I suspect we'll chat about this movie at some point in the show...it's not specifically a comic-related thing, but since when has that stopped us from tangentalizing? Besides, I'm a huge animation fan, and I'd love to talk more about that on the 'cast.)
So..."Transformers." Big movie about giant robots from space kicking one another's butts. Pretty much foolproof, you'd think. But, of course, a fool is directing it, so they cancel one another out. I am not really a Michael Bay fan. I don't get all rabid about it...except when talking about the cinematic crime that is "Pearl Harbor." But I really liked "The Rock" as a goofy fun action film. (I'm partial to Sean Connery, and Nicholas Cage is hit or miss, but a big hit in that particular film.)
I certainly won't go into any detail about the "plot", in the improbable scenario that you haven't seen it yet...and also because to criticize the script of any Michael Bay movie is like shooting fish in a barrel. Too easy. My biggest complaint was that it was hard to follow the action. There were certainly some very cool robot fighting moments that appealed to the 12 year old boy in me, but it was really hard to know what was going on, and who was fighting who. I wanted more action in the "300" vein, where things slow down at the moment of impact allowing you to take in the information and really appreciate the whole thing.
My theory is that because the robots are SO complex, and there's so much going on with their millions of gears and little moving gizmos, that your eye doesn't have time to really process what's happening on screen. Michael Bay does his "must edit every 3 seconds or people will start to see what a hack I am" thing, but you're distracted by all the plates, gears, tubes, plugs, and doohickeys on the robot to even see what's going on. Too many close-ups...i wanted more full body robot-on-robot action...slamming into buildings and picking up cars and the like. So, it was not bad, but I wanted more. You can sit in the theater, turn off your brain, eat your popcorn and just wait for the cool robots to appear. Shia Lebeouf is a star in the making, and he carries this film nicely. The two girls are improbably hot, even though I wonder if your average Pentagon computer hacker is a fabulous Australian babe with stilletto heels and a nose ring.
I'd love to hear from true "Transformers" geeks about this film. I'm sure that the Extralife radio crew will go into astonishing detail about the film, and I will really be interested in how they like it. I was just outside of the age grouping that was influenced by "Transformers." The general rule of geek life is that what you see/hear/read from the ages of about 9 to 15 is YOUR time. The comic books, the animation, the novels, the movies...when you were 9 to 15, they ROCKED. Everything before that time was for old fogies, and everything after it is for kids who don't understand the classics. (The exception to this rule is any Warner Brothers cartoon and Monty Python, which are timeless and should be appreciated by all...pass them onto your children, my brothers and sisters.)
So, following that theory, "Transformers" means nothing to me, personally. I'm 41, and the people who are geeking about about Optimus Prime's lips and the flames on his arms are all about 30-37. Obviously, this movie sits in a very special place for them, and I'd be interested to see how they feel about Michael Bay's treatment of their hallowed and special sacred texts. Write in, you young whippersnappers and tell us old men what for!
I wasn't a huge fan, I was more into Action Force (G.I. Joe) figures, but I must admit there was a nostalgic buzz surrounding the film's release, even though I knew Bay was directing.
It was never going to be Citizen Kane. But it was always going to be robots kic...