So, just saw a special screening of it. It's a blast. No, it's not the best movie ever, but it's a great summer movie. You leave the theater thinking, "Yeah! Bring on more of these!" as opposed to thinking "I don't ever want to see Spider-Man or Jack Sparrow ever again." Which is pretty much where I was at earlier this summer.

There's a lot to like. Anytime Prime speaks. Megatron and Prime squaring off. Sam is great. The camaraderie of the Autobots works. The magical Michael Bay world where every chick is hot works. The designs and look of the robots work (for me, anyway). Frenzy, who is really the mechanical incarnation of the hungry weasel from the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons, works. More works than doesn't, I guess is what I'm saying.

What doesn't quite work is, well, Sam and Bumblebee's relationship seems a bit rushed, so the emotional hit I was expecting when BB's imprisoned wasn't quite there. Glen gets on your nerves. Consider him the Jar Jar or the Ruby Rod of this pic -- a little of him goes a long way. And yeah, the Decepticons get short-shrift in the rushed storyline, but that's to be expected.

The pace of the movie is pretty brisk and it moves along at a good clip until Sector Seven is introduced in an onslaught of exposition which, unfortunately, feels really slow and squirm-inducing compared to what came before and after it. But, once the action in LA starts, you can easily get over it.

And it is undoubtedly a Michael Bay movie, which means that lingering sunsets, slow motion embarking and debarking, and music video editing are to be expected. Don't act surprised.

Anyway, leave any lingering sourpuss attitudes at home and see it with a loud, raucous crowd. You'll thank yourself.

And yeah, Brawl is Devastator? What's up with that?

More to come.

ph