I wouldn't go to see this as a treatsie on man/machine relationships and AI.

If I want that, I'll watch my copy of "Batteries Not Included", AI, BiCentenial man, or I Robot.

It's a summer blockbuster SFX fest. Check your deeper thoughts at the door when you pick up your popcorn.

As for the issue of technology's ability to recreate, defend or destroy life, I doubt it will have anything to offer that hasn't been gone over in print and film in the last 200 years. Start with Frankenstein, and work your way forward to IRobot.

Having said all that, you can make easy money if you bet on me seeing it. I definitely will.

ScottE -- collecting and building robots for 40 years - details in profile

As for me, I try very hard not to read reviews prior to seeing a film. I try not to absorb too much from trailers, either, as that just leads to sitting in the theatre wondering when such and such a scene will take place.

 A case in point would be the newest Die Hard movie that's flooding the air waves with snippets. I know a police car will be used to bring down a helicopter. I know the protaganist and his side-kick will survive to quip about it afterwards. That puts that whole sequence into the "waiting for it to happen with a known outcome" category.

 What little I know about the upcoming Transformers movie leads me to belive the themes will be

1- Bad things are 'out there'

2- Despite our technological hubris, we can't protect ourselves

3- If we're lucky, something else 'out there' will help us 

I think the fact that the forces from beyond are mechanical beings will be of 2nd order importance. It could have just as easily been another Aliens Vs Predators, or 5th Element.

At some point when folks have had a chance to see this (a week or two?), I'd consider adding to a thread here on what's to be found within the theatre.

I expect a discussion of the movies BiCentennial Man or AI will be more on topic for our man/machine relationship discussions. The IRobot film was more blockbusterish, but had considerable man/machine subtext to mull over, too.

ScottE -- collecting and building robots for 40 years - details in profile

Not all reviewers are being negative: Roger Ebert (who i like best anyway) had this to say about Transformers:

"It's goofy fun with a lot of stuff that blows up real good, and it has the grace not only to realize how preposterous it is, but to make that into an asset.... The movie opens like one of those teen comedies where the likable hero is picked on by bullies at school, partly because he didn't make the football team, and mostly because he doesn't have a keen car. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) talks his dad into buying him one, and he ends up with an old beater, a yellow Camaro that is actually the Transformer named Bumblebee and gets so mad when his paint job is insulted that it transforms itself into a shiny new Camaro.... The high school stuff, which could be a teenage comedy on its own, segues into the battling robot stuff, and there is some low-key political satire in which the secretary of defense (Jon Voight) runs the country, while the president (not even credited) limits himself to a request for a Ding-Dong."

My favorite quote from the review:

"How can a pickup truck contain enough mass to unfold into a towering machine? I say if Ringling Brothers can get 15 clowns into a Volkswagen, anything is possible."

Resistance is Futile. You will be assimilated.

I went to see it with my wife and son last night. It was an entertaining enough flick, but just about what I expected with regards to exploring the man machine dynamic.

With very few exceptions, the robot personnas were portrayed as repackaged people. Emotionally and culturally, they're just like us, but they happen to convert into vehicles when it serves them.

For me, the most intriguing bot was the little spy-hacker. It was alien enough, and possesed enough inhuman capabilities, that it didn't appear to be an anthropomorphised toaster.

ScottE -- collecting and building robots for 40 years - details in profile