Yes, we went to see Transformers last night, and yes, it rocked. (Read: I was actually disappointed when it ended.)

An appreciative tip of the horns to Michael Bay, who decided not to take the film in the campy, pseudo-cartoonish direction it could have gone but instead chose to commit to a pure action film. While Transformers could have been adecent cartoon-style live action film, it more than stands up to Bay’s stronger vision.Die Hard actually has serious competition for the title “Summer’s Best Action Film” – and although I haven’t seen Die Hard yet, I’m betting Transformers wins hands down.

Mark this one up to “Met or exceeded expectations” despite a few odd moments where the storyline temporarily left the “big cool robots” theme for the sake of initial exposition. If you’re one of those people who expect movies to center on believable elements and human interaction … skip Transformers – I’m sure there’s a theater re-running “Kramer vs. Kramer” out there somewhere.

But if you like explosions, action, humor and big, cool robots … this one’s a go. Without giving away too much:

• ILM raised the bar yet again with its CG animation. Some of the autobot/decepticon fights were a little hard to follow, but I’m not sure ILM could have done muchmore without slowing down the action to a point where the action would have lost critical momentum.
• Shia LeBeouf (who I’d never heard of before, though The Random Spouse had) wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected him to be after hearing about his previous roles.
• Quite a few scenes created an absolute uproar in the theater – exceedingly funny, and although not inappropriate for pre-teen audiences, it’sprobably not the type of humor you want to have to explain to the 4-8 year-old crowd.
• One of the “Sector 7″ characters is a little over the top. I’d have left him out or cast an actor who took the role a different direction, but fortunately he’s not in enough scenes (or a big enough presence in the scenes he’s in) to ruin what’s otherwise an excellent romp. Ignore him.
• Yes, Optimus Prime is just as coolin the filmas he was in the cartoon – and if Hasbro has the sense to market a line of real-metal Transformers figurines that look like the ones in the film, they’re likely to make a mint off this one. (And not just from kids.)

This is one of a very few films I’d suggest seeing in the theater – the special effectswill lose something on the small screen, and the audience adds a lot to the experience (particularly if you can manage to see the film with a theater full of thirty-somethings who remember the original cartoon). Above all else, I’m pleased to see Michael Bay remembered thatthe audience for this film spans three generations, and he didn’t shortchange any of us. More than meets the eye, indeed.

Trackposted to Pirate’s Cove, Pursuing Holiness, and The Pet Haven Blog, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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