FRAME by FRAME: Transformers, Less Than Meets The Eye

Transformers, Less Than Meets The Eye

Monday, July 09, 2007

I made a post, prior to its release, defending TRANSFORMERS and Michael Bay, however, I may have been off base in my defense. I went and saw TRANSFORMERS this weekend and my hopes were high. Again, not because I expected a highly dramatic and engaging story, but just giant robots fighting. I was excited and I was optmistic. I ended up excited but still a more than a little disappointed.

My review in a nutshell:
Robots fighting and special effects...COOL! 5 stars!
The rest of the story is equal to a two hour Disney channel sitcom with a $150 mil. budget. EVEN STEVENS, starring Shia LaBeouf, with robots.

I defended Bay as the guy who would be great at the action aspects of such a movie and as a storyteller he is not Spielberg but he wasn't a Uwe Boll either. Well in TRANSFORMERS he's not even trying. I expected plot holes but some of them were so big that Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots could have driven through them with room to spare. I can overlook A LOT of stuff in summer blockbusters, I know what I'm getting into when the lights go down, but this movie make me burst out loud with laughter at the absurdity of most of the scenes and I was prepared to suspend disbelief at an almost inhuman level before the movie even started.

On a purely story level I enjoyed ARMAGEDDON more and I hated ARMAGEDDON as a movie. Again much laughter at the absurdity of it. I would have been much happier with the film if it was just 2 hours of robots fighting because that's the only part of the movie I thought was actually very good and honestly the only part worth plunking your money down to see. As my buddy David pointed out if it were just robots fighting then there is no story. Might have made it better in my opinion. Because the attempt to create one had to have been developed by the Hasbro "suits," and not actual screenwriters. Seriously, if you had taken out the Autobots, this movie would have fit nicely between HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL and a marathon of THAT'S SO RAVEN on "Disney!"

Now all that said, I give the movie a thumbs up for the robots and CGI alone. My only criticism of that is bring the Decepticons in earlier and get the robot fighting on. Not only do you have to suspend disbelief just throw it out the window before you go in the theater. You'll have more fun.

All kidding aside. The CGI in this movie was SO good, TRANSFORMERS, will most likely make it in to my DVD collection. I still have a copy of ROAD HOUSE. Just proves I can be as shallow as the next!

posted by Twenty One Productions @ 10:49 PM

1 Comments:

At 12:01 AM , Anonymous said...

Russell,

I have to agree with your review of Transformers. However after the last spiderman movie, I've come to accept the fact that with an increase in production dollars for a blockbuster movie comes a decrease in story potential. I expected no less when I went in to see this movie. I suppose because I never thought that the story would be that great, I wasn't too disappointed. What I wanted to see was giant robots causing massive destruction. Well Michael Bay delivered on that front for me. I could have done without the cheesy dialogue, etc., but the special effects made up for it. Also, sitting in the theater and seeing the Autobots in live action, kind of made me feel like a kid again when I first saw the animated series. Looking around in the theater, and seeing it filled primarily with thirty year old men, was assurance that I wasn't the only one. I don't think it was great storytelling, but it will definitely be on my DVD shelf.

		FRAME by FRAME News and commentary from Russell Johnson and Twenty One Productions.
		Transformers, Less Than Meets The Eye Monday, July 09, 2007 I made a post, prior to its release, defending TRANSFORMERS and Michael Bay, however, I may have been off base in my defense. I went and saw TRANSFORMERS this weekend and my hopes were high. Again, not because I expected a highly dramatic and engaging story, but just giant robots fighting. I was excited and I was optmistic. I ended up excited but still a more than a little disappointed. My review in a nutshell: Robots fighting and special effects...COOL! 5 stars! The rest of the story is equal to a two hour Disney channel sitcom with a $150 mil. budget. EVEN STEVENS, starring Shia LaBeouf, with robots. I defended Bay as the guy who would be great at the action aspects of such a movie and as a storyteller he is not Spielberg but he wasn't a Uwe Boll either. Well in TRANSFORMERS he's not even trying. I expected plot holes but some of them were so big that Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots could have driven through them with room to spare. I can overlook A LOT of stuff in summer blockbusters, I know what I'm getting into when the lights go down, but this movie make me burst out loud with laughter at the absurdity of most of the scenes and I was prepared to suspend disbelief at an almost inhuman level before the movie even started. On a purely story level I enjoyed ARMAGEDDON more and I hated ARMAGEDDON as a movie. Again much laughter at the absurdity of it. I would have been much happier with the film if it was just 2 hours of robots fighting because that's the only part of the movie I thought was actually very good and honestly the only part worth plunking your money down to see. As my buddy David pointed out if it were just robots fighting then there is no story. Might have made it better in my opinion. Because the attempt to create one had to have been developed by the Hasbro "suits," and not actual screenwriters. Seriously, if you had taken out the Autobots, this movie would have fit nicely between HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL and a marathon of THAT'S SO RAVEN on "Disney!" Now all that said, I give the movie a thumbs up for the robots and CGI alone. My only criticism of that is bring the Decepticons in earlier and get the robot fighting on. Not only do you have to suspend disbelief just throw it out the window before you go in the theater. You'll have more fun. All kidding aside. The CGI in this movie was SO good, TRANSFORMERS, will most likely make it in to my DVD collection. I still have a copy of ROAD HOUSE. Just proves I can be as shallow as the next! posted by Twenty One Productions @ 10:49 PM 1 Comments: At 12:01 AM , Anonymous said... Russell, I have to agree with your review of Transformers. However after the last spiderman movie, I've come to accept the fact that with an increase in production dollars for a blockbuster movie comes a decrease in story potential. I expected no less when I went in to see this movie. I suppose because I never thought that the story would be that great, I wasn't too disappointed. What I wanted to see was giant robots causing massive destruction. Well Michael Bay delivered on that front for me. I could have done without the cheesy dialogue, etc., but the special effects made up for it. Also, sitting in the theater and seeing the Autobots in live action, kind of made me feel like a kid again when I first saw the animated series. Looking around in the theater, and seeing it filled primarily with thirty year old men, was assurance that I wasn't the only one. I don't think it was great storytelling, but it will definitely be on my DVD shelf. Post a Comment Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] << Home	About Me Name: Twenty One Productions Location: United States View my complete profile Previous Posts The Last Few Weeks in Review Don't Worry...Be Happy Creature Comforts WKQQ Viewings Climb Chad's Video Blog Pt. 2 Chad's Video Blog Dennis Darklighter CRISTO Photos from Celebration IV © 2007 TWENTY ONE PRODUCTIONS, All Rights Reserved STAR WARS and all associated characters, logos and other elements are the property of LucasFilm Ltd. This production is a "Fan Film", and as such no profit can be made from the presentation or distribution of this film. This film is not for sale. STAR WARS is a Registered Trademark of LucasFilm Ltd.

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