Total fun from start to finish

Rating: 5/10 (23 July 2007)

This movie has been the most enjoyable movie of the year for me. I'm a fan of Transformers, but this movie is good for non-fans as well. It's not a Kurosawa or Scorsese movie, nor will it win best picture. But unlike a lot of movies, it's entertaining, surprisingly smart, and has memorable characters, and a better sense of comedy than most 'comedies'. As for the special effects, a lot has already been said about them, so I won't waste time praising them. What delighted me the most about this film was how the characters were treated as characters, not flashy effects, particularly Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. Probably the only complaint I have is the lack of dialog from most of the Decepticons. But then again considering the fact that they are war machines and have a shoot first and ask questions later policy, that can be somewhat forgiven given how the story developed. Hugo Weaving made a really menacing Megatron for the film, Bumblebee made my Ford-devoted girlfriend grow a soft spot for Camaros. The real icing on the cake for the film however is Peter Cullen returning to voice Optimus Prime for the first time since the original series. You can tell by his vocal performance that he was happy to be voicing the character again, and not just doing it for the money. I've seen this film 3 times in the first 3 weeks of release, and cannot wait for it to come out on DVD later this year. Far and away better than Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, this film deserves to be the king of Summer 2007.