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Transformers
Directed by: Michael Bay
Starring: Shia LaBeouf
Genre:
Science Fiction/
Action-Adventure
Run Time: 144
min.
Release Date: July
2007
On The Web:
Official
Site
Teaser:
Movie Trailer
Reviewed by
Chad Wilson |
I'll be
the first to admit that TRANSFORMERS could have been directed by
modern schlock master Uwe Boll and I probably still would have watched
the movie. As a fan of big giant robots (animated or otherwise) I've
been known to sacrifice much in the pursuit of any entertainment that
may fill that longing. While director Michael Bay's Transformers
is far from the worst I've endured to satisfy my geeky desires for all
things giant robot, this film won't pose any threat to my current
pantheon of genre classics.
Like most Bay films, Transformers is incredibly simple. Sam
Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf,
THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED)
plays the descendant of a legendary explorer who unknowingly discovered
an alien robot in the arctic many years ago. Eventually, more alien
robots covertly arrive on Earth and begin piecing together Sam's link to
his great grandfather and how the young boy may help them track down an
elusive artifact responsible for the creation of mechanical life called
the Allspark. In between bouts of teenage hormones raging for the
beautiful Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) and trying to manage his
temperamental new car, Sam becomes swept up in both a government
operation to uncover the source of an attacked US Army outpost in the
middle-east and a war between two alien factions named the Autobots and
Decepticons.
If nothing else, this film is being released at the perfect time. Most
children of the 80's have nothing but fond memories of Transformers
and now have children of their own to share in mutual appreciation. As a
typical summer blockbuster, Transformers has everything you've
come to love and hate manufactured by that equally impressive machine
called Hollywood. The special effects are amazing, the action is
satisfyingly plentiful and the humor is laugh-out-loud funny. There is
also the horribly miscast female actors-as-models, horrible dialogue
abounds and there are as many cliches as there are nuts and bolts in a
transformer. In many ways, the film is as equally divided between good
and bad as the mechanical protagonists and antagonists.
Shia LaBeouf provides probably the most engaging acting of the film as
Sam. He turns in a performance of both timid teenage nervousness and
dogged coming-of-age determination. LaBeouf's character makes a good
everyman role-model in an age of far too much meekness and shines in a
film largely devoid of competition for top performance. John Tuturro is
convincing as a slimy government shadow agent and Jon Voight does lend a
respectable turn as Secretary of Defense, but neither actor is given
much to work with in a script designed simply to move the story from one
action scene to the next. Any attempt at meaningful drama is
accomplished by bare necessity and any plot thread is managed with
whatever cliché seems to fit at the time (though someone must put a stop
to morse code in the eleventh hour).
Transformers is a film that might please actions fans and genre
fans, but is just as likely to leave as many cringing. For all the film
gets right, there is a something wrong following right behind and
enjoyment of the movie will be dictated by how much a viewer is willing
to forgive in the pursuit of entertainment.
This is not your father's Transformers and it's nothing worth praise
beyond those looking for a career in special effects.
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Image from Transformers
DVD cost: $24.99
Purchase:
BestPrices.com
Film Review Stew
Favorite? No.
Stew Poo-Poo? No.
Newsworthy:
The camouflage uniform
that Captain Lennox and his squad are wearing is the Multicam uniform of
the Army's Future Force Warrior system, part of the Future Combat
Systems project.
Movie Quote: "Just
kidding. Just wanted to show him my cannons."
Other Actors/Actresses
from Transformers
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