Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Could Have Been Worse, January 19, 2008
When I saw this movie first listed, I thought that some one had misspelled "Transformers" for the title. But, it turned-out to be a separate film entirely. Being curious, I decided to invest the 86 minutes of my night off to watch it.
The movie begins by stating that humans had discovered life on a planet 200 million light years away and had sent a message of friendship. The aliens responded by sending an invasion force to Earth which killed-off 90% of humans in a short span of time. The remaining humans fled underground to live and the aliens left the humans alone, as long as humans didn't interfere with them. After hundreds of years, the humans finally embark on an effort to reconquer Earth from the aliens. After the initial attempt fails, a maverick human is enlisted for the second attempt. This human, Warren Mitchell, had been put in cryogenic freeze for an attempted mutiny five years previously, along with some of his followers. Mitchell then reassembles his old team of followers to embark on the new mission. Essentially, this new mission is make-or-break for the human race. If they win, the aliens will be defeated and Earth will be ours again.
Now, as far as the storyline goes, there is a lot borrowed from movies and TV series, especially Battlestar Galactica and Terminator, in the "humans versus robots" genre. Even Galactica 1980 seems to have inspired a bit in this film, in the form of flying motorcycles. Star Wars fans will also recognize a familiar name in the character named General Veers. I guess the writers decided to take a little inspiration here and a little inspiration there. The human survivors fighting a battle against the android army, which is led by a central tower is a vivid reminder of the Terminators being led by Skynet. Likewise, the entire scenery is dark with a ruined landscape, like the Terminator flashbacks showed in Terminator and Terminator Two. The difference is that the androids don't look like humans and the androids can assume two forms: the mobile biped form and a combat form where they actually transform themselves into a lethal weapon that launches missles. So, the androids can be "more than meets the eye", but not much more.
Special Effects in this movie were very basic and often look like they were created on somebody's home computer and, at times, reminded me of the graphics in some computer games. The weapons fire looked like something out of an old sci-fi movie from the 1960s. Humans even have fighter planes, although it is never explained how they were created and how the aliens even allowed the humans to develop them, especially the test flights that would have needed to be done for the aircraft. You'd think that an intelligent alien race would have shot those things down when they saw them or destroyed any location where they could have been launched from. So, the aliens can travel 200 million light years in 5 years time and conquer the Earth, but lack basic military tactics, aside from "find human, kill human" and launching themselves in wave attacks in mass. Okay, maybe I expect too much in this angle.
The quality of acting in this film varies from pretty good to pretty wooden. The characters of Mitchell and Itchy are the best acted, while the others are unconvincing. You don't feel the characters emotions projecting from the screen. All the characters wear black or other dark colors, which blends-in with the overall darkness of the entire planet. There are a few non-Caucasian characters in the film, but most of them are white. But, all the Caucasians are pale and lacking anything like a tan and this is good, since the Sun has been blotted-out for centuries by the aliens and it would be hard to explain a tan in such a place. There are no elderly people or children seen throughout the entire film, with the sole exception of the Chairman. Otherwise, everyone is in their twenties or thirties. All the female characters are hotties, to be sure, while the men range from rugged-looking to average. My favorite character is Itchy, who is Mitchell's buddy and former co-mutineer. I liked him because he seemed to be the most real of all the people in the film.
Action scenes, if they can be called that, look like something out of a drama class. You don't feel like a real fight is going-on at any time and there is no sense of anger or desperation projected by the people involved.
When I saw this movie, I did watch it all the way through. I will admit that much. If you are a fan of the old Flash Gordon serials, this movie comes pretty close in quality to the SFX and acting from those movies.
I was surprised at a little plot twist near the end, which I did not expect and it was only vaguely hinted at earlier in the movie. That twist plays a crucial role for the conclusion of the film and is the only reason I gave Transmorphers more than one star. I never laughed while watching Transmorphers and I was never on the edge of my seat. There are no sad scenes to make you cry. Nothing to make you care about any of the characters or even the whole human race, for that matter.
At best, it's a B-grade movie which does seem to borrow heavily from other, successful, films and the effects and acting are below what most of us would pay for to see in a movie, unless you like the low-grade stuff. At $3.99 to rent, I'd advise renting something else that won't make you grit your teeth in frustration at all the things wrong with this film and I sure wouldn't pay $14.99 to actually own it.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Transmorphers.... More than Meets the Eye, August 23, 2007
I picked this one up as many others no doubt have, after seeing the big budget 2007 "Transformers" movie. When you see a low budget film with reaching expectations and goals, you know that the film-makers will fall short. The film progressed as I had anticipated, with some cheesy special effects and scenery chewing acting when the problems started. The dialogue was "off", making the movie seem dubbed even though it is in English and the background music was too loud to hear the depressed whisperings of the cast. I have found out that this was a problem with the DVD process, but it is a major issue. After the film ended I checked out the special features on the DVD, which include a "Making of" and a look at the effects-- not bad for a low budget movie. If you watch these, you will see the love that goes into making movies and altered what I thought of the production. I would have given this 2 stars, but the technical difficulties are too over-whelming.
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
More Garbage From Asylum., June 27, 2007
Step one: Pick up the new release with a cover and title very close to a new movie currently showing in theaters.
Step two: Read the back of the box and see the "Asylum" brand.
Step three: Laugh as you quickly put the box back on the shelf.
Step four: Wash hands and be grateful you never wasted any money or time on this trash.
My only question to the people who "make" these things and Guestar57 the "reviewer" who seems to love all Asylum productions, is it that hard to make a decent movie? Blair Witch was cheap, they knew that going in and played to their strengths, Asylum doesn't even seem to try.
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