More than meets the eye
Posted on July 8, 2007
It’s been awhile since I went and saw a movie, so I went and saw Transformers. When I was growing up, I was never one of those kids to wake up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to watch cartoons. I watched cartoons, but I wasn’t big on waking up early. The Transformers cartoons and the various sequels came around after I was getting out of watching cartoons. Not being a huge fan of them, I wasn’t sure about the movie.
At various places online, I read that some people were horrified when they heard Michael Bay was directing. He directed The Rock and Bad Boys, which were pretty good, IMHO. However, he also directed Armageddon with its over-the-top acting, and Pearl Harbor, which I didn’t see, but heard bad things about it. Considering this and considering I had no history with the cartoon series, I figured the movie would be okay, but not great. And I was right.
On the plus side, the effects are fantastic. On the down side, that’s about all there is. Michael Bay can certainly direct action movies, and the action in this movie is astounding, but the story is a little thin. Basically, the story is about a war between the Autobots (good) and the Decepticons (evil). Both sides are looks for something called the All Spark, which is an ancient cube from which all life springs. It was lost due to the war and just happend to end up on Earth. Since both sides are looking for it, the war naturally comes to Earth. While it was explained that if the Decepticons get it, they will use it to take over the universe, it didn’t mention what would happen if the Autobots got hold of it. It seems like all they want to do with it is keep it away from the bad guys.
Optimus Prime is head of the Autobots, while the Decepticons are led by Megatron. Strangely, Megatron doesn’t really make an appearance until near the end of the movie, just in time for the big finale/fight sequence. Hugo Weaving does the voice of Megatron, but you wouldn’t know it because the robot voices are so sythesized it’s hard to tell there are actors behind them.
GM must have paid a good amount of money for all the product placement, since most of the Autobots are in disguise as GM products (Optimus Prime being a Peterbilt, IIRC). Most of the Decepticons take the form of military vehicles, but one of them is a Ford Mustang police car. I thought if GM paid for all these recognizable vehicles to be GM products, why wouldn’t they have the police car be a GM product also. Then it dawned on me that it’s because it’s supposed to be a bad guy. I wouldn’t doubt if GM paid for the police car to be a Ford, so audiences would think Ford = Evil.
Overall, it was what I expected: lots of action, visually rich, minimal plot. In this movie, the plot supports the action rather than the action supporting the plot.
One thing unexpected, but generating some buzz on the Internet is one of the previews. J. J. Abrams (director of the TV show Lost) has a movie coming out in January. I didn’t see a title, but the preview has something to do with a large city, and something creates a large explosion/earthquake, then howls. I don’t know what it is, but for some reason I was wondering if they are remaking Godzilla. I guess we’ll find out later this year.
Related posts:
- There is a spoon
- The Matrix: Revolutions
- Snakes on a Muthafuckin’ Plane
- Star Trek Haiku – A Piece of the Action
- Review Haiku – Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
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