whatever the reason is I didn’t like the movie.

Firstly I think there really wasn’t a proper story. To me it looked like the movie was written around the fight scenes. Its as if they went ok, we need to have one big fight here, two big fights there, a small one here and a nice big one in the end, now go write a movie. I know this movie is just an action packed movie with special effects made for the general audience but after Lord of the Rings this is no longer an excuse. You can have amazing special effects, lots of fight scenes, great characters AND a deep intriguing story and still make it mainstream and a box office success. Seriously with a franchise like Transformers how hard could it have been to write a proper script?

My second problem is the actual Transformers, they neither resemble nor act like their cartoon counterpart. I hate the super detailed industrial look of the movie robots, I prefer the sleeker and simpler cartoon version. Another thing, Megatron is supposed to be a gun not a plane, Ratchet is supposed to be white (thats why my MacBook is called Ratchet), Bumblebee is supposed to be a VW Beetle and Starscream is supposed to be annoying as hell! I used to love watching Megatron and Starscream argue with each other in the original cartoon but it doesn’t happen in this movie. I can’t help but feel this movie should have been an epic not a quickly scrambled together movie. Look at Star Wars and Star Trek! Because the story was short but the fight scenes extremely long, we never got a chance to get close to any of the Transformers, maybe Bumblebee since he had the largest role but he also hardly spoke. All of them actually barely had any speaking lines! My favorite part in the movie without ruining it for people who haven’t watched it is when the Transformers went to the guys house to get “the thing”. There were a bit of funny moments there and we got a feel of the different personalities of the robots but that was it, no other scene even got close to that.

Also, whats up with the heavy advertising in the movie? The guy is video conferencing with his wife and there is a huge ass “Cisco Networking” logo on the screen, a Transformer crash lands from space and visits the Pontiac dealership, another a Hummer dealer. Oh and they are ALL American cars! They took Bumblebee, a German VW Beetle and turned him into an American Cheverolet Camaro. Later in the movie you also have the Sprite machine and Xbox 360 transforming into robots which is fine if all these incidents above happened casually but instead they were very obvious which I felt was tacky.

On a positive note I really enjoyed the acting of the main kid in the movie and the visual effects of the robots was just incredible. The movie was fun to watch but I wouldn’t watch it again. My final score is a 3 out of 5.

Sep 23, 2007

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19 Comments, add your own...

1. Sunny | September 23rd, 2007 at 12:56 am

First
2. SWOS | September 23rd, 2007 at 12:57 am

i would give it 5/5 anyday anytime… the chick was hot.
3. bin_salim | September 23rd, 2007 at 1:02 am

i luved it

but keep in mind mark, the movies director micheal bay, does commercials for chevrolets and GM motors….which is why im guessing the movie’s main characters are all GM cars

felt like a big ass ad campaign for GM to me, but a really good one :P
4. DiabloQ80 | September 23rd, 2007 at 2:02 am

Just a quick note to say that GM signed exclusivity contract with the movie studio to feature only their cars (Hummer, Cevey .. etc). There is a huge advertisements going on in the States pre and post the movie about the GM cars kinda transfering into these newlly designed cars. If you noticed, the dramatic change of the Cheve Camaro, it looked alot like a mustang, so much for a major change, but non the less, it’s a change. At any rate, we should be used to all these advertisements popping up on movies like James Bond, Mission Impassible and Transformers … that’s how Studios cut costs. oo salamatkom ;)
5. Damon Dash | September 23rd, 2007 at 2:04 am

i think this review came out negative because this movie was supposed to be watched on cinema screens not tvs or laptops , if you would have seen it in a theater you would have given it a better review IMO
6. sar7an | September 23rd, 2007 at 2:23 am

You should have been in an American movie theatre for that movie. They went crazy in the end and started applauding for it!
7. Ozy | September 23rd, 2007 at 4:03 am

I agree. What a shitty movie. The only thing good was Shilah*
8. Marzouq | September 23rd, 2007 at 8:43 am

The movie was fantastic and your an idiot that doesn’t know good movies thats it!!!!!!!

The movie was great and it did the story justice and there is going to be another one!
9. Mark | September 23rd, 2007 at 8:54 am

The problem is everyone here is too young to even know there was a Transformers cartoon!
10. fadibou | September 23rd, 2007 at 9:09 am

good post mark but the movie was a good one.

I was disappointed with a Camaro Bumblebee and with megatron but this looks like a good start for transformers lovers.

I was hoping they can turn it to a mini series and we can watch them transform everyweek rather than once every 2 years.

Get the xbox 360 game, its good fun and you can transform plenty of times and play it online against other tranformers in an autobots vs decept. fight.
11. sson | September 23rd, 2007 at 10:19 am

oh well.. you can always write a letter of complaint to Hasbro and Paramount.
12. Soul | September 23rd, 2007 at 10:26 am

I agree with Mark.
However, i rate it 2 out of 5.

~ Soul
13. SkyHook | September 23rd, 2007 at 10:41 am

This movie could be a great movie or a bad movie …. Depends really if see it in the prospective of it being a 2 : 33 mins long GM commercial then its mesmerizing / perfect commercial ever [PERIOD] On the other hand if you wana compare this to a Marvel movie then it pretty much sucks since it doesnt stick to the orignal story or the cartoon …..

Loved the work they did on the action scenes…

I’m already in love with the new Camaro it JUST KICKS ASS !!!! new level of coolness way cooler than the VW Beetle …
14. vampire | September 23rd, 2007 at 12:56 pm

i can’t agree with u more,, the movie was OK but not a must watch movie,, shia labeouf was the reason for me to watch it
15. Mo Hat | September 23rd, 2007 at 3:08 pm

I agree with Marzouq, and Mark I think we know our 80’s G1 transformers.
16. SWOS | September 23rd, 2007 at 6:15 pm

still the girl was hot
17. Ramsey | September 24th, 2007 at 12:33 am

When I first saw the movie, I loved it because of the kid in me. But thats because of the kid in me. In all honesty the movie as a whole (as a standalone movie) is pretty horrible.

I mean, its fun to see Transformers on a fucking movie screen, but compared to other movies as a “movie” and not “Transformers,” I have to agree its very corny.
18. Les | September 25th, 2007 at 10:38 pm

I agree with Ramsey. This movie is a nice diversion and nostalgia trip. Watch it for the action and the giant robots on a big screen! There is an IMAX release in the US now - would be even better - I’d see it again!

No point in watching this at home and looking for a story!

The product placement was a bit blatant, but all that extra sponsorship means more money for special effects!

…and that Megan Fox is lovely.
19. lebinbah | September 26th, 2007 at 1:35 pm

What you fail to see is that VW much like others didn’t let them use their cars in the movie, they said that using a vw beetle for bumble bee would give a bad reputation for the car and would show them as advocates of violence, hence why they only featured american cars.

Overall the movie was great, story wise it lis very similar to the first part of the G1 cartoons when they crash land on earth and the Prime vs Megatron fight was epic.

You might enjoy the simple look of the old transformers but any 9 year old these days would laugh at how simple they were, and while they weren’t very original to the characters i liked how they turned up … too bad soundwave didn’t make t he cut (praying he will in the sequel)

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