They didn’t f’ it up. Thank god.
That’s the initial, gut reaction I had to it, after I saw an advance screening of The Transformers movie last week. I was relived because, before I saw the film, I thought the odds were stacked against my childhood friends the Autobots. You had Michael Bay behind the camera directing, who has been very hit-and-miss for me (I actually liked Armageddon and The Rock for what they were – big, dumb entertaining movies; don’t get me started talking about Pearl Harbor, however…) You had Paramount paying the bills, and they have had a long streak of really bad, almost unwatchable adaptations over the past few years (Tomb Raider, Sum of All Fears, etc.).
So, I was excited but also filled with trepidation before the film started rolling.
I can gladly report that not only did they not screw the pooch, but they made a genuinely great, entertaining movie.
Yes, it’s a great movie. And it’s Michael Bay. Wow, is that the four horsemen I hear galloping in the distance?
I won’t go into the plot much – it’s wafer-thin, and that’s perfectly fine (after the convoluted Pirates sequels, a straight through-line is refreshing). There’s an object to be retrieved, a frozen Decepticon to be revived, and a lot of urban renewal to be done – the REALLY HARD way.
As in, giant monster robots fighting each other. Beautifully.
Which was what I paid to see. Unlike some of the Type-A fanboys who are totally hardcore, I have some perspective. The Transformers ain’t Shakespeare. They are robots in disguise. They’re toys. I just wanted to see them made real. And boy, did I ever.
The special effect in this movie are as good as I’ve seen in a while, and the CGI are absolutely seamless with the practical on-set explosions (save for one scene near the end of the film, where the elements just don’t look like they were fully actualized). The attention to detail is amazing, and I can only imagine how many computing cycles went into rendering the transformations from vehicle-mode (to map every embedded component of a car and then lock it to where they are when they become a robot – the mind reels). The weight, the real-world physics applied to the Transformers – they have presence and heft on screen. They look real, and not like a special effect – the ultimate compliment I can give the FX crew.
I was, in British slang, gob-stopped.
I can only compare my experience watching Transformers with two other movies I have seen – the first was Jurassic Park, where my jaw dropped the floor constantly throughout that first showing. The second was Independence Day, where I was swept up in the b-movie plot completely and cheered – repeatedly. Yes, in hindsight both movies have deep problems (especially ID4) but those initial viewings were magic.
That’s how I felt when I watched Transformers – and when Peter Cullen, reprising his role as Optimus Prime, the Allfather from the original G1 cartoon and animated film, said the famous line from the 1986 movie (which I won’t spoil) I was 12 years old again, only this time I didn’t have to imagine the robots were real – they were, as real as anything else on screen.
And they were kicking all sorts of ass.
I posted a quick comment on the Transformers message board giving my initial impression and reassurance (lots of nervous hard-core fanboys lurking about) and one of the aforementioned Type-A fans posted a response. He wrote that Bay made a movie for people who “didn’t like Transformers, and the film didn’t respect the mythology, etc.” and I got the sense his religious dogma would prevent him from enjoying it. So I replied:
Even the mythology has been inconsistent over the years. This is not G1 or Beast Wars or Armada or RiD. It is ANOTHER, bigger, different take on the basic story and characters, with hints of many different iterations. If you want to be dogmatic, that is your choice. Paramount and Hasbro are in the business of making money by providing entertainment and I was entertained. Very much so.
I hope he sees it and likes it, because I’m utterly convinced we will never see a better adaptation of this property on screen, ever. It just works.
I’d add one more thing – this movie has made Transformers cool again. Really cool. Paramount has a license to print money with this one.
And they deserve every penny.