Transformers: The Movie (2007): My Impressions

First off: WOW! I am definitely impressed at the great lengths of detail in the movie. I'll do my best here not to give anything away so those who may not have seen it yet will not have the experience ruined for them. I'm happy that we did not get to see the entire movie in the previews (one of my pet peeves because you sometimes pay and are excited when you go in just to have it be a gigantic let down since you already saw the coolest parts of the movie and the rest was blah anyhow). Michael Bay's promise a while ago about not having seen anything yet held true to form, he may have let out 5% of the movie in the trailers. A complaint I have was with the theater placards for this movie, the word "Transformers" was so small and placed between Optimus and Megatron's heads that it was virtually unreadable, good thing for those people that take your tickets and give you directions.
If you are one of the group that believe the story should be entirely from the point-of-view of alien robots you'll be sorely disappointed. This centers mostly on the human characters and their development within the crisis of “their war, our world”. It is how the human characters rise to the challenges around them and their interactions with the robots that give the movie heart. I was dreading before seeing the movie that Mr. Bay would strip out the part of G1 that made us fall in love with these characters in the first place. I now have to say that I haven't laughed so much at the Transformers since perhaps Beast Wars, and that is a testament toward the job the script writers and Mr. Bay did to bring this vision to life. (Problem with laughing so much is it makes me want to go to the little boys' room during the worst possible times. Attempting to hold for a lull in this movie and you won't have many chances, believe me. I know...a little too much information there Pete.)
Bringing these characters to life was perhaps magical in itself, but there were times I found it difficult to follow the action. Especially during close quarters fight scenes where robots are smashing into each other. The fluidity of movement was fiercely cool and the robots were effected by those battles. I'm hoping when the DVD comes out we'll get to see any scenes cut and perhaps a documentary on the making of the movie. It seemed to me that there should have been a counter scene where we saw the Decepticons arrive on Earth.
Character development for the TFs was very limited. I wish there'd been more of them interacting with each other in a more verbal way. There's only hearsay from Optimus as to why the Decepticons are bad, of course actions do speak louder than words. There was too little interaction between the Decepticons to get a sense of the things people will have to learn by purchasing the toys and reading the bios there.
It was great to hear Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime again! There's not enough to be said for this. I swear eBay must have paid big time for their plugs in the movie. (If not, they should have.) I think they must have asked the script writers to see if their name could be mentioned fifty times ( or so it seemed). Anyone connected with the Internet would already be familiar with eBay, so did it need that much pushing? (Never mind...I know, big blockbuster movies cost a lot to make and any sponsorships help.) I laughed when Burger King was in one of the shots. (Sad thing is we lost our Burger King about eight years ago and the closest one to me is an hour drive away. Wish Hasbro had stuck with Mc Donalds, there are at least 6 of those still in my county.)
Overall I'm hopeful for the sequel. I won't say too much here until most fans have had a chance to see the movie. I'd love to discuss the ending and its ramifications toward the future sequel(s). So if you haven't seen it go check it out. I'd give it a solid 4.5 faction symbols out of 5. (Deducting a bit because a few key characters should have stayed functional.) Also, why didn't they change the name of Demolisher to Brawl? His name's only shown about three seconds, come on!