“Autobots, roll out!” (update 1)
I went to see the Transformers movie this afternoon and I just have one message for Mr. Michael Bay…touche! For those who don’t know, Transformers is a live action movie based on a television show (which was actually based on a collection of Toys Action Figures made by NE toy manufacturer, Hasbro) about autonomous robots from another world who come to earth seeking to retrieve a device (the Allspark) capable of turning ordinary mechanical devices into autonomous life forms complete with a soul spark and all. When the good guys (Autobots, lead by super badass Optimus Prime) reach earth, they discover that they may be too late as the bad guys (Deceptacons) are already on earth and their leader, Megatron, had actually been there for about 80 years and has been frozen in the polar ice caps. Megatron is eventually freed from his frozen prison and goes on a quest to use the Allspark to turn all of earths technology into sentient beings and become ruler of a new robotic world (Earth) destroying anyone, human or robot, who comes in his way.
That’s pretty much the basis of the storyline and, luckily, it only takes about 20 minutes or so to set up. Once they get all that back story out of the way, the movie becomes what true transformer fans went to see, a non stop roller coaster ride of pure, unadulterated, robot on robot action. This movie is epic on a scale that only Speilberg and Bay can acquire. The one thing that Bay can do great, and i mean ONE thing is big, larger than life action and for that this movie delivers in spades. This movie is so visually spectacular the only thing that could be better is getting to see it in a few months on HD-DVD.
I have to admit, while in my heart I really wanted this movie to be amazing, ever since I saw the first trailer with Bay’s name stamped on it almost larger than the movie screen itself, I instantly began to fear for the worst. Fortunately, against all odds, Michael Bay ended up delivering a movie that kept me entertained the whole way through and stuck so true to the source material that my inner fan boy wanted to jump up and cheer whenever I heard that classic transforming sound or when Optimus Prime said “Autobots, Roll Out!” or when they would throw in the individual transformers classic tag lines, it truly brings a tear to my eye.
Granted, Transformers was not a perfect movie. It had plenty of cheese factor, was a little unnecessarily political (hell it was even released on independence day), and the script was probably 7 pages long, but those small issues are completely overshadowed by the 144 minutes of pure adrenaline that make up the movie. And in the end, what the hell did you expect, its a movie based on action figures.
9 out of 10 random rating digits
Update:Fixed some spelling errors
