Transformers

Happy: I loved the fact that one of my favorite cartoons hit the big screen. It was absolutely wonderful. It was great that Peter Cullen was able to do Optimus Prime. Anyone else would have made a mess of it. It was brilliant to bring back the same quote from Transformers: The Movie in 1986, “One shall stand and one shall fall”. The animation was world class and the story was worth having the name Transformers as its title.

It was cute the when the Autobots were on Sam’s lawn. Iron Hide was hilarious. There were actually a lot of funny points in the movie which was really unexpected. It was a good mix. There was a lot of action and really little time to take my eyes off what was going on.

I never imagined Optimus Prime having lips nor Bumblebee looking so fine. Let’s face it, it would have been so uncool had they made Bumblebee a Volkswagen Beetle from the 60’s.

Not Happy: What the hell is Allspark? Apparently, allspark was actually mentioned in Beast Machines. Now, I love transformers. I quite liked the Japanese version, Transformers:Victory with Star Saber and Victory Leo BUT I despised, and still do, Beast Wars: Transformers. To take materials from anything other than the original Transformers is quite unacceptable. I will not explain anything regarding allspark because to me, it was a stupid thing to put as the core of the movie, utterly stupid. The writers could have gone with the more obvious way; The Decepticons wanted to destroy the Autobots’ Matrix of leadership. Pure and simple as the cartoon was.

I mentioned the out of this world animation but somehow I feel let down by the portrayal of the robots. It looked more GUNDAM-ish than Transformers. I just didn’t seem right. In the original series, you could tell what machine they are while they’re in robot form. In the movie, you couldn’t tell if Bumblebee was a car or a toaster. A little exaggerated on my part but you get the point. Megatron was a star ship of some kind which was a little confusing and for some reason Optimus Prime decided to go funky with decals. It’s like George Bush with a Mohawk haircut.

There was too much of the human factor which I did not like at all. The story revolved around how humans played their role in the war between the 2 sides. A headmaster story would have done the trick instead where the Transformers need humans to act as their heads in order for them to transform. That would have been cooler instead of Mikaela backing up the tow truck while Bumblebee was shooting.

What Now? There will be 2 more sequels coming our way. Dinobots, Constructicons and Soundwave will be introduced. But take it from me; they really need to go back to the original series or the first movie and gather their materials for the storyline there. Bring in Unicron, let the battle move into space. Be less creative with the script because it’s not working too well.