'Transformers' provoke unexpected variety of rapture
Bumblebee Transformer
(Credit: Hasbro)The new Transformers movie has inspired a surprising degree of lyricism and detailed cinematic analysis for what is, in most respects, a kids' movie about giant robots. Blogospheric commentators used the language of formal cinematic criticism or just let fly with off-the-chain gushing normally seen in 12-year-old boys. In particular, scroll down for the entry from a self-styled "film theologian" who offers his exegesis on parallels between the movie and the scriptural Book of Kings.
Everyone seems to agree that the CGI sets a new record in coolness, the action sequences are numerous and fast-moving, and the new incarnations of the '80s toys trend are, if not completely faithful to the original, a valiant and skillful reinterpretation.
Optimus Prime, the Autobots' leader (i.e. head good guy), apparently stood in for many a boy-child's father figure back in the day--a mighty, noble and nurturing leader with a gigantic, resonant baritone, reflecting tender guidance and rousing the troops to success in battle. In an hour or more of surveying the blogosphere, we found unanimous support for the decision to cast Peter Cullen, who voiced Prime in the early television series.
Check out some of CNET's other Transformers coverage: a photo gallery of related GM vehicles and Hasbro toys, and remarks on exactly how rockin' the toys are.
Ladies and gentlemen, the bloggers:
"Visually, it practically melts your eyeballs. The computer graphics were astonishing, with nearly photo-realistic Autobots and Decepticons that seamlessly integrated with the actors and backgrounds. ... Industrial Light and Magic, who handled the Transformer graphics and whose processing and data storage capabilities were reportedly taken to their limits by the task, certainly earned their paycheck.
Later on in the film, the giant robot-on-robot battles are awe-inspiring- or rather, they would have been, if the camera had been pulled back about 20 feet and kept still for all of 2 seconds. It's almost a shame, as all that hard work was spent on rendering these amazing robots and the director almost seemed to be going out of his way to make them impossible to see in action."
--Long Island Exchange
"When it comes to the eye-absorbing detail, the digital camerawork was too fast. ...With so much detail for the eye to absorb, the camera should slow down a bit. Things happen so fast that the eye can't perceive it, so the brain can't absorb it. This causes the effect of, "Damn, that looked cool, but what the (expletive deleted) just happened?" Two Transformers fighting just becomes a blur..."
--WaldoLand
"I remembered the story in 2 Kings 6, where a servant to the prophet Elisha wakes up to find their city surrounded by a powerful army. "Don't be afraid," the prophet answers. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." In this case, God opens the eyes of the servant who saw "the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha." This look at the real world undoubtedly changed his life and perspective, the realization that the real conflict, unveiled, was far more wondrous and mysterious than he suspected.
To be frank, a hog-nosed Semi truck with painted flames is FAR less wondrous than a heavenly army, even if it DOES transform into a giant robot with a voice like Abraham Lincoln meets John Wayne. Still, I think the idea of these "robots in disguise" intrigues us because it's a little flicker of our metanarrative, in disguise."
--Cinemagogue (Pastor James Harleman)
Totally agree with this statement. I TOTALLY enjoyed the movie but sometimes I thought the camera was way way to close. I think the reason for this was to impress the size of the bots to the viewer but I don't think it was needed. Other than that the movie totally rawked
Transformers movie would require the f-word and various sexual
references? I mean, come on?. The ?80s movie (where Spike, Ultra
Magnus, and Galvatron all curse) was bad enough. No matter how
cool the movie is, the sex and cursing is a major blight on what
could otherwise have been one of the most amazing movies ever.
1) not faithful at all to the original series (flames on Prime, "allspark" & cube, Megatron looks like a space cockroach)
2) camera work is awful, sweeping helicopter shots to extreme closeups during fight.
3) script is horrible, tries too hard to be funny.
4) story sounds like they made it up 5 minutes before it was due, "allspark" stupidest term ever!
5) aforementioned story, has way too many extraneous scenes, like the interrogation room, or most of the first hour before any Transformers (outside of a Decepticon and Bumblebee) show up.
6) acting is bad
7) storytelling is disjointed, but that's Michael Bay's fault. He's horrid and shouldn't be allowed behind a camera.
The CGI effects were great and when you could tell what was going on, the action scenes were great too, but that doesn't make up for the rest of it. Every effects movie has good effects, better than the last (though having rewatched Jurassic Park recently, there was only one or two moments that a Dinosaur was obviously fake, and that's 14 years old) so at this point, I expect them to have a decent story. Especially when it's a subject like this with a built in fanbase.
20 years ago, so that you could feel like you are watching
exactly what you read as a child...no growth, no exposition, just
carbon copy everything, or more appropriately, lets xerox it,
bumble should have been that old VW beetle. uhuh... and the
robot fights are not believable, i mean c'mon every one knows
what giant transforming machines should look like right? we
see them every day, duh, and as far as megatron, yeah, lets have
him transform in to what he was in the original incarnation of
the series, a gun, an effing .45 magnum, or have we forgotten
columbine?
After all the crap that these moral majority, tv censoring wackos,
are trying to protect us from , you really expect speilberg, et al
to allow a main character in a movie as some of you have said,
about toys, let alone hasbro's biggest toy hit in years be a gun?
I have four words...You people are idiots.
- This thing is wicked!
- by ubnyan July 6, 2007 9:52 AM PDT
- I saw the movie twice already and it was actually pretty decent, however I must admit a couple of scenes weren't suitable for a younger audience due to the language used but it also had very clean and decent humor. Megatron does look "ugly" but that was probably because he suposely crash-landed many years ago :P (poor guy) Overall it was an awesome action movie, and if the rumors are true, the second one should be even better :)... Till all are one!
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