Tranformers

Last night I went to see Transformers. Totally a guilty pleasure-type whim, as action films are usually not my preference. However, despite outward impressions, I'm a big sucker for the technology/fantasy films.

This definitely was one of the most fun movies I have ever watched. Not what I would call a moving film, but the animation, sound effects and cinematography were very good. All of these combined created a very "large" feeling to the movie, from the robots themselves to the scenes in which they were found.

The computer animation I'd say made the main characters about as real as you can make gigantic robots look. One particular scene comes to mind where they were walking alongside a white building in the sunset. They managed to match the light reflecting off the robots to the light on the building, with the robots moving among the levels of the building in such a a way that made it appear as though they were really there. The sound effects, too, really added to this film. A mix of theater-shaking booms from the footsteps of these giant creatures and electronic tones for virus-implantation and the various weapons used by the bots. The cinematography was also creative and quite beautiful - upside-down shots, unexpected close-ups and sweeping landscape scenes all contributed to the "huge" feeling of the movie.

The battle scenes were by far the most well-done of the film. Huge wow-factor. The first attack scene hooked my attention that left me looking for more. Creative weapons technology, and a sense of chaos that you would expect to experience if you were really there. This sense was carried into the following battle scenes - you never really got the luxury of a full picture of the robots as they were fighting it out, and quick movements momentarily confused the eye.

You don't expect too much story-wise from these types of movies, but for a technology/action film, the storyline was believable - a super-man/kryptonite similarity. The robots were given a touch of humanity, and a nice sprinkling of humor throughout the film was entertaining.

Very good movie choice overall. Not because you want to be moved, but because you just want to have a damn good time at the movies.