Behold, the power of cheese!

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2007)

I was a huge fan of the "Generation 1" cartoon series growing up. When I first saw the trailer for "Transformers", my jaw dropped at how awesome it looked. I've been SO bored by the vast majority of the movies that are released in the last 5 years, it's difficult to get me to agree to paying for theater ticket. I usually opt to wait for DVD. But, I jumped at the chance to see this one! It was EVEN BETTER than I expected. Shia LeBouf is an incredibly engaging actor. It's hard to top what Edward Furlong did for "Terminator 2", but he absolutely carries this film with a perfect performance. He is able to pull off the relationship between man and machine brilliantly and believably. My childhood hero, Optimus Prime has been brought back to life in a context that I can appreciate as an adult! Reading many of the reviews here, I see a lot about cheesy dialog and jokes. I loved every last ounce of it. I thought the touch of "American Pie" style comedy and the sappy "I'm not leaving without Bumblebee" and the corny relationship between Sam and that hottie are exactly what this flick needed to prevent it from taking itself too seriously. I even liked all of the primetime TV stars thrown into the mix to keep a bit of familiarity.
That's not to say the film was perfect. Michael Bay worked hard to integrate a variety of different popular film clichÃ© elements together. The result worked for me, but I can see that the movie would have benefited from a few more months worth of script refinement. It needs just a little more balance.. a little more continuity.. to flow together just a little bit better.
It went in a lot of different directions, but all of the elements were not tied up by the end. We devote a great amount of time and energy on saving poor Bumblebee. But Jazz comes and goes without a lot of emotion. Early on we are endeared by Captain Lennox's newborn that he wants to hold so badly, but the movie ends and his family is nowhere in sight! I think the Decepticons needed more personality. The only bad guy we really got to connect with was the boombox! Perfect, no, but a solid 10 out of 10 for me. I haven't enjoyed a movie this much in years.