Transformers

This afternoon I took in Transformers and I have to say, I'm not as horrified as I thought I'd be.

Let me explain why: I don't like it when people mess with my childhood memories. I loved the Transformers cartoon when it was on the air. I thought it was just a great show. The first DVD I bought after my wife got me a DVD player was the animated movie. When I heard they were doing a live action version, I was excited at first but grew more and more tentative. I mean, George Lucas didn't do right by his own creation. How would Michael Bay do with someone else's?

I'm pleased to report, I think he did pretty well. The movie was mostly eye-candy (big explosions, huge robots duking it out, and a pretty girl who falls in love with a geek. Yes, they understand the audience all too well), but there were still some sweet moments and Bay worked in some decent comedy as well.

I have to say, I was a bit upset at the trailers when I didn't hear the classic transforming noise (yes, I'm a geeky fanboy, so sue me). But I think I caught an updated version of it a few times.

And how awesome is it that they got Peter Cullen to do the voice of Optimus Prime? That alone helped a great deal bridge the old cartoons with this modern update. Once again, outing myself as a geeky fanboy, when I realized that Sam and Mikhaila were about to meet Prime, I got chills.

My only real gripe with this movie was that they could have easily split the plot into two separate movies and it might have made things a little less chaotic at the end of the movie. I don't want to say too much because I hate spoilers personally and don't want to be responsible for spreading any, but suffice it to say you could have had two separate quest movies out of this one, the first for a person (or large robot, as it were), the second for a certain McGuffin that shall remain nameless.

It's pretty obvious by the ending that they're leaving the door open for a sequel. If it turns out anything like this movie, they'll have a pretty decent franchise on their hands.