Transformers
The original Dr. Watson once tried to insult to my great-grandfather.
“You really are an automaton – a calculating machine!”
Dr. Watson, being a Victorian and not a child of the eighties, was obviously not a Transformers fan. Otherwise, his comment, with “automaton” being so close to “Autobot,” may very well have been a compliment. Different times, these, where we often see technology as both cold, heartless foe . . . and loyal friend. Having grown up with toys that turn from trucks and cars into battle robots, and the requisite cartoon series to promote them, a lot of today’s young adults have now themselves transformed into the perfect market for a live-action, Michael-Bay-directed, summer blockbuster about their cherished childhood toys. And where there’s a market, Hollywood shall provide.
It would be easy to dismiss Transformers as puerile and silly, were it not summer, and were we not in the market for a huge summer mega-film that is only in its first installment, even if it is based on toys. Give the project to the man who gave us such giant films of Summer-atra as The Rock, Armageddon, and Bad Boys I & II. Mix in a cast of actors who are just fun to watch, like Shia LaBeof, John Turturo, Anthony Edwards, and the like, with some massive state-of-the-art computer effects. What is the result?
A very watchable, huge, huge movie. Perfect for the big screen of the movie theater. And as these automatons are also masters of disguise beyond compare, it would actually be safe to call this the closest thing to a Sherlock Holmes film so far this summer.
What Great-grandfather Sherlock would have said:
“To quote Lord Bellinger: ‘There is more in this than meets the eye.’”
(Yes, the Transformers slogan is Canonical!)
Past Investigations
An Introduction to
Mr. Sherlock Holmes IV
Fantastic Four:
Rise of the Silver Surfer