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Hasbro- Transformers- Power of the Primes: Blurr
Rating of worst to best of the Transformers movies continued; see review 208-2, 213-2, 217-2, 223-2, 226-2, 230-2, 234-2, 239-2, 243-2, 246-2, 249-2 & 252-2 for previous instalments:
Transformers Movie Rating #3: Transformers The Movie
Regardless of how you feel about Transformers the Movie was a bit of a touchstone for the franchise as it’s released changed everything for the brand; for better or worse. I actually remember the subsequent release and backlash of the initial designs and was not in the “Michael Bay rapped my Childhood” camp, but was somewhat cautiously optimistic. Thankfully for me (and the franchise in general) it stuck the landing for the most part and its success had a massive effect the landscape for the Transformers franchise for years in the future..
The Good:
I feel very strongly that opening scene with Blackout at the military base was and still remains to be one of the best cinematic ACTION moments in recent history and I’m not even kidding; its pure Transformers goodness. If you forget, go back and check it out; it will give you goosebumps on how cool that revel and eventual destruction was. I will also give some credit to the human cast including the lead, Shia Labouf who I felt did a good job, Megan Fox (I forgot how young she was), played the female lead well enough and the other decent supporting cast including Josh Duhamel, John Turturro and rest of the computer crew. Watching back though, I found some appreciation for the late Bernie Mac's character: Bobby Bolivia (like the country except for the runs) that left and odd, but lasting memory on me when he sold Sam BumbleBee. Lastly I’ll say that this initial movie was able to get the balance of action and comedy right. Yes there were some lowbrow parts, but also some legitimately funny scenes that worked to lighten the story. The standout scene for me was when the military guys were being attacked by Scopinok in the village and Josh Duhamel’s character was trying to call in backup from the pentagon. The phrase “no I don’t want a premium package” while bullets are whizzing past and explosions are happening in the foreground still makes me chuckle. Unfortunately they took some humor to an undesirable level in future instalments, but for this movie, they seemed to have gotten it right. .
Pros:Blurr is almost a perfect representation of both everything that is good and bad with present day transformers. To begin with, he is a great representation of the G1 character having a very familiar vehicle mode, robot sculpt and color scheme. Additionally the articulation is a G1 collectors dream allowing for a full range of motion and a number of great poses and I’ll even give Hasbro extra credit for sticking the landing on the Headmaster gimmick, on a figure that was originally part of the Targetmaster club.
Cons: Perhaps this is due to the old adage “familiarity breeds contempt”, but for all the good there is about this figure, there’s just nothing special about it. I suppose it doesn’t help that it has a really cheap feel to it; a very typical issue with these new modern figures, but maybe I’m wanting something that Hasbro is unwilling to provide: something new and exciting to the Transformers mythos.
