Most people that hang around at HISHE have some knowledge that Transformers is a film I have waited for my whole life. I've talked about it many times with fans and friends, probably more than any topic film related other than Star Wars (which is kind of sad when you look at it from far away :) but up close, it's been something very important to me.
Optimus Prime was always my favorite hero figure on TV as a kid. Tina calls me an uber fan, but i think she doesn't know what she's saying in this case. I'm a HUGE fan, but not an UBER fan. I didn't have every toy there ever was. Mostly because I was just a kid in elementary school and my parents wouldn't buy me every single toy I wanted growing up. But I watched the show every chance I got, because I loved Optimus Prime.
Transformers has already had a couple animated movies put out. Transformers The Movie being the only one of importance in my book. I was in the 3rd grade when I discovered that movie even existed, I had no warning about what I was going to see, no knowledge about what i was about to witness. I just heard "transformers" and "movie" and said "PLAY IT NOW!".....
Any Generation 1 fan can probably understand when I say I became a man at 3rd grade after watching that movie. You Non-Gen1 fans can just sit there and be left out of the loop :)
OK, so now that i've taken up a page already with back story, how bout we talk about the BAY version? Tina pointed out a lot of things that i agree with so i'll try not to copy everything she's already said and keep it simple.
If I had to say one thing about the movie, I think I'd say "Megatron got ripped off!" I'm an Optimus fan so I'm happy with his screen time, but if I was a Megatron fan I think i'd be extremely frustrated with their choice in story and Megatron time. Actually I feel all of the decepticons got jipped. Starscream mostly. I think they don't even let you see his face. The decepticon that gets the most screen time, is this guy:
 <<<< I hate this character
Frenzy starts out tough and deadly but the more he's on screen the less dangerous he/it becomes, and he's around alot, so... you get the idea. The rest of the Decepticons are so powerful and dangerous, I don't know why they even need the little guy, other than to just annoy hardcore fans wishing that Soundwave was in the movie.
As for the human characters, you kind of just have to ignore everything and say to yourself, "it's ok, the transformers will be back on screen soon" because really the only human character that doesn't seem michael bay'ish is Shia LaBeouf
I like this kid, even if his name isn't Spike. The rest of the cast is just popcorn filler. Where else do American soldiers never wear helmets when going into battle and the girls with hot bodies fix cars and crack codes with their super-decepticon-descrambling-audio-software?
So, after you get past all the usual M.Bay camera tricks (Including a slowmo shot of someone running with a smoke flare!) you get to witness some amazing transformer scenes. Amazing is not a fair word. I was so taken by surprise by how awesome the transformers were. I have to say "I.L.M, you are the ones that make this movie worth watching again and again" Everything else is utter crap. But the transformers are absolutely wonderful. I found myself feeling like a kid again as soon as Prime covered up his mouth with the old school shield. The battles are extremely well excecuted and better than anything i could have asked for.
That's about all i can say without just going into my usual "Micheal Bay Stinks" bit. But I can truthfully say this is my favorite Bay film. Probably will be the only one. Over all it's a great movie. Is it everything I had been waiting for since elementary school? No. There are many things I was hoping for, but didn't get to see. I still wish Megatron had been voiced by Frank Welker, but as i said before, Megatron got ripped off IMO. I wish Prime didn't have flames...or lips, but his orginal voice gets me so fired up i don't care. I wish the decepticons were more developed characters rather than half of the human characters, but the effects and battle scenes are so great that you easily forget that their only purpose is to blow things up.
Most importantly though, they didn't cheapen or crap on or completely change up what you/I love about the transformers, so for that reason alone, I love this movie.
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