Review of The Transformers

“More Than Meets The Eye”

I don’t go to many movies. It costs too much these days. So I save my movie dollars for the ones professional critics usually hate. That way, I know they’re probably worth the money.

I saw Transformers yesterday with my twenty-nine year-old son. He grew up on them as I grew up on Bugs Bunny, The Roadrunner, and a host of others. When he was little, I watched right along with him. (I’ve been accused of being a big kid myself). I enjoyed the concept of living robots with the ability to convert into machines. I thought it was cool then, and I think the movie’s cool now.

Today’s computer animation brings comic and cartoon characters to life; much to the delight of baby-boomers and X-geners alike. Transformers was no exception.
As with Spiderman, the Transformers story line differs from the original to accommodate introduction, time constraints, backstory, etc. If you didn’t grow up with them—like today’s little ones—you wouldn’t have the necessary knowledge to make the magic work.

The Autobots are in town to find the Allspark; an enormous alien cube of incredible power with the ability to recreate the Transformer’s devastated home world, Cybertron. Of course, the Autobots (the good guys) have to beat the Decepticons to it first. There’s the standard “Good vs. Evil” incongruity where the bad guys are stronger, meaner, and better equipped than the good guys, and Good must employ inner strength to win out; that, and a few well-placed air-to-ground missiles.

The story begins with Sam (Shia LaBeouf), a nerdy seventeen-year-old who has a thing for Mikaela, the hot girl in his class (Megan Fox).
WOW! Where’d they come up with THAT? Well, there must be wanting of sorts.
Clichés aside, the story moves along at a nice pace. The kid buys an old, beat-up Camaro that just happens to show up on the dealer’s lot (Bernie Mac). To no one’s surprise, it turns out to be Bumblebee, the lovable Autobot who’s named for his yellow and black paint job.
Sam has in his possession, an old pair of glasses owned by his great-great grandfather explorer. The glasses mark the location of the Allspark. Bumblebee calls to Earth the remaining Autobots when he determines the Allspark is there. During all this, he protects and befriends Sam when he’s threatened by a muscled-up police car Decepticon.

Enter Optimus Prime. I was pleasantly surprised when the audience erupted into applause. I can’t remember that ever happening when I was in a theater. But maybe that’s because I go so infrequently. They did this right. Optimus had the same voice as in the cartoons. Megatron (Decepticon leader and all around bad guy), did not—thankfully.

After that, there was the standard action stuff; the chase, the government not understanding what was really going on, the persecution of the good guys (Bumblebee taken prisoner), the grabbing of the high ground by the bad guys because the government kept the good guys from stopping them, the confrontation, the good guys getting the snot kicked out of them until the government finally wises up (Bumblebee rescued by Sam), the good guys prevailing, and the nerdy kid winning the hot chick.

From all this predictable stuff, the one thing I didn’t see coming was when Bumblebee asked Optimus for permission to stay with Sam. It was heartwarming, even coming from a robot.

I found here, as in recent high-tech flicks, the action sequences were hard to follow. In several battle shots, I couldn’t separate the combatants. Industrial Light and Magic has fallen into the habit of dark shots, crazy speed and nearly un-viewable camera angles: too-close close-ups, rapid panning and the jittery effect. I thought I would have a seizure.

But when push comes to shove, seeing childhood heroes come to life on the big screen made it worth the $9.75 (well, $19.50 since I paid for both of us). Appearances by the likes of Jon Voight, John Turturro and a cameo by Hiro Nakamura (Heroes) made it all that much more enjoyable. I’d say, go have some fun. But when you walk onto the parking lot after the movie, don’t expect your car to talk to you—clunker or not.

4.0 Stars.