Search - Transmorphers on DVD

Tina C. from ORLANDO, FL
Reviewed on 5/23/2008...

Absolutely awful! Save your credits. Movie looks like it was shot with a handheld video camera. CGI animation very poor quality and acting was over the top. The story itself had potential so the movie might have been somewhat ok if the camera didn't waver around so much but I couldn't even make it through first 15 minutes of movie.

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Could Have Been Worse

Duane Browning | Honolulu, HI USA | 01/20/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"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."

More Garbage From Asylum.

MrLoki | Mayberry | 06/27/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"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.
"

Avoid this.

Hallucinogeneral | 06/25/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This movie was just bad, from beginning to end.
The ideas were complete rip off from other movies, CGI was two decades behind (Even Babylon 5 had better CGI effects) and first I thought that the actors were selected from some high schools first year drama class.
Script was quite good (if this had been made with big budget and first class team), but because bad production from all parts, it didn't save the movie.

I really cannot imagine any who would like to watch production like this. It is great that people have the motivation to do movies, but there is a thin line between bad movie and a complete trash. This was baaaaad, not even a B-movie, this fells somewhere between x and z.

I just cannot recommend this to anyone, not even B-movie fans. Avoid this at all costs!"