Movie Review

Rating: 10/10 (28 June 2007)

If you were born and grew during the days when Television Networks showed countless of Transformers series, you will definitely be awed by this new Live-Action Movie. Transformers Live-Action Movie 1 premiered nationwide in the Philippines, and region-wide here in South-East Asia and Australia yesterday, June 28, 2007 Thursday. Almost all of the movie houses have nothing but Transformers showing, and each and every cinema have long lines and seats all booked weeks ahead. Guess what? There are not much kids, the generation who never had the chance to watch the original Transformers cartoons on the TV. Most are adults, working adults.
Here's my review of the first Live-Action Movie of Transformers.
Before you continue reading, there are some SPOILERS here.
As any Transformers fan will expect, we want to see instant action. The first few scenes of the movie is simply that, "action". But it is only a "teaser" of what's to come in the rest of the movie. I like how they started this movie, a way to keep the movie goers more excited instead of getting bored because we are expecting action already.
Then after that and before the complete action part, is where all the drama and the plot were explained. But once again, to keep everyone from getting bored because we want to see the best action parts like the Megatron vs Optimus Prime, they inserted funny lines and comedy 'actions'. As example, the Autobots team were hiding from Sam Witwicky's (played by Shia LaBeouf) parents, Bumblebee was hiding under the roof of entrance door, then Optimus Prime appeared to be seating on the whole house (I will not mention the other Autobots present). Then there was Bumblebee playing classic songs to reflect Sam's desire for the (leading) girl of the movie Mikaela Banes (played by Megan Fox). Mikaela at one scene, walked to go home alone because Sam's car (Bumblebee) won't start. After a few tries, Sam's car started with the song "Baby Come Back..." Mikaela smiled (and was impressed!), of course thanks to Bumblebee it was all his doing (guys, if you are courting a girl, find a Bumblebee car!) Grade: 10/10.
The CG is great, they did it very well. This is the first thing anyone will notice in the movie. Everything was smooth and fluid you will not even think of the Autobots and Decepticons as nothing but CG Animation. From their movements to their fighting scenes, together with the humans on the same scenes, as in "humans" with an 's'. Grade: 10/10.
The plot line, as we all know, when something Japanese is adapted by an American group, the story becomes very different. Also, personally, it is only right to create a new storyline. In this live-action movie, the story has similarities with the original cartoons, with the original parts being that they arrived on Planet Earth because the Decepticons wants to turn Earth into a new Cybertron through the use of the ancient technology that created the Transformers. This technology can turn any machine on Earth it comes to close proximity into a Transformers, like for example, a Mountain Dew vending machine turned into a wild Transformer attacking every human (though without a faction yet - ie newly born who is confused and doesn't know why 'it' exists), I'll call this the Mountain Dew Bot. Of course there is Starscream, we all saw him in the trailers, but as usual, Starscream is Megatron's ever unreliable right-hand, but I will not spoil you with the proofs of Starscream's unreliability. Grade: 10/10.
The art and design of the Transformers were a mixture from the different series. Example, Megatron's art and design is "Galvatron", not really "Megatron". Then Optimus Prime is so colorful, showing us that they took every color Optimus Prime had in the different cartoon series. Bumblebee on the other hand is still yellow colored (tip: watch out every yellow colored car and how the Decepticons will react to it), but in this movie, Bumblebee is of the newest design, not the original Volkswagen Beetle car (tip: there is this scene wherein Bumblebee hit the Volkswagen Beetle car besides him, really hard - what's that? A subliminal message from the producers? Were they supposed to use the Beetle model but Volkswagen don't want to?) And Starscream, the art and design was from the original Japanese Anime, not the American cartoons. Grade: 10/10.
Japanese? Yes, there is another message in the movie wherein Sam said, "super advanced robots, it's from the Japanese". Two meanings here, first is that Sam is trying to explain to his new girlfriend Mikaela about the Transformers. Second, is to put an end to the never ending debate about if the Transformers franchise is originally Japanese or American. Well, Transformers IS Japanese. It was only popularized by the American "version" (its the same with Power Rangers, it is also Japanese but was popularized by the American adaptation).
Sounds? Very well done. From the BGMs (Background Music), to the sound effects, everything fits in the movie and the scenes. Grade: 10/10.
Each character was also played well by their respective actors. They chose the right actors for the characters, which gave us a very well done action movie of the year.
Overall, I give this movie a 10 out of 10 stars. You MUST definitely watch this movie.
Oh, be sure to watch the very last scene from the movie... this scene is shown during the ending credits, so don't leave early. The proof that there is a highly potential "Transformers Live-Action Movie 2".
Now go, watch the movie, I will not spoil you anymore. That's more than enough. For me, I'm going to watch it again this Sunday, and then watch it again on July 4. And hopefully, the 4th time as a treat from our company.