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Transformers (2007)
9/10
Awesome, easily best film of 2007 so far!
28 June 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I'll start by saying when I was a kid (I'm 22 now) my life revolved around the turtles, I do remember transformers but i don't remember watching it regularly, or that much, but I do remember of it. I thought TMNT was a solid movie, but nothing special, transformers however, was just insane, the best film i have seen this year so far. This year has to be the biggest winter blockbuster season i can recall (Winter here in Australia) and so far most of the movies (other than spider-man 3) have been a huge letdown. I went into this film without any hope or expectations and just watched it to be entertained, and i was for the whole 143 minutes, there was rarely a dull moment in Transformers.

The special effects were amazing, I would be surprised if this movie doesn't win every special effects award out there. The best part of the movie, it kicks of right away and we see an attack within the first 10 minutes at a US army base in the middle of the desert and from that moment it doesn't stop, in fact there is probably one action scene too many. The spectacular final battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons is amazing. The whole thing is in pure daylight (I'm sick of movies shooting action scenes in the dark to cover costs or lack of decent CGI) so you can see every little detail of all the transformers attacking each other, tackling each other through skyscrapers and of course, all the explosions and gunfire when they shoot at each other and the humans (be amazed by Starscream flying through the buildings being chased down by the F-22's, quite possibly the best action sequence I have ever seen) This movie isn't all just awesome CGI and explosions, the cast is brilliant. The chemistry between Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and the Autobots is amazing. They communicate with the Autobots so convincingly that even from the opening second I just forgot about the cool CGI and believed this was a real conversation (much in the same way with Luke Skywalker and Yoda). The chemistry between Sam (Shia) and Mikala (Megan) is also well done and not overdone. It doesn't take priority through the movie at all and starts off as a nervous guy trying to get the girl by purchasing a new car, and as you see from the trailer, they definitely grow from there.

The film was really separated into two halves. The first half, like most movies, was an introduction, but thats not to say any of the transformers don't come to the screen and impress until the second half, they are definitely here and there is definitely a lot of action, but the focus is more on the human characters and the US defense trying to figure out what is going on. At times this seemed to drag a bit (especially with Jon Voight as Secretary of Defense) but there is so much comical humor here (some of it quite adult, such as jokes about masturbating) to make it flow through nicely without becoming tedious, the majority of it between Sam and Bumblebee and definitely Sam's parents.

The second half, without spoiling to much, is where all the Decepticons and Autobots arrive, with a nice build up to the big final battle in the streets of LA. The only downside to this second half is that we really don't get to learn much about the Decepticons (Megatron is only really in it for the last half hour) as there is much more time to develop the Autobots and by the end you will find that you care about the fate of every Autobot, even as much as the main, human characters.

Transformers is definitely the successful blockbuster we have been waiting for this year. The CGI is amazing, the cast and acting are perfect and the action scenes are spectacular. The film will entertain anyone from all ages, not just guys born in the 80's. I'm not going to end this with a lame transformers quote, simply go and see this movie.
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7/10
A fun, fast paced, positive movie
25 March 2007
I just saw this film on 25th of March with the 3D glasses in an advanced screening here in Australia. This film is extremely colorful and will send a powerful message to kids (keep moving forward). Im 21 years old and i wouldn't say there is much in this for adults, there is the odd joke here and there but it isn't the sort of "shrek", "toy story" movie where it is for everyone.

The story follows a young boy (Lewis) who is left at an orphanage practically from birth. He grows up with a passion to invent things. Day in and out he fails and never gets adopted but never gives up. As the movie goes on we find his main dream is to invent a time machine to find out who is mother was. At a science fair when he finally gets an invention to work (that shows what you are thinking on a TV in a particular period of time) a young boy, Wilbur, shows up and insists he is from the future and to watch out for "Bowler Hat Guy". Anyway this Bowler Hat Guy destroys Lewis' invention before he has a chance to show anyone and from there Wilbur gets Lewis to travel to the future with him, closely followed by the "Bowler Hat Guy" and the movie then takes a turning point.

CGI (Animation) - This is hard to judge here as i viewed the entire movie in 3D glasses, which i haven't done before, however the animation was very similar to that of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and was decent but not really anything new or groundbreaking. Definitely not up to Pixar's high standards.

A lot of the jokes in this movie felt as if they were trying to be funny rather then funny but the Dinosaur (i'm sure most of you have seen him in the trailer) and the "Bowler Hat Guy" really steal the show. The "Bowler Hat Guy" was quite dimwitted and really clueless yet still remained the ultimate bad guy. He reminded me of doctor octopus from Spiderman in that he is controlled by another object (in this case a flying hat) The title suggests that you will get to know this entire 'whacky' family from the future but you really only get to know Wilbur and never any of the other characters at all as we don't meet them until half way in the film (we get a 2 minute quick introduction which is fun but never goes anywhere else).

Overall this was a good movie for kids but i don't think it will appeal to anyone over 20-25 like other CGI movies. It was quite fast paced, excellent animation and an admirable main character but as mentioned above it doesn't really get anywhere, the plot does buildup rather well but never really takes off. Still a pretty good, colorful movie for kids with a decent story and a positive message behind it. Other than that there isn't much new here but still a lot of fun to be had in its own right.
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TMNT (2007)
5/10
Best Turtles Yet!
22 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Possible Spoilers*** This was released here tonight in Melbourne and about 15 of us went to go see it, all aged between 20 and 23. I was a bit nervous hoping that it wouldn't be a huge let down and that it was going to be one of those sort of movies we enjoyed as kids but couldn't get into now but i was wrong.

This movie brought back every memory of what i used to love about the turtles when i was younger. It is set at least a few years on from the turtles 3 movie, all the turtles have gone their individual ways, Leo is searching for himself being a better leader in the jungle's of Africa, Donatello is working on an i.t helpdesk, Michaelangelo is doing parties for kids and Raphael just wishes it was like the old days and wants to fight crime for himself. As the movie went on the turtles had the same personalities as they did 15 years ago.

The animation was awesome, the human characters looked very similar to that of Pixar's, The Incredibles and at times the turtles looked like the rubber suits of old. The best scene in the movie, a fight between Raph and Leo on a rooftop in the rain, simple amazing and a huge point in the story.

The attitude was exactly the same of the original turtles. From Raphael's struggle to cope with who he is, to Leonardo being leader to Donatello's brains and of course all of Michaelangelo's funny sense of humour, everything was spot on.

This movie was dark and it was exactly what i was hoping for. I really didn't want this to be a kiddy movie and it wasn't. But kids can still go and enjoy this. Some of the monsters were kinda scary but some will make the kids laugh.

As for the old turtles series/comics, the footclan exists and is led by a mysterious character (listen to her very last 2 sentences near the end), Shredder has supposedly been defeated but they did refer to him from time to time, and no bebop and rocksteady. Casey Jones and April are in it,Casey being a similar character to what i remember, with his "wooden bats" and hockey masks but April has had a massive change but it was for the best.

The only downfall with this movie was that it really did only focus on Raph and Leo and barely any of the other turtles, Donatello probably only had about 5 lines in the entire movie. The plot also got a bit messy in the last half hour of the movie, but hey its turtles i cant expect anything other then out of the square.

I think anyone who enjoyed turtles all those years ago will love this movie no matter what, it felt new yet it still brought back similar memories of the past. Definitely the best animated film I've seen in at least 4 years.
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