As Blackout pounded the American desert base with his arm mounted machine guns, blasted shock waves of death through the matchstick buildings and released a devastating EMP across the entire base, I lent over to Ash and said: "This is bad ass." Only a few minutes into the movie, Spielberg and Bay's Transformers was already blowing my mind - something that would continue for sometime.
Let's get this straight, this Transformers movie is not the good old 80's classic Transformers just in a movie. To be honest, that would be rubbish. This is a whole new re-imagining of the Transformers story. Much like the new Battlestar Galactica.
There's a lot of that going about at the minute and there's also a lot of franchises being set up as well and with the sequel already green-lit it's pretty obvious that this movie was written as an introduction to the characters and a set up for further movies.
Movies like Superman Returns and the first Spider-Man were also 're-imagined-franchise-starters' and hence got mixed reviews from critics and public a like. Something mirrored in Transformers reception. But not from me.
From the moment this movie started I was dumb-struck, with my mouth agape and perched on the end of my seat. The opening slaughter by Blackout, the US military's victory over Scorponock, the battle between Bumblebee and Barricade were all stunningly created, visual master pieces of movie history that hinted at the glory of the finale show down. Never before have I been so wholly convinced of the existence of something so utterly fictional. To the extent I really did think the cars parked in the cinema car park could be real Transformers.
Many critics have said that there were too many human characters and they were really only extras to the Tranformers. Something I agree with to an extent. I thought both Shia LeBeouf (Sam Witwicky) and Megan Fox (Mikaela Banes) gave solid performances throughout but many of the other characters scattered throughout were nothing but extras of requirement, like John Voight's Secretary of Defence and Josh Duhamel's Captain William Lennox, who were both forgettable.
Only Bernie Mac's Bobby Boliva as the dodgy second hard car dealer that sells Bumbleebee to Sam Witwicky is worth any further note. At best character development was hasty and as requirement more than anything genuinely believable. But that really does not matter.
As the movie is called Transformers, you'd except the alien transforming robots to be the stars of the movie and they are. Each Transformer looks stunning. The fact they've changed a few names and vehicle designs from the original really doesn't matter as they very kindly bothered to explain that the Transformer arrive on Earth in their humanoid form but quickly scan and mimic the shape of a nearby vehicle allowing them to 'hide in the open'.
The plot is a solid affair with the Autobots and Decepticons fighting on Earth over 'The Allspark' which is a cube shaped 'creator of life' which emits radiation capable of turning inanimate technology into a living machine. The fact it's cube shaped was a pleasant nod to 'energon' cubes from the original series.
The characters were there as well. Ironhide's tendency to be a bit violent, Bumbleebee's bravery and dedication to protecting Sam and Prime as the wise and proud moral pillar of leadership. Similarly, Megatron is the megalomaniac we all know and love and there were some slight allusions at the tempestuous relatioship between him and Starscream. One of my favourite lins was where Megatron berated Starscream for 'failing him again'. Just like the original cartoon.
The special effects were second to none. There were more special effects shots in Transformers than every single Pirates of the Carribean movies combined. The most striking thing was how consistent and believable they were. The quality never seemed to falter regardless of proximity, lighting or what they were interacting with at the time. Perhaps the only real moment I thought the quality dropped was when they used what looked like an animatronic model of Frenzy on Air Force One.
Finally, it's actually damn funny. Witty comments from the Autobots and a few amusing 'gross out American Pie' jokes made the finla genuine peice of comedy.
Transformers is a contemporary re-imaging of the original series to bring it bang up to date and make Hasbro/Bay/Spielberg plenty of cash while setting up a new franchise. On top of that, it's the best special effects movie I've ever seen with some solid characters and lots and lots to build on. The action is unrivalled by anything I've seen this year (except maybe 300) and there was enough allusions and nods to the original series to make me feel they haven't totally ignored the source material.
10/10
