Autobots and Decepticons Are Here, So Get Your Popcorn Ready!
Written: Jul 02 '07 (Updated Jul 03 '07)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: A truly entertaining film, humorous, great special effects.
Cons: Okay, so it's a little silly and cheesy at parts.
The Bottom Line: Are you proud of me for not using the phrase, "more than meets the eye" in my title?
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| chelledun's Full Review: Transformers |
The very concept of “Transformers” fills me with nostalgic warm and fuzzies. Transformers remind me of a simpler time in the mid-80s when I was five years old and completely thrilled by the adventures of Autobots and Decepticons. As an adult who is generally a fan of Michael Bay’s movies (although somewhat embarrassed about it), I had high hopes that the 2007 live-action movie Transformers would prove to be, at the very least, a fabulous popcorn flick. In this capacity, Transformers exceeded my expectations, and I eagerly await the film’s already-announced sequel.
The film’s story centers around high school student Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBouf), who unwittingly finds himself involved in an epic battle between the Autobots and Decepticons. One group is good, the other is bad. You can probably guess which is which. Both types of robots are seeking the powerful Allspark, which found its way to earth after the war-induced destruction of their home planet. Of course, no big budget action film would be complete without a love interest lingering in the background, so enter Megan Fox (Mikaela Banes) as Sam’s way-cooler-than-him crush. Subplots running parallel to the teens’ adventure include a Decepticon invasion of a U.S. military base in Quatar, along with the defense department’s attempts to learn the source of the code emitted by the Decepticons and figure out who is behind the sudden attacks.
My Thoughts
Given the ridiculous-sounding plot summation above, Transformers is far better than it has a right to be. I actually found the movie to be more of a comedy than anything else. Some of the humor is unintentional, of course, but Bay makes a wise decision in using the Autobots for comic relief and adding humorous minor characters to keep such a farfetched film from being doomed by its own self-seriousness. LeBeouf overacts at times, but on the whole does a good job conveying teenage angst and adds some laughs with his practically painful adolescent awkwardness. Mr_chelledun and I laughed out loud at least a dozen times during Transformers, and I found myself grinning pretty much throughout the whole movie. For me, the film’s two and a half hour running time flew by. Transformers proved to be a movie I really enjoyed watching, and given a big-budget action movie such as this, that definitely counts for a lot.
Now, on to more important matters… Lots of stuff gets blown up in Transformers, lots of robots fight, and the special effects are totally awesome. The CGI robots and their transformations blew me away. I am most impressed, I think, by the fact that I did not once think about the fact that the robots were computer generated during my viewing of the film. Typically, during special effects-heavy blockbusters such the second Star Wars trilogy of even the Lord of the Rings films I find myself thinking, “Oh, what a great computerized rendering.” Transformers, however, managed to make me forget that actual physical metal-on-metal clashing between the robots was not, in fact, occurring. The robots look totally fabulous and manage to pay homage to the Transformers cartoon series while looking completely contemporary all at the same time. Their movements are lifelike and downright artistic as they leap, swing from buildings, wrestle, each other, and transform into vehicles. Steven Spielberg could take a page out of the Michael Bay handbook when it comes to creating menacing yet technologically advanced extra-terrestrial creatures, as the Decepticons put War of the World’s tripods to shame.
Transformers is definitely not a perfect film. Some subplots eat up a lot of time without ultimately going contributing much, such as analyst Maggie Madsen's (Rachael Taylor) attempts to crack the Decepticons’ code, or a complex story involving Sam’s great-great-grandfather’s adventures in the Arctic Circle. Taylor's acting actually left me a bit cold, but this could easily have been because her character was relatively pointless except perhaps to show that hot women can do computer stuff, darn it! The film’s climax also disappoints a bit, perhaps in an effort to leave options open for the sequel. Finally, some lines of dialogue are just painfully cheesy. Extreme caution should be used in attempts at earnestness coming from giant robots from outer space, and at times Transformers lays on the touchy-feely a little too thick with the meaningful glances and unnatural dialogue.
More Than Meets the Eye?
Probably not. Transformers is exactly as advertised – a big budget action movie with great special effects and a surprising amount of humor. The audience in my sneak preview showing, which for some reason was about 90% male, seemed to absolutely eat this film up, laughing and clapping throughout. However, I think Transformers will be a love/hate phenomenon. If, as I did, you watched the film’s previews and thought, “Cool!”, you will enjoy this movie a lot. If the idea of robots feuding while the fate of Earth hangs in the balance causes you to break out in a cold sweat, by all means avoid this movie. Whether due to my love of all things 80s or my general tendency to enjoy movies where things get blown up, I had a blast watching Transformers and would rank it as my favorite film of the summer.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Action Movie
Viewing Method: Sneak Preview at My Local Theater
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