Review of Transformers (2007) by Zombiehampster — 28 Oct 2010

Maybe it' the Michael Bay factor or maybe it's the near mindless action, but either way I found this movie to be at times nostalgic (in the good way) and at times absolutely mind numbing (there is no good way in my opinion).

Many things that I didn' like about this are my own biases in regards to the redesign of the transformers. Their new designs are far too busy, taking the concept of more is better, leaving the autobots looking rather over done and over designed.

This actually works well for the decepticons however, giving them a very alien and unfriendly appearance. The overall story is pretty shallow, but I guess it doesn' need to be too complicated. It' mostly the way the plot unfolds that made me want to fall asleep, "intense action"or not.

For me, these intense action scenes turn out to be little more than blur-fests as the robots roll around and nothing is discernable as to what exactly they are doing. The original series plot was not that great either, and at the time of watching it I was just around 7 years old.

So nostalgia glasses or not, this is essentially a kids movie built with a nod to the now adults that grew up on the series. Michael Bay does a fine job doing what he can only do, and does it best, serving up stupid action scenes and explosions to keep the viewer occupied and cover up the lack of anything compelling at all.

This serves some people well, but bores me to tears. The whole scene where the autobots are stealthily "hiding" in Sam's backyard, I'm sure for "comedic effect", really felt insulting more than funny.

I'll believe in transformable alien robots from space more then I'll swallow the fact that they can remain unobserved in a neighborhood like that. But even that doesn't matter for the purpose of this movie, and that is to offer shallow, thoughtless entertainment, and in that matter it does succeed.

My problem with it is that with such a great license and idea, the possibilities could have been greater. Why settle for mediocrity, when you could have had something that strives to be more than just another by the numbers movie.

We missed out on the potential for a more engrossing story, ridiculous giant robots or not. At least Peter Cullen was able to do the voice for Optimus Prime, and that almost made the movie bearable. For nostalgia purposes I would recommend it, but check your head at the door.