I saw the new Transformers movie tonight, and it was very good.
WARNING, SPOILERS BELOW:
Things I liked:
- The Transformations were good – really good.
- The Cybertronians couldn’t change size drastically when transforming. A small robot was a small whatever, and a large whatever was a large robot.
- The human-Autobot relationship was well done. I always liked that aspect of the original animated series, movie, and Marvel comics, and it was preserved here.
- The Sam Witwicky character felt right.
Things I didn’t like:
- Way too much military recruitment stuff
- The Transformers have frequently been portrayed as warriors, and in this storyline it makes even more sense, as the Cybertronian civil wars has been ongoing for millenia. Still, after all the glorification of the human-military, it was a bit much when, at the end, Bumblebee asked Optimus “Permission to speak, sir.” Come on.
- Hardly any character development for the Decepticons
- Final fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron was disappointing – it lacked cohesion, was disjointed, and the end didn’t make sense
- Less adventure, more action than the first movie. I think this is partly because a lot of time was spent introducing the characters.
- Michael Bay’s tendency to load up a film with a barrage of protagonists. Think of Armageddon. Do we really need that many good guys? I thought the “sexy signal analyst” character was extraneous, and that was before her sidekick was introduced!
- When all the human protagonists are at the Hoover dam together, with Sam and Bumblebee both in the custody of Sector 7, Sam throws out a couple of hints about Megatron and the Allspark, without actually explaining, then demands that Bumblebee be released. Without any serious questioning, some of the soldiers present somehow decide that Sam’s request is the right one, without Sam ever actually explaining about how Bumblebee’s an Autobot, and they’re the good guys, while Megatron and the rest of the Decepticons are the bad guys. This didn’t make any sense.
Ultimately, I enjoyed the movie very much, and I’m looking forward to the next one. I’d love to see a little more adventure, a little less action. More character development, less emphasis on SFX? Maybe Peter Jackson’s available?
