Not Pleasantly Surprised

Rating: 6/10 (7 July 2007)

I have a few memories of the original cartoon growing up, and I liked it. I am not a huge fan, so I went in only remembering the names of Optimus Prime and Megatron. The special effects were very good. The fight scenes for the most part were well-staged with a big exception. Many of the autobot versus decepticon fights were difficult to follow or enjoy. The movie was building up to a big fight between the two aforementioned leaders, but right as the fight started it cut away to more stuff with the soldiers. By the time we rejoin Optimus Prime and Megatron, the fight was nearly over. For a director whose main trademark is staging actions scenes, this left a lot to be desired.
I went into the movie knowing pretty much what to expect. That is not to say I was prejudging the movie, but you don't see a Michael Bay film for character development. The storyline was a jumbled mess. We followed way too many story arcs throughout the film, and the only interesting one was Sam and Bumblebee. The movie seemed to forget about the fight involving John Turturro and Anthony Anderson at the end. Why did the army/sector 7 intentionally lead the Decepticons to a major city for the final confrontation? They put a lot of people at risk for no particular reason. Why was Sam entrusted with carrying around the cube during the climactic scenes? It made sense to involve the hero in this way, but shouldn't one of the autobots been carrying it? How did Sam understand how to use the cube at the end, when he killed Megatron? A lot of time I think about these questions after the movie, when I am discussing it with friends. These jumped out at me during the movie, and they hampered my ability to enjoy it.
I love mindless action popcorn flicks, but this movie had a lot of problems. It was miles ahead of Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, but it missed the mark in a big way. I did like Starscream quite a bit though.