Transformers

Nostalgia: a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition.

When people look back on their childhood, they tend to forget the bad and elevate the mediocre to greatness. We do this in part because a child knows no better…their father is the strongest, their mother the prettiest. If we were to look back objectively, through the jaded eyes of adulthood, perhaps certain people and things would lose a bit of their luster. At the age of 28, I look back on the things I enjoyed in my childhood of the 1980’s. Michael Jackson was the MAN. Everyone had to have a Cabbage Patch. And the cartoons seemed to have been the best that they ever could have been. We didn’t have Pixar and Dreamworks movies like Shrek and Cars. We had REAL cartoons. I’m talking about Thundercats, Jem and the Holograms, G.I. Joe, and of course Transformers. Now most little girls didn’t get into Transformers, and I’m not gonna say that it was my favorite, but I remember it and I remember liking it. Who didn’t love Optimus Prime, the red and blue truck, the good guy?! Autobots vs. Decepticons, Good vs. Evil. It’s these memories that 80’s babies will recall with warm fondness when they flood theaters to behold the TREAT that is Transformers. I’m not saying that the under 20 crowd can’t appreciate it too, but there’s nothing like seeing the live action version of an old animated favorite. The audience around me was positively giddy when Optimus Prime made his first appearance.

I have to applaud director Michael Bay (The Island) for his vision and for remaining true to the cartoon. This movie was nothing short of amazing, I’m almost at a loss for words. The only flaw (which I didn’t even care about) was that little parts of the story and dialogue were a bit campy and silly. Who cares????? The overall plot was in keeping with the cartoon, and the acting and pacing were just fine. There weren’t too many explosions or needless bits of action. The whole movie was an adrenaline rush. The story centers around the transformers' search for a magical cube which will transform the Earth’s machines into, well…transformers. The Autobots are trying to get to the cube before the Decepticons and need the help of a teen named Sam (Shia Lebouf of Disturbia) to discover its location. I won’t tell you how or why his character is important, JUST GO SEE THE MOVIE!! No self-respecting adult between the ages of 26 and 32 can miss it.