Well, I finally saw the movie and I just felt compelled to come back and give my 2 cents about it. After all, this was one the most hyped up, talked about movies in quite some time especially with the original G1 fan generation that grew up watching these cool human like robots that filled our childhood with so much happiness.I went in with little expectations and I can say that because of that I wasn't let down at all, in fact I was somewhat pleasantly surprised.
Let's face it the robots were badass!, whether they were Transformers or not who cares. They were big cool robots brought to life on the big screen for our enjoyment and they were done very well. I have to admit best use of CGI in a film to date!. ILM showed their genius yet again. If there was one movie that has done it better, I honestly can't think of it.
As for the rest of the film...Warning! this might be seen as spoilers for some who have not yet seen it...
The story was expectedly rushed, not much character development given to our favorite Transformers. Instead we see more time spent on developing a story among the human characters and their relationship with the robots. There seemed to be an attempt made to make the interaction and level of connection between the two somewhat ETish. I suspect this was more from Spielberg than Bay. From the frantic yet comical Frenzy, to the hip hop jive talkin Jazz, with the most nonsensical stereotypical line in the whole movie which I'm sure some 12-14 yr olds thought was totally cool,"What's up bitches!" to our fearless leader Optimus Prime uttering the totally hip words "My bad" after stepping on a water fountain while hiding from his new found human friend's parents.
It was clear that this wasn't a film that was made for my generation but for the younger generation. A new generation of Transformers fans and again I was ok with that because it was exactly what I expected going in. The rest of the film is full of those old tried and true generic cliched story lines that I honestly found quite funny and entertaining when I was kid...
The uber hot chick that after screwing the entire football team, decides she's bored with it and feels the need for a change so she settles for a nice but geeky or nerdy or not so smooth with the ladies guy. This of course makes way for all the funny quirky antics that you would expect from this type of cliched courtship that I've seen now in every movie about 20,000 times.
The quirky unlikeable bad secret agent guy, the we would all like to see get made fun for a cheap laugh or two, hahah he's in his underwear, haha he got pissed on by a robot.
And who can forget the classic ole 'mommy thinks I'm secretly spanking the monkey' bit. Priceless!
So in short, throw in Bay's big explosions and music video type movie feel and his witty one liners and hip new school jive, throw in a pinch of Spielberg's sensitivity and 80's movie cliched nostalgic feel, ILM's incredible CGI effects and a rushed storyline with a basic plot just so we can all get to the good part which is the action of course and you've got by all accounts today's modern version of the ultimate summer blockbuster!
If I were 12 or if I had seen this movie when I was younger preferably right after the animated movie came out. I would've thought that this was the coolest movie I had ever seen in my life! Better than ET, better than Star Wars, better than BTTF, etc.
Again tho, this movie was not made for my generation, it was made for today's generation and for those of us G1 fans who now have kids ourselves so that we may enjoy it together. If they had wanted to make a movie for my generation it would have had more of a dark feel to it like a Terminator, Alien, Predator, Robocop etc.
At the end of the day I was grateful to have the opportunity to once again see some of my favorite old childhood heroes once again and this time on the big screen in all there CGI glory. I have to believe that I wasn't the only one who got goosebumps when I heard Optimus mouth those famous words "One shall stand, one shall fall!"
I definitely expect and wouldn't mind seeing a part II.