A movie about teens ... and for teens ...

Rating: Null/10 (13 July 2007)

I'm a big sci-fi movie fan, so this was a must-see movie. However, the cartoon-like effects and "everybody is a teenager" cast was a little too much for me. This was an excellent idea for a movie, but ended up being more like a 2.5 hour Saturday morning cartoon.
The movie has a fantastic storyline. It's basically about alien robots that are at war with each other and are simultaneously searching for a lost artifact of their civilization. How cool is that? Unfortunately, it wasn't executed very well.
Aside from minor plot-hole issues and endless brand-name product placement (more than I've ever seen in any movie), there were two main problems.
First, all the critical roles are teenagers. Literally. I'm not just talking about the actors, but rather the literal ages of the characters in the movie. The top code-crackers at the Dept. of Defense are teenagers ... the critical characters calling the shots for all of mankind are teenagers ... the Transformers all prefer to communicate with teenagers. You get the picture. Sorry - it's just a little too crazy.
Secondly, the effects were not very good. Much of the time, the Transformer scenes looked like cartoons. I would have gladly settled for fewer, but more realistic, special effects. I was willing to let it go in the beginning, but then the cartoon effects became so common-place that it became really annoying.
If you're in the teenage demographic and a very forgiving sci-fi fan, you may really like this movie. For everyone else, this may end up being a let-down. Keep your expectations minimal.