Transformers


Drizzling rain. Mid-30 degrees. Pick your movie/film, watch, and write a reflective essay as a college assignment. Perfect time to curl up on the couch and enjoy another world.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from "Transformers." I remembered the cartoon original as a little kid. Seemingly ordinary cars, trucks, and helicopters would transform into good and evil robots. Awesome battles would erupt between the opposing forces. Of course, the good Autobots always won. What stuck in my head were the last five words intoned as the show faded out: "More than meets the eye."

This 2007 version is not bad. The robots are visually believe-able in their transformation and humanly logical in their motives to find the Cube, in which lies the fate of their planet. Sam Witwicky is the ordinary high school student looking for love and ends up getting called to be courageous by protecting the Cube from the evil Decepticons. Although, the Autobots have sworn to protect him, it is still a close battle as buildings fall, streets get blown up, and the US military brings out tanks and fighter jets. The action is spectacular, although a little confusing.

2 1/2 hours later, I finally understood why I liked the show so much as a kid.

It is the ending of the movie. Optimus Prime (head of the Autobots) has just demolished Megatron (head of the Decepticons) and all the evil robots are carted off to be buried and frozen in the big blue ocean. Optimus looks into the stars and comments,

"I have witnessed their capacity for courage, and though we are worlds apart, like us, there is more to them than meets the eye."

Sometimes, people are petty when they cut in front of you in traffic.
Sometimes, people are vicious when they talk behind your back.
Sometimes, people are problems when they don't keep their commitments.

Sometimes there is more to people than meets the eye when they send billions of dollars to Haiti.

p.s. The US Bishops put out great honest reviews on movies.
http://usccb.org/movies/
p.s.2. Clipart taken from http://clipart-for-free.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

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