Sunday, July 8, 2007

Movie Review: "Transformers"

What It's About: A high school kid finds his first car is more than meets the eye.

What I Was Expecting: Let's see. It's a Michael Bay film (strike one) based on a toy (strike two) being released on the 4th of July and not starring Will Smith (strike three).

What I Got: The best of the big budget actioners so far this year. Far better than "Spiderman 3" in every regard. The movie is still basically a dumb, loud, special effects extravaganza, but it far surpasses what it seems to be trying to do, much like Michael Bay's previous pleasant surprise, "The Island." The film is far from perfect, for sure. But it is a lot of fun. Surely destined to be a cable classic. The kind you pass while flipping channels on a Saturday afternoon and stop, because you know it's worth it.

Grade: B+

Oscar Potential: The techie trifecta, Sound, Sound Editing and Visual Effects are locks. It will never happen, but Shia LeBouef's performance as the high schooler destined to save the world is one of the best performances in an action film I've ever seen and an open-minded academy should give it consideration. Watch his face when he's running with the cube. It's not determination. It's pure fear. It certainly won't happen with this film, but Mr. LeBouef will win an Oscar someday.

Random Thoughts While Watching the Film:

1.
Aren't the Transformers supposed to be able to join together into one huge robot?
2. This movie is great, but please, God, don't let anyone try to capitalize by doing a GoBots movie.
3. Why is John Turturro in this movie?
4. If the Autobots can use the internet to find the kid, why couldn't the Decepticons?
5. Does Michael Bay know his prior movies suck? He takes a dig at "Armageddon" that's pretty funny.

The Trailers:
The Simpsons Movie: I can't wait. Every trailer is funnier than the previous.
The Invasion: Of the Body Snatchers? That is what this is, right? With Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. It must be better than it looks to get them in here. At least it seems like the movie is going for creepy and not just another remake to do better effects.
Superbad: I've seen trailers that make this look funny. This trailer doesn't I'm not even quite sure what the movie's supposed to about.
Hot Rod: Well, it has Isla Fisher. That's a plus for any movie. And a comedy about a guy trying to be Evel Kneivel has potential. Just didn't see it in the trailer other than when the stunts painfully fail.
"Cloverfield": I use quotes here because that's what the film is rumored to be called. They don't actually tell you anything other than produced by J.J. Abrams and coming 1-18-08. Basically, it looks like "Godzilla" meets "The Blair Witch Project." Someone had sent me the trailer via email. Looked better with less sound. On the big screen and better sound (e.g. you could hear the monster), it kind of lost something. We'll see.

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