Should you take your kid to see Transformers 2? Yay, Nay or What the Hay?

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . July 1, 2009 . 11:02AM

I grew up in the 80′s and I was never a fan of the TV show Transformers. Now you have my disclaimer. I’m not a fangirl and I haven’t been peeing my pants waiting for these movies to come out. I slept through Transformers 1 and was repelled by the thought of a sequel. Yes, I watched the Smurfs and She-Ra. Don’t bother making fun of me. I already make fun of myself. I remain a dork to this day and I’m proud of it. Kind of.

Whew. That paragraph was somewhat negative, but I wanted you to know exactly how non-biased a person I really am when it comes to Transformers and, if anything, I tend to be negatively biased towards them. However, I have a boy-child and am married to a man and that means that they are squealing, pee their pants happy about things like this and Star Trek and Star Wars and all kinds of things that make me roll my eyes, count to ten and then put myself in the bathroom for a 3 minute time out while I concoct ways of getting out of going to the theater.

For boys/men, the idea of a vehicle of any kind that turns into a ROBOT WITH GUNS THAT CAN KILL THINGS is about as cool as it’s going to get. It surpasses all fascination they have ever had or ever will have with us women. Unless we are scantily clad Megan Fox. Well done, director Michael Bay. You have now sealed the deal for them.

When Leon mentioned going to see the movie this weekend, I balked, but he sweetened the pot by saying that maybe Angie, her husband, and their son would like to go and then we could do dinner afterward. I really like Angie and her family quite a bit. We got to know them while her son played on A.J.’s baseball team and she’s a frequent commenter on this blog. Her husband is funny and kind and their son is one of the sweetest children, and fiercest ball players I’ve ever seen. I begrudgingly gave the ok.

I’m not a movie reviewer, so I don’t do a thumbs up or thumbs down. These are my observations about the movie, though. First off, my favorite character is this guy:
I love Bumblebee. Angie’s son does, too. Holla if you hear me!

Ok, now on to the real dizzle. Yes, I know I’m trying to hard. I also know I’m not funny.

For the YAYs:

Transformers 2 had a nice, strong plot. It kept me highly entertained, even though I’m the type of person that is generally happier in a romantic comedy flick. There was some funny adult humor that went right over our kids heads (ages 7 and 8 respectively). The graphics were simply amazing. Flawless. Even I, the skeptic, thought they were incredibly cool and found myself wanting a Bumblebee Transformer of my very own. I have no idea what I’d do with it, but it LOOKED COOL. The movie was easy to follow and understand even if you hadn’t seen the first Transformers movie.

Now for the NAYs:

There was serious adult language in this film. Not a little of it, either. A.J. was completely oblivious to the language only because A.J. cares nothing for plot or dialogue. The whole movie could be “blah blah blah” and as long as robots were shooting each other up, he’d be happy. Angie’s son, on the other hand, is a little more sensitive than A.J. and was paying attention to dialogue. When the adult language came out, he put his hand over his mouth and looked shocked. This is going to be an issues for kids of a certain age. If you don’t want your child to hear these words, and there are some shocking ones, please don’t take them to see the movie. It’s not worth it.

Another serious NAY is the length of the film. The previews alone lasted 30 minutes. By that time, we’d made a dent in the popcorn and I was wondering if I’d be able to make it through the movie without a bathroom break. At 2 hours and 24 minutes, the movie is a long one for kids to see in the first place. I was starting to wonder when it would be over. My last NAY is for the scantily clad Megan Fox. I’m not a huge fan of hers anyway, but did the film really need more eye candy? I mean, this IS a boy film anyway. Where was the girl candy? I’m just sayin’.

My What the Hays:

There was so much going on in the film that it was hard for me to tell which machine was on the good side and which machine was on the bad side. And was I rooting for the good side or the bad side? Towards the end, there is a lengthy action sequence. By lengthy, I’m talking upwards of 30 minutes. This is bad for those of us with small bladders, people with attention deficit disorder or those of us who are introverts that don’t like so much stimulation. If you decide to see the movie, you will figure out, slowly but surely, when you have hit that point. It is then permissible to go to the bathroom or refill the coke or popcorn that you finished during previews. If you decide to take your kid, you may want to take a quick break during this sequence just to give them a second wind to finish the movie. You’ll thank me for it.

Neutral thoughts: The PG-13 rating is dead on. Again, if you don’t want your child exposed to certain things, read up on movies before taking them. I think that the majority of concerns would probably come from Christians or those who are protecting their children from certain things such as violence, foul language or suggestive material. A good site to look at in regards to this movie is Christiananswers.net. It may answer your questions better than this review did. For children under 13, I would say proceed with caution.

But man, those robots in disguise are cool.