Toys up close...but a bit impersonal

2:04pm Thursday 27th September 2007

Transformers, The Imax, National Media Museum

In many aspects of life, bigger is most certainly better.

The same cannot be said about the Transformers IMAX experience, unfortunately.

Being a child of the Eighties, I was very excited when I finally saw the classic toys brought to life on the big screen earlier this summer.

Brought into the new millennium with sexy heroes and heroines, a rocking soundtrack, car chases, robot-on-robot action and many, many explosions befitting a film from director Michael Bay, the prospect of watching it again on an even bigger screen was a must.

The heroes and heroines were just as sexy - and bigger. The soundtrack was just as rocking - but louder. And here's where the IMAX version swiftly loses its appeal: the incendiary action is migrane-inducing.

At first, the spectacle of bad guy Blackout (a helicopter robot with serious firepower) wreaking havoc in an army base is awesome.

But it soon becomes apparent that the closer Bay throws you into the action - which is usually very, very close - the harder it is to stay focused.

The climactic duel between Optimus Prime (the good guy robot leader) and Megatron (the bad guy robot boss) may seem appealing, but even the most hardened of action-junkies would find it an arduous task taking it all in.

Runs until October 18.

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