In a word: INCREDIBLE!!

Rating: 9/10 (29 June 2007)

Seeing this movie last night down here in Melbourne, I was eagerly anticipating what Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg had done in their recreation of an excellent cartoon series that I passionately followed whilst I was growing up in the '80s. I was certainly hoping that the huge queues were worth the wait!! Be you a fan of the series or not, the introduction to the movie was brilliant and really set the scene so that everyone in the audience knew the basic "history" of how the Autobots and Decepticons came into being, and how they've ended up on Earth. This also ties together very well with Optimus Prime's general demeanour and compassion for humans whilst allowing the audience the opportunity to understand his views concerning the difference between good and evil.
The first scene of battle (perhaps I should change that word to chaos) was set to perfection, showing exactly what the Decepticons were capable of, and also allowing all of the human actors' roles to come into play. Speaking of which, the casting and acting for this movie was absolutely top-notch, from the main stars all of the way through to supporting actors. Shia LaBeouf is proving himself to be quite a fine actor and carries the wit and humour effortlessly throughout the entire film - he will be a star of the future, without a doubt. You will love the depth of well-known actors in this film and can relate to each and every one of them in some way or another. Surprise performances by Bernie Mac, John "Sneaky Sneaky" Turturro, Amaury Nolasco (Sucre from Prison Break) and Anthony Anderson were highly welcomed by the entire audience, which was a sell-out. Every single actor played their roles well and played the role as a hero in their own way.
The character development in the first half of the movie tended to drag "just a little bit", but fortunately this was compensated by the humour - even the parents get into it quite a bit, and the scenes concerning the backyard proved a hit amongst the audience (you'll know what I mean when you see them).
Near the end of the first hour (I think) you really start seeing the movie hitting it's strides - I actually heard a member of the audience say "Yep, it's just kicked up a notch", and it certainly did. The action just doesn't stop until the final credits from that point. Whether you're a fan or not of the cartoon series, you will thoroughly enjoy the film, which has a little bit of everything: action, humour, romance and excellent special effects which will literally blow your mind. It was great to see Optimus' flaming sword make an appearance that doesn't disappoint.
Even the characteristics (and facial expressions!!) of the robots are brought into the film. Jazz's humour and likability, Ironhide's intolerance of humans, Ratchett's intelligence, and Starscream's wishes to be the leader of the Decepticons (whilst always acting subservient to Megatron). Fans of the series - listen for the catch phrases of "Roll Out!!", "Decepticons Attack!!" and "You wanna piece of me?". :-) I particularly enjoyed the use of music at various parts of the film - who would've thought that "Baby Come Back" could have been used so well?
Above all, enjoy, but I would recommend a word of caution though - this film IS NOT for young children at all. I could imagine quite a lot of youngsters ending up having nightmares for a few evenings after watching this film, with Decepticon screams going through their heads (especially when Shia LaBeouf comes face-to-face with one of the Deceptacons).