More than meets the eye.

Finally the long awaited day, Autobots and Decepticons are pitted against each other and battle it out for supremacy. Planet Earth and the fate of mankind lie in the balance.

Having waited since the mid-eighties for this movie to be made and having refused to watch it for the last week or so from download, there was no way I could allow myself to view this anywhere else but a cinema, thus the moment has arrived. Transformers are here.

At times it was so fast and furious that I wanted to watch it on an even bigger screen. Perhaps IMAX is the only other possible solution. Other than a few obvious upgrades and improvements; Bumble-Bee is no longer the classic Beetle but a bolt-fast Camaro firebird, everything was almost how I imagined it should be. Camero sales will probably go through the roof now. I’m sure this film will do more for car sales than Bond Movies generally do.

Unfortunately Optimus Prime’s entrance could’ve been much better seeing as he looked as if he just came out of the ‘Pimp my Ride’ garage, with metallic blue and red blending with flames up the side. But once transformed, Prime looks how he always did, the red and blue standing out among the metal. It’s the little things.

The effects and battle scenes were sublime and the timing for the release seems perfect. It didn’t feel like a quick rehash of old characters like Superman did, but felt like all the changes made were for the better of the Transformers world.

Some risqué content; hot girls, cheeky lines and the embarrassing moment of a mother asking her son if he’s masturbating. An awkward but laugh out loud moment. Good performances all round and I was impressed with the soldiers who weren’t too typically clichéd and ran their course well. John Voigt and John Turturro were excellent, as was Shia LaBeouf. Interesting that Spielberg was executive producer, considering he was involved with almost everything good that came out of that decade.

Since the eighties, Transformers has almost existed as a myth, a legend, a murmur from tales of old. But they’re back and better than ever. There are few films that must be seen on the big screen and this is certainly one of them. But why are you reading this review, it’s Transformers, if you want to see it then get your arse to the cinema, if not, then stand back.

by Ian Cook