FILM - TRANSFORMERS

With high impact thrills, flawless and immaculate special effects, hot-as-hell cars (and girls), Transformers was a big screen spectacle mirroring the excitement of a theme park thrill ride. We were blown away by the brilliant CGI effects, and stunning rendering of the robotic giants. A masterpiece.

On the flip side, the film was a long one...almost 2.5 hours...and unnecessarily so... By what should've been the apex of the film, excitement in the theater dwindled down a little..on account of the same regurgitated transforming effects and fighting. Nonetheless, one can't help but gawk at the beauty and brilliance of the 3D effects. The plot was a little quirky, interesting...but of course lacking everywhere to be expected..character development, slightly formulaic and lack of general believability. There were also a few moments that skewed uncomfortably on the cheesy side.

The cast was fun to watch...a mishmash of big and small screen favorites from Josh Duhamel (Las Vegas) to Shia LeBouf (Disturbia, Holes), Jon Voight, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro to newcomer hottie Megan Fox. They were all fun to watch, talented, generally great looking and perfectly cast for a big time action robot flick. But let's not pretend the script demanded skills far beyond that of a monkey.

ROUND UP:
Transformers was a visual extravaganza, a not-to-be-missed theater experience. It was action-packed, thrilling in all the right places, and nicely packaged. The effects team deserves an Oscar for their work...the cast, writers, etc...probably not so much.

Still two thumbs up for rocking insane graphics and effects, and delivering a pretty solid block of highly explosive entertainment, all the while keeping a nice touch of nostalgia for those of us who grew up with Mr. Optimus Prime and friends.

-jmd