Transformers

[Hoydie17]

Ok, I'll admit it, I was a kid of the 80's, and I was like many, obsessed with the Transformers.  I can remember confusing the hell out of my parents, and various elders on how easily I could turn a little car into a robot.

About 2 years ago when I heard of the plan to make a live-action version of the Transformers for the big screen, I was skeptical.  No way they could take such a classic franchise and do it any justice in Hollywood, right?

I was wrong, very wrong, went out to see it tonight and I've gotta say  it was killer!  Even if you haven't the foggiest idea of what Autobots and Decepticons are, you could watch this movie and at least walk away with enough knowledge to be dangerous. 

The movie is long, checking in at 2 hours and 20 minute or so, but the CGI animation is really cool.  Some great cameos of actors through the film, and they even managed to get Peter Cullen to do the voice for Optimus Prime.  (Cullen was the original voice in the 80's and 90's cartoon.) 

The action sequences are brutal, and while it bares strange resemblence to those old rock'em sock'em robots, they really mangle some metal in this flick. 

One of the interesting things is the subtle innuendos to things that were popular in the 80's, or at least memorable.  One robot portrayed as Frenzy is a little boombox and has a sticker of a Mogwai (Gremlins movies) on it.  When he transforms to his robot mode, he looks suspiciously like a Gremlin.

On the downside, there is a clear marketing effort for GM products, particularly on the 2009 Camaro.  Ipods make appearances, Ebay is also marketed quite well amongst others.  Purportedly, Transformers has set the new record for marketing plugs from commercial companies, and probably with good reason for all the CGI effects must have cost a pretty penny.

Either way, it's a kick ass flick, maybe a tad racey for anyone under like 10 years old, but nothing that Mom & Dad couldn't cleverly explain away. 

It was interesting to see how the movie really catered to the "Kids of the 80's" and the story just kind of grew up with us.  Strong language, violence and sexual innuendos are commonplace, but then again, the generation that was so enthralled with transformers is now old enough to handle it. 

Shit, this got kinda long quickly! 

Later all,
Sean

[stillbre]

My wife and I caught the very first showing of it yesterday morning.  Then sat through the second showing as well.  Loved it.  There's a lot of little tidbits that I missed the first time through.
Of course, growing up a HUGE Transformers fan, I never thought they could make a live action movie to do them justice.  So I went into the movie with the mindset that this was just an action movie that featured massive robots that happened to turn into automobiles.  Half way through the first screening I felt like a little six year old again.  Will agree that it kinda turned into a 2 hour Chevy commercial.  The new Camaro is pretty bad ass and they did feature a lot of really cool GM rides so I can live with it.  Thought it was kinda funny though that at the begining of the movie Bumble Bee shoved a yellow beatle out of the way in the car lot.