There was a time, not too far back, when the world was a much simpler place to be in. It was a time when cricket was not the present day monstrosity; when people did not need to watch movies to feel the passion for hockey. It was a time when summer holidays meant cricket and kite flying and vacations to grandma’s house. When TV meant 2 channels with mind-numbing programming and when “cool” for kids was not the latest XBoX paraphernalia but simpler stuff like Monopoly( or the far more “rustic” Business), GI Joes, He Man and Johnny Sokko and his Giant Robot.
“Transformers” is a tribute to just this golden age of my childhood. It does not pretend to be the tale of good vs. evil with morals at every step, rather what it presents itself as is a steel-fest, wherein giant shiny gleaming robots battle each other, with minimum words and maximum attitude. The protagonist is a simple teenage kid who for once is not a genius hacker. Neither is he a child prodigy who can see dead people or the kid suffering from the numerous childhood traumas that most kids on TV seem to suffer from. Instead, he is a simple kid, with simple issues, that seem to disappear when he acquires the best toys that any guy could have hoped for. Then there are good looking blondes aplenty in the movie ( which is a never a bad move for any film in my opinion), who also happen to provide tons of comic relief when they try and mouth words like “Fourier transforms”, ” DNA Computing” and “Quantum Mechanics” , that too in the same sentence! Michael Bay has a reputation to live up to, of making trashy pulp multi-million grossers like Armageddon and Bad Boys and he does what is expected of him beautifully. However, the USP of the movie has to be the giant robots who are the true saviours of the movie in more ways than one. The special effects, when the seemingly ordinary cars and trucks transform into walking, running and in some cases even roller blading beasts of metal, are awe-inspiring to say the least. And come on, how can you NOT like a story which has characters like Megatron and Optimus Prime from the far far world of Cybertron!! After all, this is the series that made these words synonymous with all things mechanical. Ideal movie to be enjoyed over pop corn with a gang of friends, lots of corny jokes and nostalgia trips. Ideal movie to be avoided if you are expecting anything remotely cerebral.
