There have been way too many times in the past several years that movie companies have spent more money than I will see in a lifetime to create a movie that they know I will go to see because it's a part of my childhood, only to watch them apply a Hollywood twist that attacks my fondest childhood memories just as soundly as if they had added a prison rape scene to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & the Island of Misfit Toys. Alas, poor Rudolph. I knew him well.
I am happy to say that, surprisingly, Transformers has not continued the molestation of the favorite shows of my childhood. In fact, Transformers has done a pretty decent job of bringing Transformers to life in a live-action movie as well as thrusting them firmly into the present. The only part that bothered me (and, admittedly made me walk a little funny) was that Bumblebee was not a Volkswagen Beetle. I would have been fine with an original Beetle or a New Beetle, but I still can't begin to fathom the insult of using a Camaro... And the "tip of the hat" to the Beetle - having a yellow Beetle in the used car dealership right next to "Bumblebee" - crosses that thin line in between tribute and insult when the Camaro bangs into the Beetle to prevent Sam Witwicky from considering it.
Transformers: Two-Disc Special Edition has a lot of goodies for Transformers fans. There's the movie, of course, but there are hours of special features that really show some interesting behind-the-scenes stories and some of the process that went on to bring the Transformers to the screen in a live-action feature presentation.
As for the movie, itself, Transformers was a pretty decent live-action envisioning of everyone's favorite childhood toys, at least when you consider how Hollywood-types tend to mess these sort of things up. If you can get beyond the fact that Bumblebee is a Camaro, the rest of the "artistic license" that was taken with the movie should be a piece of cake.
The plot of Transformers pits the Autobots against the Decepticons in an epic battle on Earth, of course, but the storyline concentrates greatly on character development and the character interaction of Sam Witwicky, the unlikely hero who's less than popular, Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox), a hot and popular girl at Sam's school, the military and Defense Secretary John Keller (Jon Voight). The movie makes the story interesting by following the stories of the people that get caught up in the Transformers' war, rather than simply focusing on the Transformers, themselves.
In Transformers, Megatron was trapped in ice beneath the Earth's surface at the North Pole and was discovered during a research expedition. He was kept frozen, but was studied over the years to try to gain technological advancements. Starscream and the Decepticons have tracked Megatron down to Earth and are attempting to locate and recover him and find the Allspark, a device that can cause mechanical devices to mutate into living beings, creating new Transformers. The Autobots, on the other hand, are attempting get to the Allspark before the Decepticons, in order to keep them from gaining the power over life as they know it.
The story is interesting, the comedic parts work (especially those involving Shia LaBeouf) and the action is very believable. This is largely due to the fact that even though the Autobots and Decepticons are computer generated effects in the movie, a large percentage of the special effects were, in fact, done using real 'splosions. Many a car, truck, bus, and building were blown up, rammed into and tossed around like toys during the production of Transformers. These practical special effects laid the foundation for highly realistic, high-impact visuals. The CG elements which were added in post-processing helped to paint the whole story a bit better, but the effects had enough "reality" in them so that the added effects enhanced the original film, rather than replacing it completely. The end result is very believable graphic effects that helped to make a story as alien as Transformers believable.
I would highly recommend Transformers to anyone who, like me, grew up with the Transformers or, for that matter, anyone who likes action-packed science fiction flicks. If you can ignore the fact that Bumblebee is not a Volkswagen Beetle, then Transformers is a highly enjoyable movie and the Two-Disc Special Edition's features provide interesting insight into the love, dedication and inspiration that went into creating a live-action version of Transformers.
