NPR 07-17:'Transformers': A Toy Story Waiting on a Recall电影《

Special effects make Hasbro's toys hugely engaging -- but the humans keep slowing the film down

It must be summer because a new Michael Bay film is in theaters. He directed Armageddon, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, and now Transformers. Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition film critic Kenneth Turan has this review.

Once upon a time, within the memory of those still living, if a film was successful, it inspired toys. Now, apparently¹, it's the other way around.

Transformers is based not on a novel or a play or a screenwriter's inspiration, but on a line of hasbro toys which have been hot tickets for more than 20 years. If you revere² those toys, you already know that. If you don't, there isn't enormous reason to care.

Transformers, as any small boy can tell you, are robots from outer space with the ability to change shape to cars and other machines. Having fought each other for eons on their home planet, the good-guy Autobots and evil Decepticons transfer their battle to planet Earth, the improbable new home to an enormous object that is the source of all Transformer life.

"An emergency Pentagon call, I need you. Do you understand this is an emergency Pentagon..Ah....."

Paradoxically, the problem with the movie is not with those Transformers. Computer technology has insured that watching these enormous toys come to life is everything fans could hope for. If this film were a lot shorter than its inflated³ 2 hours and 23 minutes, and kept its focus on the toys, it would be hard to argue with.

Humans, however, inevitably⁴ enter the story. The Transformers turn out to be looking for an 11th-grader played by Shia LaBoeuf, who spends his time dreaming about a potential girlfriend (as well as his first car).

"Considering the semi-classic nature of the vehicle with the slick wheel and a custom paint job. "

"Yeah, but, but the paint is faded."

"Yeah.., but it's custom. "

"It's custom faded?"

"Where is your first car we are expecting to understand."

Too much of Transformers is spent with teenagers — who, as the key audience demographic, are fated to save the world.

The actors who play them look as much like 11th graders as I do, but the film has bigger problems, like keeping everyone awake while the toys are off the screen. Any film whose most resonant⁵ line of dialogue is spoken by a robot who says, "It's you and me, Megatron" has no business being 2 hours and 23 minutes long — no matter how good the toys are.

Kenneth Turan reviews movies for Morning Edition and the Los Angeles’ Times.
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Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) is an American toy and game company. It is one of the largest toy makers⁶ in the world, second only to the toy giant Mattel. Hasbro is also the publisher of the world's most popular board game, Monopoly. The corporate⁷ headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States.

1 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

2 revere   

vt.尊崇，崇敬，敬畏

参考例句：

• Students revere the old professors.学生们十分尊敬那些老教授。
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven.中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。

3 inflated   

adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨

参考例句：

• He has an inflated sense of his own importance. 他自视过高。
• They all seem to take an inflated view of their collective identity. 他们对自己的集体身份似乎都持有一种夸大的看法。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

5 resonant   

adj.(声音)洪亮的，共鸣的

参考例句：

• She has a resonant voice.她的嗓子真亮。
• He responded with a resonant laugh.他报以洪亮的笑声。

6 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。