Film: Transformers

Like any other male child of the eighties, I like to think myself as a bit of an authority on Transformers. If anything, the money I willingly handed over to Hasbro could have funded a small country for a year so it wasn't surprising how excited and fearful I was over this twenty first century rendition of the franchise.

Now that the preamble is out of the way, I'm happy to say that Transformers wasn't actually that bad. In fact it was very very good. As a deep rooted cynic, I had prepared myself to be disappointed and although I have particular issues with the film I came away thinking that the makers did a good job out of something that would have been so easy to mess up.

The biggest fear, of course, was with the amount of creative "license" film makers take with objects of our beloved memories. And although this particular film version does that, it's not as bad as the things we've witnessed previously (I mean, Beast Wars? Optimus Primal? Huh?). For example, the Autobots were a bit too "hip" for my liking (in one scene, OP criticises one of the other robots and ends by asking "What's with that?"). In return we see a few nods to the eighties; but I'll leave that to you to find out for yourself.

There is of course a very weak script, a missing, inconsistent plot and hammy acting, but all that is forgiven once you see the robots in the proverbial "flesh". The imagery was awesome - there's nothing like watching two house size robots have a fist fight, and every transformation was met with audible wows by the audience.

So overall a pretty excellent film but a slightly flawed and diluted Transformers experience all the same. I enjoyed it though, and I like to think it wasn't because I played with the toys as a child. It's for that reason I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this film.

EDIT: VG Cats have created a brilliant strip summing up my thoughts, although I suspect I wasn't as disappointed as they were with the film. Oh and watch out, there are spoilers galore within.