Transformers
Jul. 29th, 2007 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackI thought this was quite cool, though I predict some people won't like it because it's not very deep.
The trailer made it look like it was all serious, which didn't seem promising. However, it *was* exciting, when a decepticon was mowing down an army base. But most of the time, it had a sense of humour about itself. Giant robots fighting, and humour, what's more to like?
Look at the opening voice over. I don't know whether or not it was *supposed* to be tongue in cheek, but it sure as hell came out that way :)
I was also impressed at the personalities squeezed into non-anthropomorphic machines, that's hard and was done well. And while the macguffins were sometimes silly, the plot pretty much held up.
There were, of course, some quibbles:
* The fight scenes are appropriately hectic, but sometimes so much so it's hard to see who's fighting whom.
* In giant robot form, they all look a bit similar. It can be hard to tell who is whom in the aforementioned fight scenes.
* I may have missed some of the opening voice over because I was laughing so hard, but why did the all-spark default to making *evil* technology? I know they can fix it because they want it for their world.
* And if so, there's something else. Near the end, they're trapped on a military base/research station, stuffed with futuristic high tech weaponry. They're undermanned and can't call for reinforcements and trying to protect a macguffin which can turn futuristic high tech weaponry into intelligent self-aware self-directing super-powerful indestructible futuristic high tech weaponry. Do you see where I'm going with this?
* Let us flee to a final showdown? Where? In a compromise of both "not really having any cover" and "lots of innocent bystanders". (Wait, or was that where the air force was? That would make sense.)
Some things that aren't quibbles:
* I'm sure someone is going to object that turning technology into into robots is a stupid idea. Well, then, why did you go to see the film about transformers? Do you just like pain, or what? People who are forced by their employers and girlfriends to see it are exempt from this objection. (OK, to be fair, you might think you can have transformers designed to be transformers, but not able to mutate any arbitrary tech.)
* The cryptography and so on is also daft. It is in every film, this one isn't any worse :(
* AFAIK the plot makes mostly sense. The decepticons are searching for this thing. They know the US military know something. They send in one of their number to access their network in a fast strike. (Maybe they should just hack the groundlines/satelites?) There's a few survivors, they try to prevent them passing on what they know. Another attack works. They realise they can be vulnerable and use their superior computingness to put the military out of commission.
The trailer made it look like it was all serious, which didn't seem promising. However, it *was* exciting, when a decepticon was mowing down an army base. But most of the time, it had a sense of humour about itself. Giant robots fighting, and humour, what's more to like?
Look at the opening voice over. I don't know whether or not it was *supposed* to be tongue in cheek, but it sure as hell came out that way :)
I was also impressed at the personalities squeezed into non-anthropomorphic machines, that's hard and was done well. And while the macguffins were sometimes silly, the plot pretty much held up.
There were, of course, some quibbles:
* The fight scenes are appropriately hectic, but sometimes so much so it's hard to see who's fighting whom.
* In giant robot form, they all look a bit similar. It can be hard to tell who is whom in the aforementioned fight scenes.
* I may have missed some of the opening voice over because I was laughing so hard, but why did the all-spark default to making *evil* technology? I know they can fix it because they want it for their world.
* And if so, there's something else. Near the end, they're trapped on a military base/research station, stuffed with futuristic high tech weaponry. They're undermanned and can't call for reinforcements and trying to protect a macguffin which can turn futuristic high tech weaponry into intelligent self-aware self-directing super-powerful indestructible futuristic high tech weaponry. Do you see where I'm going with this?
* Let us flee to a final showdown? Where? In a compromise of both "not really having any cover" and "lots of innocent bystanders". (Wait, or was that where the air force was? That would make sense.)
Some things that aren't quibbles:
* I'm sure someone is going to object that turning technology into into robots is a stupid idea. Well, then, why did you go to see the film about transformers? Do you just like pain, or what? People who are forced by their employers and girlfriends to see it are exempt from this objection. (OK, to be fair, you might think you can have transformers designed to be transformers, but not able to mutate any arbitrary tech.)
* The cryptography and so on is also daft. It is in every film, this one isn't any worse :(
* AFAIK the plot makes mostly sense. The decepticons are searching for this thing. They know the US military know something. They send in one of their number to access their network in a fast strike. (Maybe they should just hack the groundlines/satelites?) There's a few survivors, they try to prevent them passing on what they know. Another attack works. They realise they can be vulnerable and use their superior computingness to put the military out of commission.