My son is almost seven. He loves the Transformer trailers and I promised him that we would see the movie next week. I know that it rating says it is not suitable for children. I’m not too worried about it being too scary.
I have heard that there is swearing and a reference to masturbation. My son is pretty innocent. I asked him if he knew any bad words and he that he did then gave “Shut Up” as an example.
I know there is a Transformer thread already running but it is pretty big so if the answer is in there, my apologies.
My eight year old saw it with me and I didn’t really find anything objectionable.
The teenager’s mother mentions masturbation but my kid doesn’t have any clue what masturbation is and they didn’t give any suggestions that it meant to play with your own genitals.
There’s also some robot urine humor. Perhaps tacky but harmless. A couple hot chicks but they aren’t heavy petting anyone or anything. I don’t remember excessive swearing but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there was some.
I have not seen it but my 16 year old daughter (who is pretty conservative) has and thought it was an excellent movie. Unfortunately, she’s not here right now so I can’t ask her if it’s appropriate for a 7 year old. This very conservative site seems neutral to it and gives a pretty good breakdown of things you might find objectionable.
There is a masturbation joke. They use the word “masturbating” one time, but it’s sort of hushed (or rushed? I can’t remember). For the rest of that scene they talk around it in a manner that should go over a seven year old’s head.
There are several instances of the word “shit,” but they’re not terribly in-your-face. Not saying they won’t be noticed, but I’ve heard worse. There’s one middle finger.
Googling word combos like movie parents turns up a lot of sites that give reviews geared to parents who want to know how bad movies are for their kids. I hate most sites like these, because they generally seem like they’re written by easily-offended fundie whackjobs. But they do have the benefit of exposing every little detail and letting you decide for yourself if you’re sufficiently intelligent and can resist their agenda. Just realize that they make everything sound a little worse than it really is.
Also a decent body count, though its all either bad guys are not-main-character good guys.
For all the violence in the film, it’s damn near bloodless. Pretty much gore-free. I can only think of one noticable, individual human death (although I may be forgetting one or two) and it’s almost too quick to be seen. Any other human deaths are more of the type where some people are thrown by an explosion or something and the death is implied more than shown. Plenty of robot deaths, and those can be more graphic…but c’mon, they’re robots.
The only other thing I might worry about with a seven year old is the realism of the Decepticons. There are scenes where they’re acting mean and scary, and present imposing and in-your-face images on the screen. Staring right into Megatron’s life-like grill may or may not be frightening to your kid. That’s for you to decide.
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
I was 10 when I saw it, and I was seriously traumatized by that movie. I know they had Spike say “shit” just to guarantee a PG rating, but really, they should have issued a warning or something. The scene where Optimus Prime dies was just–wait, someone’s trying to tell me something. They what?. . . Why would–?. . . Uh huh. . . . But wouldn’t–?. . . I see.
Never mind.
I have a feeling very small kids might get a bit freaked out by the noise and fighting on-screen, and the pee and masturbation jokes had me rolling my eyes, but the most objectionable things about the movie overall are its general tackiness and the way it pummels you with product placement, which I guess won’t hurt anyone too much. There were plenty of kids about the age of the OP’s son in the audience when I went, and they seemed to handle it OK.
I thought it was definitely meant to be more for teens/adults than kids (there’s a fair bit of cursing, the aforementioned masturbation joke, and some slight sexual innuendo), but I think a 9 or 10-year-old would be ok. It would probably be too boring/loud/scary or not ADD enough for anything under 7.
It was a lot more adult than I expected it’d be, for sure, and I was pleasantly surprised by that.