We saw the new Transformers movie last week, and I just have two words for you.
Simply awesome.
And now for some more words. I leaned over right before the movie started and loudly whispered the title of this post to Monica and Bucky, but I know that many others in the theater were thinking something similar. This movie just kicked butt.
Now admittedly, I have a bit of an emotional tie to this film as the Transformers was the best cartoon and toy series ever in the history of the universe. I had so many of these toys when I was kid, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve bought a few on eBay over the years. If only my mom hadn’t made me give them all away. Thanks, Mom; I could have sold them all and been a kajillionaire! Ah, who am I kidding, I’d still be staging Autobot-Decepticon battles to this day.
But I digress; back to the movie.
The first voice you hear is Peter Cullen, he of the great pipes and someone you’ve probably heard on countless movie trailers. Hearing the original Optimus Prime made my inner child scream with joy, and it brought back memories of after school cartoon watching and especially the animated Transformers movie where Optimus dies. Michael Bay made many changes from the cartoon, but the essence of the original series remained intact, and I think Peter Cullen played a big part in that.
There are several nods to the cartoon, including an angry Megatron proclaiming his disappointment with Starscream yet again, all of which I think are key to the level of fan satisfaction with this movie. I’m right smack dab in the middle of the age group that grew up with these characters and am certainly in the target demographic for the movie, and I loved every minute of it.
This is one long movie, but you don’t really notice it. There are lots of action scenes and bits of humor throughout, including several laugh out loud moments which I wasn’t expecting. The overall tone of the movie is really reminiscent of the cartoon which I think is a good thing, and you know Michael Bay isn’t going to let you down with the action scenes. There are lots of robot-fighting, metal-twisting scenes, so much so that at times you don’t know who is fighting whom. That’s my only real complaint with the movie; I wish Bay would have pulled the camera back about one hundred feet to let us see more of the action in the frame. I’m going to have to watch some of scenes on slow motion on the DVD to see what happens to some of the characters.
It’s making a ton of money, and I know a sequel has been confirmed. That’s awesome news as I can’t wait to see more transforming action.