Movies -- Transformers

I know a lot of us dreaded the coming of the Michael Bay version of Transformers. We clung to our memories of the 1980s animated series, no matter how well it may or may not hold up today (and in truth, a lot of it probably does).

There is one scene that will make you cringe at its silliness. Still, those existed from time to time in the animated series too. Other than that, this movie actually manages to mature the setting, including the implications of these giant robots' existence in this world that tended to be absent from the animations, and it actually has a reason its human characters are involved (if a bit of a stretch). Some of the Decepticon names are wrong too, sure (for example, Devastator is a tank instead of an amalgam of the six Constructicons), but it's they still do well with it. The robots characterization comes straight from the familiar blurbs on the toys, when it exists at all (Jazz is a hip-hop speaker, Ironhide is a bit abraisive and Prime is noble; on the other hand, Bumblebee and Rachet really don't get much chance to show personality).

In fact, Bumblebee not showing personality is rather sad, given that he's in most of the movie. He spends most of it needing to communicate in radio spots, television snippets, and songs, reminding me of the Junkions from the original movie. I don't really remember much of his original personality, so I can't really elaborate there.

The effects are top notch. You'll really believe a semi can turn into a thirty-foot robot.

It's worth a matinee viewing. Besides, it blows stuff up real good.