boe_dye says... Baweep Granaweep Ninibong!

Rating: 9/10 (11 July 2007)

Okay, that was kinda lame...
Anywho, in my particular tradition of knowing that you already know what the movie is about I will spare you all yet another long and drawn out rehashing of what the movie was about and tell you all what I thought...
Besides, that's what the plot/synopsis link is for...
Moving on... I liked it... I liked a lot to tell you the truth.
Many people knock Michael Bay. I really don't understand why. Before I even knew who Bay was, I have enjoyed his movies...
See, when it comes to taking a cartoon and/or comic book and making it into a large scale movie there is a little thing that takes place called dramatic license. Way to many fan boys simply can't comprehend it, and usually whine about stupid things like "Oh Megatron didn't look like Megatron", or "Soundwave didn't look like Soundwave", or "There was no All-Spark", or "Bumble-Bee wasn't a Camaro, and was a yellow bug instead", and let's not forget "it didn't even sound like Starscream", or how about "Devestator wasn't a tank, he was a Constructacon".
Yeah, well robots don't bend like the do in cartoons either...
Some dramatic license can be bad, like the debacle that was Spider-Man III, but don't get me started on that one... At least not here...
Either way, to answer all those gripes, Megatron would have looked absolutely ridiculous as a handgun/cannon. When was the last time you actually saw/owned a boom box? The all spark didn't replace energon, it was something entirely different, and you have to admit a Volkswagen bug, at least in this case, has no menacing bad @$$ qualities as say a Chevy Camaro...
Although they did kinda over do the whole GMC plug...
A whiny tenor voiced Starscream would have been annoying in five minutes, and as far as Devesator went, well if you are really so upset over that then there really isn't much that can be said that isn't painfully obvious...
Okay, so how was the movie? The movie was good. It was of course action packed. Eye Candy GALORE! But then again for this type of movie, you don't really go for deep meaningful character development, or in depth philosophical enlightenment...
That's like going to see Star Wars for the dialog. No one in their right mind would want to see Star Wars for the god-awful dialogue that Lucas somehow managed to cobble together. You go because you want to see epic Light Saber Battles. Same difference here.
We want to see massive robots kicking the tar out of each other, making that cool "eh ah oo" sound that they make when they transform.
At times the camera's were a little too in your face. A little too fast perhaps as well. At times it was somewhat hard to comprehend the action; you knew it was going on, but at the same time it looked jumbled and messy.
Another critique I have, and this is going to sound odd, is the choice of voicing for Optimus Prime. I know, I know, using Peter Cullen because he was the original was like a dream of dampness to many, but at the same time Optimus sounded a bit old, and understandably so. I personally felt that Hugo Weaving who voiced Megatron would have sounded perfect for this Optimus Prime. But that's just me.
Megatron, in this movie almost acted, sounded, and just a little bit even looked more like Galvatron then anything else... Which was kinda cool.
Which in that case, what they could've done would have been to call up Leonard Nimoy (who still has a great voice, and sounds much as he did when he voiced Galvatron) and had him voice Megatron and have Hugo Weaving do Optimus. At least that way the bad guy would be gravely and hard while the good guy would be a bit more smoother... But again, nothing that would make me change my opinion of the film...
In the end, it was a pretty cool movie with lot's of pretty colors, and well done cgi, (and maybe perhaps some left over Episode One sound effects). Had a simple to the point story, and left me with happy thoughts...
...doom doom dooooom the end...
October 21, 2007
*The DVD Review*
So "x" amount of time has passed and the movie that was in theaters in now finally on film. i, having enjoyed this enough to actually buy it on DVD, decided that perhaps it would be an interesting thing to write about any other thoughts that may have come up in my second viewing of this film.
Movies often times seem different the second time around.
My general reaction is still pretty much the same. it's a pretty good flick. the gmc plugging was just as annoying, and the movies effects and action sequences were more then enough for me to forget about it.
I made a comment above that i would like to retract however, and that was about optimus prime sounding a bit too old. in my second viewing of this film i found nothing that sounded dated whatsoever. peter Cullen was a good choice to rehash optimus. i still think that they could have easily gotten away with using Leonard nimoy as mega tron, but perhaps that will be something for the sequels...
One last thing that i can say before i sign off, is that the choice of music was too distracting. battle for honor and humanity, by tomoyasu hotei (i think i spelled that right, but just in case the "kill bill" theme), and the linkin park end song are simply to popular to be used effectively for a movie. soundtracks ought to have original music for the movie, or at the very least music that isn't all that popular.