‘The final battle between man and machine!’
Transmorphers is a 2007 American sci-fi film about a race of alien robots that have conquered Earth and forced humanity underground. After four hundred years, a small group of humans develop a plan to defeat the mechanical invaders in the ultimate battle between man and machine.
This mockbuster was created swiftly to capitalise on the release of Michael Bay’s Transformers; it was followed by a 2009 prequel titled Transmorphers: Fall of Man.
Written, directed and co-edited by Leigh Scott (Piranha Sharks; The Penny Dreadful Picture Show; The Dunwich Horror; Flu Bird Horror; Dracula’s Curse; King of the Lost World; The Beast of Bray Road). Produced by David Michael Latt and executive produced by David Rimawi.
The Asylum production stars Matthew Wolf, Amy Weber, Shaley Scott, Eliza Swenson, Griff Furst, Michael Tower and Sarah Hall.
Reviews:
“While my curiosity was definitely satisfied, and while it warms the heart that The Asylum is out there finding ways to exploit the public’s desire to see cheap versions of what they’ve seen elsewhere, Transmorphers was actually pretty dull.” The AV Club
” …it looks damn good for a cheap rip-off and is rather entertaining to sit through, Transmorphers is worth your time. And no, Asylum didn’t pay me to say that.” Cinema Crazed
“Mr Scott wrote and directed this film in ambitious fashion, complete with split-screen and a grayed color-scheme that played together to form a claustrophobic, prison-like future from which there is no escape but full-blown revolution […] It’s arguable that Leigh Scott mastered the mockbuster, and I think the best proof is right here.” Committed
“it’s […] like the filmmaker is stuffing everything he thinks is cool about sci-fi into one movie, and getting paid for it. Don’t get me wrong, this is atrocious. The dialog is poor, the acting leaves much to be desired, and the plot is a jumbled mess. I guess it’s just a fun bad movie and fun to make fun of.” Direct to Video Connoisseur
“it must’ve been rushed, intending to confuse people with the similar title. The world has been destroyed by giant robots, except for a small underground army that includes lesbians and a cryogenically frozen warrior. There’s a plot twist – rare for these films – and a fun sequence with flying bikes.” Down Among the “Z” Movies
“There are some things I admire about Transmorphers such as the special effect attempts at robot transformations and the attempts at robot battles. Some of the robot models actually looked pretty good in spots, but the animation of the robots was terrible. But at least they tried to rise above the typical lame crap we see from The Asylum…” Film Critics United
” …the terse effectiveness of the character interactions gets killed the moment we go topside and all of this is unwound by the painful cheapness of the visual effects representing the robots in action. To its credit, the film keeps the reliance on effects scenes relatively limited and focuses more on the characters. ” Moria
” …makes a valid attempt at world-building away from flashy computer effects, and with quite some success, too, the human drama in this film really works. Where the film falls a little apart though is in its action sequences, and it’s not so much that the robots fail to wow, but somehow these scenes lack cohesiveness and immediacy…” Search My Trash
“The only transmorphing they do is from a big dumb thing that sort’ve looks like a person to another big dumb thing that definitely looks like some poor bastard got paid $2 an hour to render. But gosh durn it, Leigh Scott isn’t going to be prevented from ripping off a movie based on giant robots just because he has absolutely no means of depicting them!” Something Awful
” …while the acting and explosions are all properly and laughably third-rate, the film remains unduly dialog-heavy and action-thin for a movie as air-headed as this one.
But, on the plus side, the two or three sets used are wonderfully cheap and the CGI scenes of transmorphers at battle are so hilariously inept that they always generate a laugh…” A Wasted Life
YouTube reviews:
Trailer [poor quality, unfortunately]:
Clips:
Full film – free to watch online on YouTube in 1080p HD:
Cast and characters:
Matthew Wolf … Warren Mitchell
Amy Weber … Karina Nadir
Shaley Scott … Xandria Lux
Eliza Swenson … General Van Ryberg
Griff Furst … Itchy
Michael Tower … Dr Voloslov Alextzavich
Sarah Hall … Blair
Erin Evans/Sullivan … Suzy
Noel Thurman … The Chairman
Troy Thomas … Clinton
Dennis Kinard … Jackson
Jason S. Gray … Otto
Elissa Dowling … Dr Taddish
Jessica Bork … Bowers
Thomas Downey … Blackthorn
Joseph Cornell … Joe
Dane Rosselli … Raphael
Sofie Norman … Rand
Monique La Barr … Richter
David Shick … Riley
Kristen Quintrall … Ursa
Fun facts:
Several scenes were shot on sets of the TV series Firefly (2002) and its follow-up movie Serenity (2005).
The part of General Van Ryberg (Eliza Swenson) was originally written for a man.
