"Transformers" Movie

Oh, ho ho - you all think I am such a movie snob with my preferring foreign films, subtitles and independent films over most of the blockbusters and trashy-lame-waste-of-money American movies that make us look like idiots that we mass-produce and send out across the world...oh do NOT get me started!

In any case - tonight I attended a showing of the Transformers Movie with my sister Sara, her German husband Sven, my brother Gabe and my 2 nephews: Isaac and Isaiah. Oh yeah - a real summer BLOCKBUSTER - even dishing out the $10.50 to go see it - ouch!! Well, let me explain. Sara and I were avid fans of the Transformers cartoon back in the 1980s. We were probably about 12/13 or so and loved it - I realize mostly boys were probably into it - but Sara and I were not just sweet goody-goodies, but sweet goody-goody sci-fi animation nerds!! Now listen - we were not allowed to watch much TV in the Martinez household growing up. But we were allowed to watch our beloved Autobots fight the evil Decepticons every afternoon!

Tonight was a treat to go with Sara to the motion picture - since we were part of the mid-30s fan base in the audience that actually hooted and hollered at recognition of the robots when introduced. Holla - Nerd fest!!! Loved it!! It was also very cool to go with big brother Gabe since he took us 20 years ago to the first motion picture - which was animated (and better than this one to original fans).

The computer graphics were awesome - certainly to be expected and didn't let us down. Definite complaints was an okay story-line and the fact that they only portrayed about 10 robots in the movie - there are many more than that. Also, it took a LONG time in the storyline before they brought out all the robots - more Transformers and LESS humans and their cheesy jokes!!

The ending leads to an obvious sequel - which undoubtedly will feature more robots (and those who didn't make the cut this time). It was a lot of fun to share the excitement with my young nephews who are being taught the ways of the Force, and Fantasy through us and Uncle Gabe introducing them to Star Wars, the Hobbit books and now this. Good times!!

Movie gets a B- for fabulous images, robot voice-overs from the original characters, a leading teen who actually wasn't annoying and made us like him, not enough about the robots, and a mediocre storyline that seriously lacked the heart and real character-depth of the robots, themselves. As for me: it's back to my foreign films....