I know this movie has been released on DVD last year. I was sent a copy of the Blu-ray courtesy of Paramount and it deserves to be reviewed. As with their release of Iron Man, this Blu-ray is packed full of extras. The high quality presentation is almost enough to bring a tear to your eye.
Main Feature
I think it's safe to say that pretty much everyone has seen the movie by now. I will admit the weeks before it's theatrical release, I had very high doubts about it. I watched to occasional episode in the 80s but I was more into G.I. Joe than the Transformers. I did watch enough to know they blew away the Go-Bots. Remember them? Probably not. With good reason. I wasn't sure how a live action movie would be. Then I saw the flames on Optimus Prime and all I could do was shake my head.
I did go see it opening weekend. My doubts were unnecessary. I was impressed. Michael Bay scored.
I just watched it again on my HD-TV. It's a gorgeous movie. Filmmakers really have to be conscious of the fact that today's movies will be seen in high definition. I just can't justify watching a movie like this in any other way. It's not the best movie out there. There are some cheesey and predictible parts. It is a fun action-filled adventure of a movie. That's what is important. I won't go into more detail about the film. I give the actual movie a solid 4 out 5. Lots of good actors. The story and characters were well set-up. I wasn't completely crazy about the way it ended but I'm sure the sequel will be just as good, if not better since the 'origins' have been told.
Special Features
Paramount seems to be going all out with the special features they include. There is just so much to watch. They are all in high definition. You get to really see all the aspects of how the movie was made. After watching all of them, I did gain a new respect for Michael Bay and all the actors in the movie. I didn't give much thought about everything they had to do.
There were basically three parts to the special features:
OUR WORLD
- The Story Sparks (8:32) - We hear from Spielberg and Bay on their decision to do this movie. You can see that Bay is not afraid to get dirty. He gets in the action in order to get his scene. I was surprsed at how much real action Bay does. He doesn't want everything to be computer generated. Again, that was something that I didn't think about. The effects in the movie were all seamless. - Human Allies (13:09) - The actors involved are shown. A lot of preparation was involved. It was good to see them simply having a good time making the movie. - I Fight Giant Robots (13:58) - The military training was shown that some of the actors received. We also see some of the real stunts the actors had to do (like Shia actually standing on a building ledge in his final scene with Megatron). - Battleground (13:33) - A feature on the different action locations. It was humorous listening to Shia go on about the scene where the helicopters fly under the bridge and they were showed by the "man piss" that was in the drainage tunnels.
THEIR WAR
- Rise Of The Robots (13:39) - A nice history of the Transformers toys and cartoon. It's shown how they were chosen and designed for the movie. - Autobots Roll Out (19:59) - A feature on all the actual cars used along with the customizing done. Over 200 cars were flipped or blown up for the movie! - Decepticons Strike (14:32) - How the Decepticons were designed. - Inside The Allspark (16:59) - A feature on all the digital effects that went into the movie. -Transformers Tech Inspetor - Not really a feature. A way to get 360 degree views on the Transformers. You're allowed to zoom in on different areas.
MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
- From Script To Sand: The Skorponok Desert Attack (8:52) - Storyboards, models and animatics are shown in creating the attack scene in the desert. - Concepts (2:09) - We get to see early art designs of Cybertron, different Transformers and scenes from the movie. - Trailers - Teaser 1, Theatrical 2 and Theatrical 4.
Totalling up the features running times you can see that you'll have a lot to watch. I didn't watch the commentary in this viewing. There's also a Heads Up Display that gives a picture in picture description the making of certain scenes. There's also the BD-Live online features.
I was surprised and disappointed that there were no deleted scenes or a gag reel. I can understand not having a gag reel but a couple deleted scenes were briefly shown in the making of features. It seems that there would've been more than just two scenes cut out. One had Shia talking to his dad walking out of the police station. The entire scene couldn't be seen because there was talking going on about the making of the movie.
Despite that, it's still a great disc. Paramount is also offering a ten dollar rebate (on this and select other Blu-rays) if you've purchased a DVD version and want to upgrade. If you have a Blu-ray player, it's definitely worth it. As I mentioned, Blu-ray is the only way I want to watch my movies at home. The special features did offer a lot of insight but there wasn't anything that really knocked my socks off. I give the features a 4 out of 5 also.
Transformers is an enjoyable movie that belongs in your Blu-ray (or DVD) library.
