I Saw Transformers Last Night...

I'm a huge fan of Transformers, the original cartoon movie from 1986 is without question one of my all-time favorite movies ever. So when I heard they were making a live action film I was disgusted...at first. Then I saw the preview and it looked surprisingly awesome.

Last night I went and saw the latest incarnation of Optimus Prime. When I got to the theatre Common was also walking in. What does this have to do with Transformers - nothing, but it's not everyday you see Common at a movie theatre.

So anyway, without giving away too much, the movie was simply the greatest effects/animation movie I have ever seen. I have no idea who did the animation but it was unbelievable. For that reason alone it is worth seeing.

However, as a Transformers loyalist this movie strayed so far from the original story it was almost unrecognizable. Sure they had quite a few of the original characters but aside from Prime they were similar in name only. Many didn't look much like the originals and personality wise they were much different. I was really sad when Starscream spoke and sounded nothing like his old self. I mean some looked similar and some sounded similar but only Prime had both going for him.

The acting was surprisingly good, that LaBeouf kid was fucking great. Turturro added a much needed comedic aspect to the movie but he's always awesome so no surprise there. The rest of the cast was decent enough but no one else really stood out.

Now on to the story...WTF??? Absolutely nothing like the original series. Cube (not energon)? Frozen? Seriously where are they getting this shit? The original story made a hell of a lot more sense. This new back story sucked a whole lot of ass.

When the original cartoon movie came out people gave it shit because they basically killed off the original Autobots in the first few minutes and introduced a shit load of new ones. Sure it was a bummer but it was a continuation of the original story. It had so much more in terms of emotion then the new film. And that's my biggest problem with the new movie. The robots seem like...robots, not living creatures. The personality of the Autobots and Decepticons are barely present at all, which was a huge factor in the popularity of the cartoon. Optimus Prime used to seem like the George Washington of Transformers, now he's just another "good guy."

In the new movie, right before Prime and Megatron battle, Prime says "one shall stand, and one shall fall." Which is one of the famous quotes from the cartoon movie (nice to see Bay tip his hat to the cartoon). In my opinion if you put the two movies against each other the old one stands. Sure the new movie is visually stunning and a pretty good movie overall but it's just not really about the Transformers I grew up watching, and that's a fucking bummer.

Oh and one more thing, there is an abundance of the cheesy cliche lines in the new movie. So bring a barf bag with you.

Great review of the first movie:


MP3:
Transformers (86 Movie Theme)