Rent it so you can Fast Forward

Rating: 5/10 (19 July 2007)

You could cut out an hour of: subplots that don't add to the story, multiple "new" characters that appear to be of initial importance but go nowhere, and scenes that could be told in a minute that seem to drag on and on and on...
The first ten minutes and the last thirty are diamonds, and hopefully my kids will remember those action packed moments rather than the overused teenage-romance-angst subplot, the Dad/Mom/Son masturbation conversation (I half expected my oldest to come out of the theatre repeating "masturbation, masturbation, masturbation" as his new word), and the very stupid Taco Bell dog with the broken leg and addiction to pain medication. Yes, I don't have a clue to why that and a dozen other useless things were in a movie about giant robots.
Rent it first, fast forward through the parts that make you yawn (there are plenty), enjoy the really wicked robot vs. robot battle scenes, then return to your video store.

Deadbone

On a technical note: when a C-130 gunship pumps several thousand rounds per minute of munitions on a target - in this case a very bad robot - military guys caught within a fifty foot radius don't just stand around and watch. They hit the deck under whatever cover they can get. Even when they're not shooting something, C-130's buck like horses and rock like your momma's uneven dryer load. Computers and super accurate gunsights still mean anything remotely in that killzone is going to get shredded, as real-life Forward Operators and even grunt infantry will tell you.