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<blockquote data-quote="The Serge" data-source="post: 3627318" data-attributes="member: 4049">While I certainly wouldn't call this the &quot;greatest movie ever,&quot; Transformers is certainly a fun action flick.I liked the ample amount of internal humor, I liked the explanation for the manner in which the Autobots spoke with humans, I liked the fight scenes and the CGI.&nbsp; I thought the story was fine as well, something that can make or break an action flick...&nbsp; It was balanced well between the out-and-out action and the exposition.That said, this film had a number of challenges.&nbsp; First, there were waaaaay too many secondary characters running around.&nbsp; We have the chick that discovers the message and then pulls in her cyber-geek friend, to the army guys, to the Sector 7 guys, to Sam and the chick, to the Autobots and Decepticons.&nbsp; Waaaay too many characters, most of whom weren't necessary.&nbsp; The portions I found most intriguing and worked the best were those interactions with Sam and his family/friends and the military discoveries (including most of the scenes with Voight's character).&nbsp; Virtually everything else could have been collapsed into one of those two areas in order to give more screen time to the Cybertonians themselves.&nbsp; Which leads to my second gripe.While the Transformers were cool, we saw too little of them in action, particularly the Decepticons.&nbsp; Essentially, the Decepticons show up to get slaughtered and that's that.&nbsp; The only Decepticons we get a feel for are Frenzy and Megatron...&nbsp; Aside from the one comment Megatron makes to Starscream, we've no idea about their inter-relationships.&nbsp; Now, I'm not saying we needed a lot, but it wouldn't have taken much to give some of the Decepticons a little more oomph.Now, Prime was cool.&nbsp; My major issue with him was how much difficulty he had taking on Megatron...&nbsp; That ticked me off.&nbsp; I've always preferred the approach being Optimus having greater natural fighting skill compared to Megatron having slightly greater fire-power and willingness to &quot;cheat.&quot;&nbsp; In this, Megatron beats the hell out of Prime...&nbsp; Still, the voices were universally cool.&nbsp; Hugo Weaving sounded a great deal like Frank Welker (Megatron in the original cartoon) and Cullen was perfection.&nbsp; Finally, the movie was too long.&nbsp; Like so many movies over the past decade, it was over two hours.&nbsp; Now, while this can work in the hands of an expert director dealing with a well-written script, most often the result is lulls in the narrative.&nbsp; We had a lot of that here.&nbsp; Sometimes, the humor was dragged on needlessly and sometimes the saccharine was a bit much (at least there's not really a kiss until the end).&nbsp; The film could have been trimmed by 15 to 30 minutes.Despite these issues, I did enjoy this movie and will see it again this weekend.&nbsp; There were a lot of cute jokes for those who were fans of the toys, comics, or cartoon.&nbsp; From Bumblebee being discovered besides a Volkswagon bug to quite a few of Optimus Prime's statements (&quot;One shall stand, one shall fall&quot;) to Megatron's disgust with Starscream (&quot;Once again you fail me&quot;) there's quite a bit here for fanboys.&nbsp; Casual fans will love the action sequences and the humor.B</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Serge, post: 3627318, member: 4049"] While I certainly wouldn't call this the "greatest movie ever," [i]Transformers[/i] is certainly a fun action flick. I liked the ample amount of internal humor, I liked the explanation for the manner in which the Autobots spoke with humans, I liked the fight scenes and the CGI. I thought the story was fine as well, something that can make or break an action flick... It was balanced well between the out-and-out action and the exposition. That said, this film had a number of challenges. First, there were waaaaay too many secondary characters running around. We have the chick that discovers the message and then pulls in her cyber-geek friend, to the army guys, to the Sector 7 guys, to Sam and the chick, to the Autobots and Decepticons. Waaaay too many characters, most of whom weren't necessary. The portions I found most intriguing and worked the best were those interactions with Sam and his family/friends and the military discoveries (including most of the scenes with Voight's character). Virtually everything else could have been collapsed into one of those two areas in order to give more screen time to the Cybertonians themselves. Which leads to my second gripe. While the Transformers were cool, we saw too little of them in action, particularly the Decepticons. Essentially, the Decepticons show up to get slaughtered and that's that. The only Decepticons we get a feel for are Frenzy and Megatron... Aside from the one comment Megatron makes to Starscream, we've no idea about their inter-relationships. Now, I'm not saying we needed a lot, but it wouldn't have taken much to give some of the Decepticons a little more oomph. Now, Prime was cool. My major issue with him was how much difficulty he had taking on Megatron... That ticked me off. I've always preferred the approach being Optimus having greater natural fighting skill compared to Megatron having slightly greater fire-power and willingness to "cheat." In this, Megatron beats the hell out of Prime... Still, the voices were universally cool. Hugo Weaving sounded a great deal like Frank Welker (Megatron in the original cartoon) and Cullen was perfection. Finally, the movie was too long. Like so many movies over the past decade, it was over two hours. Now, while this can work in the hands of an expert director dealing with a well-written script, most often the result is lulls in the narrative. We had a lot of that here. Sometimes, the humor was dragged on needlessly and sometimes the saccharine was a bit much (at least there's not really a kiss until the end). The film could have been trimmed by 15 to 30 minutes. Despite these issues, I did enjoy this movie and will see it again this weekend. There were a lot of cute jokes for those who were fans of the toys, comics, or cartoon. From Bumblebee being discovered besides a Volkswagon bug to quite a few of Optimus Prime's statements ("One shall stand, one shall fall") to Megatron's disgust with Starscream ("Once again you fail me") there's quite a bit here for fanboys. Casual fans will love the action sequences and the humor. B [/QUOTE]

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