Transformers — A True Summer Blockbuster

Now this, my friends, is how you do a summer blockbuster. Yes, you can all breathe a sigh of relief because despite what you may have feared, Transformers is pretty darn sweet. We’re not talking The Matrix awesome or Jurassic Park awesome, but we’re somewhere in the Independance Day level of awesome perhaps.

For director Michael Bay, Transformers marks an excellent return to form, as this film has everything a good summer action movie should have, and almost none of the bad. If you’re looking for anything more than a fun, flashy, action-packed summer film, this is not the movie for you. This movie does not deal with intellectual enigmas or questions of morality. It’s about robots from outer space. If that doesn’t sound appealing to you, this ain’t the flick for you.

But, if you’re like me and the millions of others who think the idea of giant robot aliens who can transform into cars and other electronic devices is cool, then you’re gonna love this movie. While I usually try to keep my eye as critical as possible while watching a film and hold each film to the same standard of good filmmaking, there are certain occasions, such as this one, where its more enjoyable to simply sit back and allow the glitzy blockbuster to be what it is. If you want a more critical review of the film, check out this excellent one by James Berardinelli.

As far as this summer’s blockbusters go, it was refreshing to see a new franchise spring up, rather than have to watch a sequel (although they’ve already announced Transformers 2 for 2009. GROAN.) The plot is fairly simple. Evil alien robots called Decepticons, led by their evil leader Megatron, have come to Earth in search of the Allspark, a cube that can be used to turn all of Earth’s machines into Decepticons and allow them to rule the planet. A team of good alien robots, known as the Autobots and led by the most famous Transformer of them all, Optimus Prime (he’s the one you’ll see on all the t-shirts and other merchandise), have come to stop the Decepticons, with the help of a few humans.

The human heroes are lead by average teen Sam Witwicky, played by Shia LaBeouf, a.k.a. movie star of the future. Only time will tell, but it seems as if we’ve got the next big star of this generation on our hands here. There hasn’t been a real male movie star like this since Leonardo Di Caprio started making films, and while Transformers is no Titanic, it’s only a matter of time before LeBeouf’s name is up there with the best of the best. Along for the ride with Sam are typical “more-than-meets-the-eye” hottie Michaela (Meghan Fox– who is not very good, but is SMOKING hot), and a slew of military/government pals like the Secretary of Defense (Jon Voight, who needs to find better work than this, my god), Sector 7 secret agent John Turturro (who is always hilarious– I’d like to officially nominate him for Best Supporting Actor of All Time), crazy hacker Anthony Anderson, and military men Tyrese Gibson and Josh Duhamel (who I think looks like Johnny Knoxville mixed with this guy). If you think its weird that I refer to these other fellas by their real names and not their characters, its because I have no idea what their character’s names are. That’s how underdeveloped they are. Wow. But as I said, this is a movie about alien robots who turn into Porsches. Awesome.

The best part of the movie is obviously the Transformers. Dreamworks did a great job of keeping these babies veiled in all trailers and commercials, and let me tell you, they are things of beauty. Watching them transform and move is a joy. However, other than the red and blue Optimus Prime or the bright yellow Ratchet and Bumblebee (yes, they have ridiculous human names. What can you do?), the rest of the Transformers are basically different shades of grey and its nearly impossible to tell who is who or what is going on. Also, any fights in hand to hand combat are less than stellar. As Berardinelli describes in his review, the final showdown between Megatron and Optimus Prime is basically two huge hunks of grey metal punching each other while the camera swirls around chaotically. Nonetheless, the robots look amazing and the astounding visuals of these bad boys outweighs any other shortcoming.

Something else the film has going for it is humor. Surprisingly, there is a nice smattering of funny dialogue and some nice comedic performances from Turturro, Anderson and LeBeouf. So though you won’t expect to, you will certainly chuckle, and at some points, you may even flat out crack up. Not bad for an action film. Also, though I’m familiar with the Transformers toys and tv show, having been a child of the 80′s, I’m far from a big fan, and pleasantly, didn’t find this to detract from my viewing experience at all. While there are some fanboy elements thrown in for the big fans, there really isn’t much and even zero prior knowledge of the franchise shouldn’t be a factor at all in enjoying this movie.

The film does drag a bit in places, especially towards the beginning, and with the wealth of underdeveloped supporting characters, you’d like to think they could’ve trimmed a few scenes here and there. But as I said, you shouldn’t be going to this movie for the acting. See this movie for the thrill of an original summer blockbuster with kick ass special effects that at the very least, is worth the price of admission. If you’re like me and Pirates 3, Spidey 3, and blah blah blah #2,3,4 were all a disappointment, take solace in Transformers, a new and thrilling addition to the summer blockbuster canon.

As a movie on the grand scale of cinema, I might rate this film a C or worse. On the blockbuster scale, especially the 2007 summer one, I happily rate this film a B+.

Seen the movie yet? Let me know what you think!