Well Worth the 23-Year Wait...

Rating: 10/10 (6 July 2007)

I've grown up loving "The Transformers." It was 1986 and everyday I'd come home from the third grade and sit in my school clothes and watch twenty-two minutes of every episode of third season of "The Transformers." Even without Optimus Prime that very last season, my all-time favorite Transformer and toy, I was enthralled and engrossed and loved every minute of it.
"The Transformers" have stayed with me. Optimus Prime remains one my heroes, as well as Bumblebee and Jazz. They are still real to me. They always were.
So, when I see some of my childhood heroes realized on the big screen, alive and well and in real life, to say I was floored would be an understatement. To say I didn't cry when I saw that semi-tractor trailer transform into a thirty-foot tall robot and hear Peter Cullen's baritone voice booming out of it would be nothing less than a lie.
Filmmaker Michael Bay has made his masterpiece and it's called "Transformers." And that's whats so damn weird, because in reality, this film is an adaptation of a late animated series and a stalwart toy line. It's not an original idea, and maybe that made it easier for Bay. Whatever the case, he, along with two very talented screenwriters, and Industrial Light & Magic, gave me, and so many other fans, old and young, our Transformers.
I'm really just too emotional to give a good, solid synopsis-filled review. Maybe I will someday, but after seeing "Transformers" twice, I can't sit here and write, "Well, this happened next, and then this actor portrayed his character well, and blah, blah, blah." I can't do it.
At the end the end of the day, I saw a live-action "Transformers" movie. I saw Optimus Prime living and breathing (or the Cybertronian equivalent), I saw Starscream fail Megatron, and I saw Prime and Megatron fight to the death. I heard that glorious transforming noise, and well, I just can't say enough about Mr. Cullen's voice work. He's a god among men, especially men my age.
His Optimus Prime, as it was twenty-plus years ago, is still the heart and soul of everything "The Transformers" stood for then and now. As I've left the theater for the second of probably several more times, it hits me every time, "Now I know why Optimus Prime is still my hero." He just is...
Now, many will not like this film, fans and non-fans alike. And that's fine, I don't expect everyone to like "Transformers." It may not be everybody's cup of tea. But, for me, it was pretty much exactly what I had hoped for...and leaves me wanting more, much, more than meets the eye.
Sorry, had to do it.
Highest recommendation!