Transformers product reviews

I watched 'Transformers' growing up and vividly remember the first attempt at a 'Transformers' movie. I was very skeptical about the movie to start off with when I saw the teaser trailer with Michael Bay's name attached to it. He isn't exactly known for directing brilliant movies, with exception to 'The Rock' and 'The Island' which did border on very good. He is known for ridiculously over the top action sequences and large budget special effects instead of story, so I wasn't particularly excited about the movie. I wanted to see it but I wasn't expecting anything spectacular. The previews rolled. Opening titles rolled. And then everyone in the audience was shot in the face with one of the best openings in action movie history. Being 'Transformers', which is (and lets be fair, has always been) a franchise aimed at children, I was not expecting how intense the opening scene was.

As far as the story goes its a pretty classic 'Aliens come to Earth' movie. Expect nothing really special from it. There is a couple of flash-back sequences which seem out of place in the time line but match up nicely later on and set a few large puzzle pieces into place.

Crazy is also a word I would use to describe the VFX. All aspects of the CG (created by Industrial Light and Magic) are utterly ridiculous in the level of detail, time and effort that has been put into them. The Transformers feel real and you can connect with them emotionally. I applaud the post production because I didn't catch anything horribly wrong with the compositing of the CG into the live action footage. If I really wanted to gripe, one of the Transformers looked a little bit odd for one shot in the entire film, but thats me desperately looking for a flaw. Because I'm a geek to this sort of thing I have to mention a couple of awesome facts. The animation of the Transformers took around 38 hours a frame to render and when there is 24 frames in ONE SECOND of animation thats a lot of render time. Optimus Prime has over 10,000 moving parts... yeah and someone actually had to create a rig to make them all work properly.

The acting isn't bad but I couldn't call it good either. Shia LaBeouf who is probably best known for his newer roles in 'Disturbia' and 'Constantine' is a great newcomer to the big screen and really takes the lead role in his stride. He pulls off the part quite well as a relatively normal teenager with normal problems who is put in an unbelievable situation. Megan Fox ('Hope and Faith') gets her big break in a leading film role. She doesn't disappoint either. In some places her acting is significantly better than Shia's. I can't help feeling that in some of the film (the non-action scenes in particular) her character is simply there just to keep specifically male audience members watching, which is a little bit sad and a mild waste of the acting talent she showcases throughout the film. The Transformers themselves do well in main supporting roles which might be considered odd for a computer generated character in a live action film. They really are believable and carry a surprisingly large amount of emotion for not having humanoid facial features. Other familiar faces include Tyrese Gibson ('Four Brothers'), Anthony Anderson ('Me, Myself and Irene') and legend Jon Voight ('Heat', 'Mission Impossible', 'National Treasure'). Although I do think Jon Voight is underused and his acting talent is almost criminally wasted.

The target audience is definitely 13-30 year old males. Transformers does have some really intense action scenes and the occasional swearing so I wouldn't absolutely recommend the film for younger children. On the whole it is a film the entire family could enjoy for a night in.

On the upside the movie has totally fantastic CG which personally is the best I've seen outside of Pixar. This movie could possibly be the coolest action film you will ever see. It DOESN'T keep strictly to the originals in terms of visual style and story of the Transformer robots, which in my opinion is a good thing because personally I don't want to a recycled version of the last Transformers movie made 20 years ago.

On the downside the film has some unnecessary innuendo and some stupidly cheesy one liners. The movie is targeted at young males and doesn't have much leeway for other demographics. It isn't strictly faithful to the original. Product placement is another thing I noticed. It wasn't as blatant as some other films but it is in there.

The bottom line is Michael Bay has taken a franchise and reinvented it into an excellent modern action movie that will appeal to a new generation and be remembered for a long time.

Errr...WOW!! LOL!! I seriously did NOT think I'd enjoy this movie, having never been a fan of the kids show. But my son was dead set keen on seeing this one, so I grudingly sat there with him, completely prepared to be bored witless. Boy was I wrong! Action packed from the word Go, "Transformers" the movie is completely different from the kids cartoon. The special effects were stunning: the Transformers were incredible to watch as they changed so effortlessly and quickly from vehicle mode to Robot mode, and you just can't help but get a soft spot for these big lugs of machine with very human-like personalities (I certainly agree with my son... Bumblebee is definitely the best of the bunch!). There is enough action in this movie to keep any action movie junkie happy, and is a movie that will keep both kids and adults riveted to their seats, whether they were fans of the cartoon version or not. Probably not the best of movies for young kids though, (after all, it is M rated), with the odd swear word here and there, and of course the fight scenes, but compared to a lot of programmes and movies out there for the younger generation to watch these days, this is relatively mild, and one that older kids will love watching again and again.
After seeing this one, I am hoping there will be a sequel, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see!