Not much more than meets the eye

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2007)

Standing in a crowded line waiting to watch Transformers yesterday, I had come prepared to see what Micheal Bay had transformed my childhood favorites into (pardon, the pun) Now as an adult I know that as a kid I also liked to eat candy that looked like worms. So looking back I know very well that the series looked much cooler then trying to digest them as adult now.
Apart from that, I believe that that 8.0 user rating you see (on 17-07-07) will melt before your very eyes in the coming period and here's why; as you may know, Micheal Bay usually makes up for what he lacks in storyline with special effects and American patriot propaganda. In this case, the perfect choice if you want a cartoon to look like a real movie and if you want it to appeal for a war-tired/teen American audience.
Unfortunately for Micheal Bay the rest of the world has yet to judge it too. I also think it is people who have been counting the days till the release of this movie who have been grading it so well. The rest of us did not bother to get in those long lines just yet. To be honest though, it does transcend the cartoon series...but just by the skin of it's teeth. Which is the best way of looking at it because looking at it in a different way, it will be a total suckfest.
Script: Thin as a sheet. Ironically, it almost felt like I was back in the eighties when I watched this movie. Tiresome Americans (military) saving the world with guns blazing with big breasted women running around screaming and guys getting blown away all over the place...by robots.
Direction: Sugar-rushed paced. It's a shame that Micheal Bay still does not understand that action is defined by the moments of quiet in between. In the action, things get very confusing during fights but you do get the notion of the sheer size, weight and power of the transformers.
Special effects: Very good. The fact that computer graphics always have a plastic and synthetic like feel to them works very well in this case of course. The Transformers look perfectly real in the movie. Although, who has ever seen giant robots walking around?
Acting: Mediocre. Unfortunately Micheal Bay tries to appeal to all audiences with the strange effect that you get very clownesque or very serious acting. I did get a great feeling of nostalgia to hear to Peter Cullen do the original voice of Optimus Prime but, as with all the actors, I cringed with the bad lines they put out there.
Maybe James Cameron next time. He's got a thing with robots... 6 out of 10