[On the slight chance you haven’t yet seen this movie, there may be spoilers. -TAO]

To be perfectly blunt with you all, I love this movie.  However, I have noticed that the more I watch a movie the more things I find wrong with it.  Combining that with an attempt to overcome any innate bias I may have, may in turn make this review seem overly negative.  Or maybe it won’t.  I’m not sure, let’s see shall we?

First and foremost, I enjoyed the story of this movie.  I’m really not sure what aspect of it I liked, but I felt like that it was a well written movie.  Nearly every element was great; it progressed well and none of the major story elements felt thrown in for the sake of being there.  That’s not to say the story is without flaws.  Sometimes the dialogue was forced (“I think there’s more to you than meets the eye”, “I was wondering if I could ride you home”, etc).  There wasn't enough material on most of the Autobots and Decepticons in the movie.  Besides Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Bumblebee, the viewer doesn't get a grasp on the majority of the robots in the movie.  We know that Jazz is the first lieutenant (and nothing else to really warrant being sad at his death), Ironhide the weapons specialist, and Ratchet the medic, but other than that we don’t really learn anything more about the characters.

For the Decepticons, we get even less.  The majority of the Decepticons only get named or featured when they’re reporting in for the final battle.  That being said, this leads me to my biggest complaint about the movie.  What in the hell happens to Barricade?  Despite how much I talk about how good the story telling is, this one plot hole has tormented me ever since I first saw this movie in theaters.  The last the audience sees of him is driving down the interstate towards the final battle and then he’s gone.  On a related note, I really wish there were more action scenes in this movie.  I can enjoy a movie driven by story alone, but this wasn't necessarily one that needed to be done that way.  As cool as this movie looks, it’s a shame the only robot vs robot fight other than the finale takes place nearly entirely off screen.

Other plot holes that have bothered me are that Sector 7 is allowed to take everyone when just prior to their arrival all of the Autobots were outside the house, (Do you mean, why do the Autobots let them go?), and following the rescue of Sam and Mikaela, that the "best" plan of escape from the helicopters, is for every Autobot to turn into their vehicle mode and drive away while Sam and Mikaela go with Optimus in his robot form?  Especially considering that Bumblebee is dubbed as being Sam’s protector.  Granted he does come back to save the two of them, but I really don’t understand why he would have driven off only to be circling a humanoid Optimus.

In addition to the story, I felt the cast was fantastic.  Every cast role was appropriate and to be honest, I can’t think of anybody else that would do a better job as any of the characters.  While it probably doesn't mean as much to me, I’m sure many long time Transformers fans were more than ecstatic to see Peter Cullen return as Optimus.  Bumblebee as a character I enjoyed, I felt like his dialogue through the radio was really well done.  If I had a real complaint about any of the characters it would be that the audience never really gets a chance to take in how cool the robots in the movie look.  I've watched this movie in the theaters, on DVD, and on Blu Ray and I still can’t describe how the robots look.

The only other real complaint I have about this movie is how much physical punishment the human characters of Sam and Mikaela seem to take.  Is it wrong to assume that being hit by one of the robots would feel like being hit by a car? [Probably much worse! -TAO]  Barricade practically throws Sam onto another car and he cracks the windshield, only to almost immediately run away and tackle Mikaela off of her scooter (which appears to be going at an acceptable traffic speed).  When hiding underneath the bridge and both characters fall, in an effort to help(?) Optimus practically punts the two of them.  Again, the two characters seem to have no ill effects of such activity.  Perhaps I’m just a pansy, but given just those events I don’t think I would be able to do much else.

Overall, I found this movie enjoyable and am eager for the release of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.  With the movie being in theaters only, my upcoming review of it will be based only on what I remember from my initial viewing.  I have high hopes and look forward to bringing you another review. Maybe the mystery of Barricade will finally be solved.

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