Transforming Nostalgia

One of two things can happen when a happy memory from your childhood is recycled, rebuilt, polished and presented as the latest pop culture phenomenon: It can leave you feeling beaten and abused, as if a small precious thing has been taken from you by a schoolyard bully. Or it can rekindle your passion for something that you haven't devoted a lot of thought to in the last twenty-odd years and for a brief, beautiful moment, it can make you feel like a kid again.

Enter Optimus Prime....

When I was about seven years old I had an action figure that looked just like the leader of the heroic Autobots (as pictured above). He was made of solid steel, had genuine rubber tires and I could transform him from a fire-engine-red semi to an intimidating, ass-kicking robot in five seconds with my eyes closed. I never missed an episode of the cartoon series and I remember salivating with prepubescent joy when the Dinobots were introduced. Grasping, as I did in my own seven-year old way that the television series was just a marketing vehicle for the toys and a fully transformable "Grimlock" (The tyrannosaurus rex leader of the Dinobots) would soon be available for purchase. I still have a great memory of my dad taking me to see the original, animated Transformers movie. Buying me a popcorn and suffering through something that must have been completely incomprehensible to him just because he knew I loved the stupid things so much. I know what you're thinking...You're thinking: "Sounds like this guy didn't have a lot of friends when he was a kid". Well, you'd be wrong. I had all the Autobots and most of the Decpticons and a few kids who said they were my friend so they could play with them. Close enough.

Now, re-enter Optimus Prime, over twenty years later....



This Computer Generated, fully articulated, twenty-foot tall Optimus Prime jumped out of my childhood and onto the screen at my local movie theater last night. I have to say, it was a surreal experience. Here were my beloved Autobots in the hands of the guy who directed "Pearl Harbor" and "The Island". Here was a kernel of summer popcorn from the bag of Michael Bay, the master of guilty pleasures. Here was a two hour advertisement for GM vehicles. Here was, perhaps, the most damn FUN I've had at the movies in recent memory. For one hundred and forty four minutes I was seven years old again, giddy with excitement as Optimus Prime and Megatron fought to the death with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. This time, I took my dad and he loved it. I didn't buy him a popcorn though, what am I, made of freakin' money?

Score: 10/12 monkeys