Transformers: A good movie in disguise.
I feel compelled to write about Transformers the movie …
First there needs to be a bit of back story. I am a child of the 80s. One of the last in the Gen. X group. Transformers were a pivotal part of my childhood. A cartoon I sat, engrossed, watching as G vs. E played out. Any children’s literature professor will tell you that a basic component to creating a story that a child can sink their sponge-brained teeth into would be one where there are heroes and villains.
When I first heard they were making a modern movie version of Transformers, I was thrilled. Knowing how advanced we are as far as CGI, I knew that it had enormous potential. Of course, this was crushed when I found that one Michael Bay would be directing.
To be honest, it isn’t that Michael Bay is terrible (though some may argue that he is). It is that he has a tendency to amp up the cheese factor to unbearably rank levels (Pearl Harbor, The Island). There is nothing cheesy in my mind about Transformers. A race of robots raging a war among themselves. A war that consumed their own planet and has now spilled onto Earth with humans caught somewhere in the middle. There was a small hope, that because Michael Bay, if anything, understands over-the-top action, that with the right script and special effects, that he just might be able to pull it off.
After twisting my mother’s arm, we decided to catch the late show of Transformers in Longview last night. (There was the usual comments regarding the large number of rednecks in the theater, families with annoying children and the general depressing state of Kelso/Longview and everything seemingly associate with this. We watched the ‘First Look’ segment, made comments on our desire to see or not to see the films previewed.
Then…the film began.
Unbelievable! The film was most excellent. Everything that I loved about this cartoon in my childhood came to life on screen (I wasn’t so bent over the changes in origin, not when something is done well). Nonstop action, liberally peppered with humor that almost everyone could appreciate (my mother an I found ourselves with tears rolling down our cheeks many times). The special effects were off the charts amazing and the casting was well done (save for John Turturro, he was a bit much but I will give them that). You could tell, those of us that are the children of the 80s, we sat on the edges of our seats, laughed at original references and for 144 minutes forgot that we were in our late twenties and early to mid thirties, and became children again.
I am sure that there are those of you that will scoff at this, will have not liked the movie, but the child in me loved it and that was worth the $8.50.
There is something about robots, the nobility of their characters and the simplicity of the black and white world they paint. I am referring (by my own definition so please don’t argue semantics) to robots in the following way: Transformers, Sonny (I, Robot), The Terminator (movie), Iron Giant (movie). Most of these characters still maintain their mechanical origins, making them ‘robotic’ and to me, better able to demonstrate the idea of G vs. E. They aren’t complicated by mimicking human behavior but rather representing characteristics of human nature. I am not referring to robots in the following way: Lt. Commander Data (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Ash (Alien), Bishop (Aliens), Blade Runner (movie). To me, these are androids, too human or too consumed with attempts at being human.
Go see the movie. Go knowing that it is a Michael Bay film and do not hold this against it. Go get back a piece of your childhood.
Whatever you do, don’t sit next to a man that walks in the first few minutes of the film, smelling like a dumpster, looking like Ronon Dex (Stargate: Atlantis) who hasn’t bathed for a few months and is wearing a real fir capelette with raccoon tails dangling from it (yeah, so not making this up).