Taking The Metal Mickey! (Transformers (DVD))

Member Name: thedevilinme

Product:	Transformers (DVD)
Date:	08/01/08 (109 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It works!

Disadvantages: Lags in the middle

Three of the top ten grossing films of last year were cartoons, although there's no prizes for guessing why. The parents have to bring the kids to the multiplexes so its double-bubble, and, of course, cinemas also love it as the kids pull on their parents sleeves as they want popcorn and Coke Cola to go with. Then you have the big earner in merchandising toys to those kids. So why not make a film about those lucrative cartoon characters for the young adult audience that will go out of their way to not go anywhere with their parents? Let's face it guys, who would have thought a film about some silly plastic toy robots would be the biggest grossing movie of the year. And when it has the Michael Bay stamp of big action chaos on it you know its going to be fun. Transformers the movie has turned out to be the surprise action adventure hit of the year and you really should rent it. That's absolutely no reason not to enjoy this, however old you are.

-The Plot-

After a brief introduction to the idea of talking robots for kids being remotely credible in a big action movie to lay waste to Earth we quickly drop into type for the genre as we meet our deliciously formulaic hero's. First there is nice guy Tom Witwicky (Shia Lebeouf), a hard working and hapless high school student trying to make the grades for college, his bumbled lecture to his history class on his famous Artic explorer grandfather to earn the extra credits not going down too well to his classmates, including the girl of his dreams in the beautiful and out of his league Megan Fox (Mikaela Banes), who is, of course, dating the obnoxious high school quarter-back jock. So how the hell do we introduce a twenty five foot robot into this very American movie scene? Well the answer is Tom's first car, a rusty old yellow sport Camero that seems to be waiting for him on the car lot, a treat from dad for getting good grades this semester. Those not familiar with the Transformers will need to know they are extremely malleable biomechanical sentient organism that can change into pretty much any electrical object, within scale of course.

The enemy is also on the way, the bad robots in the Deceptocons, headed by Megatron, soon hacking into Earths computer systems to find our weakness in search of something called the 'All Spark', the Secretary for Defense (John Voight) and the impossibly beautiful code breaker (Maggie Madsen), the ones tasked to trace the invaders bringing down their firewalls quicker than Tom would like to drop Megan's knickers. Which ever set of robots gets the All Spark first will decide the planets destiny. But its not the US military that can save the world, Independence Day style, but young Tom, the artifact his granddad found out on the Artic Circle all those years ago being the key to whether it's the colorful goodibots-headed by Optimus Prime-or the grey badibots that take over the world. And with a shadowy government agency also chasing down young Tom (headed by John Turturo) and his new robot friends the clock is ticking for mankind's survival.

-The Cast-

Shia LaBeouf ... Sam Witwicky
Megan Fox ... Mikaela Banes
Josh Duhamel ... Captain Lennox
Tyrese Gibson ... USAF Tech Sergeant Epps
Rachael Taylor ... Maggie Madsen
Anthony Anderson ... Glen Whitmann
Jon Voight ... Defense Secretary John Keller
John Turturro ... Agent Simmons
Michael O'Neill ... Tom Banachek
Kevin Dunn ... Ron Witwicky
Julie White ... Judy Witwicky
Amaury Nolasco ... ACWO Jorge "Fig" Figueroa
Zack Ward ... First Sergeant Donnelly

-The Director-

Whatever Michael Bay does you know its going to be big and loud, fast and thrilling, this no exception. He really is up there with Spielberg for this type of thing, although many would say that's a sacrilegious comparison. The special effects are amazing, which, if you think about it, were pretty tough to pull off, 30ft robots bouncing off American skyscrapers and city highways not easy to make authentic. They really work here and hard to fault, some of the best special effects scenes you will ever see, especially in the opening and last action sequences of the film. Bay also likes to pay gentle homage to other movies and TV series, Toms Camero clearly modeled on 'Kit' from Nightrider. If you keep your eyes glued you will notice a whole lot of these tributes and copycat moments. I particular enjoyed the Indian call-centre joke!

-The Ratings-

Imdb.com scores it 7.6/10.0 (107,356 votes)

-Conclusions-

If you can get past the front cover and the idea you're renting a kids film then you will really enjoy this, plenty of teenage angst jokes and traditional big summer blockbuster action to thrill and entertain. Bay has done miracles to make the giant robots work on the big screen and some of the sequences are outrageously good. LeBeouf is a great young talent as the hapless hero and with all the little references to previous movies by the director you chuckle along as Bay joyfully box-ticks all the action movie clichés. Bay definitely goes on the 'B' of the 'Bang' in his movies and the opening attack on the US military base in Quatar so we can gage the power of the enemy is a cracker. The final Earth shattering showdown is quite simply art. Some may not like Bays blatant style, often making you feel like you have been mugged over entertained in the cinema, but I reckon this is his best yet as far as the action movie going experience goes for him and the event movie of the year.

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Summary: Merchandising!