Let’s get one thing out the way first – when you have a movie based on a cartoon and series of kids figurines you should really know what to expect. With this in mind, I actually really enjoyed it. After hearing some reviews from Julie and Gareth at work, I ended up seeing it with one of my flatmates yesterday.

The movie synopsis is simple and does not deviate too far from the cartoon – alien robots from another planet drop onto Earth in seek of an ultimate power source. One group, the Deceptacons, wants to use it to transform the Earth into a semblance of their former planet, while the other group, the Autobots, want to find this power source before the other group does to prevent Earth’s destruction. The robots and, like most movies in this genre, the fate of the world depends on a single item possessed by your typical less-than-popular nervous kid who also just so happens to form a bond with one of the Autobot transformers.

Remembering this genre of movie, you have to suspend your beliefs in many parts of the movie such as the attitudes of the Sector 7 guys, the sharpshooting of the Secretary of Defense, the focus of the Australian systems analyst (not to mention her “hacker friend”), and the amazingly perfect shot from the soldier on the sliding motorcycle scene at the end.

What it loses points on, the movie makes up with lots of action scenes, plenty of humour and enough reminiscent moments without being excessively cheesy. Some highlights for me included the wiping away the dust to reveal the Autobot icon, Bumblebee taking on the form of the new racer, and Optimus Prime using his sword to take out one of the Deceptacons.

I won’t admit the movie may not appeal to many people though I at least found it very entertaining and a surprisingly long movie at that.

TheKua.com Rating: 7 out of 10