Transformers

From the first trailer to Independence Day 2007, the hype surrounding this movie grew big. In my opinion, expectations were met. I should first indicate that I was more familiar with the toys as a child than the TV show. I liked the work of director Michael Bay in the late 90's & earily 2000's and I am an obvious fan of executive producer Steven Spielberg. They and the other filmmakers made "Transformers" the perfect example of a summer blockbuster. The movie is a lot of fun with amazing special effects. The musical score is very entertaining as well. The film does employ a fast pace and that is a characteristic that overwhelms me a little.

The opening line, "Before time began there was the cube", as spoken by Optimus Prime and the subsequent narration had an impact on me when I first saw this show. I knew I was in for a huge ride. I really enjoy how the film has three storylines. We have Sam and those in his life including Sector 7 and then there is Maggie, Glen and Secretary Keller. Finally, we have the story of the soldiers from Qatar. These three groups of people come together to prepare for an ultimate showdown and I love stories like that such as "Independence Day". The use of real life military personnel and arsenal did wonders in putting the Transformers in the real world. I love how Blackout's approach at the start of the film begins while the sun is still up but he lands at night. It adds anticipation. From the first scene, it is established that these are not the exact characters from the cartoon. They have been given a more threatening and highly intelligent facade. Neither do they magically transform from their disguises into robots but instead the vehicle or aircraft parts go somewhere on the robot. The robots have complexity and that makes them very cool in my opinion. I like how the story of Sam's grandfather comes to mean everything but when we first hear it in the classroom, it is told in such a way that it seems both important and unimportant. Sam and Mikaela's first scene together is pretty funny due to Shia LaBeouf's acting. His comic performance of awkwardness is very good. The battle between the US military and Scorponok is awesome because it is handled realistically. We also get to see some real military aircraft and its deployment as if this was happening in real life. Many of the military personnel in this sequence are not actors and came up with their own dialogue based on the scenario that Bay gave them. We also get some great comedy as they try to contact the US military by way of the Qatar operator. This part of the scene was based off a true military story. The slo-motion shot of the soldiers in the foreground running from Scorponok in the near background was very impressive. I enjoy the funny lines in the film such as "Satan's Camaro" and that Barricade has the phrase "To punish and enslave" as opposed to "To serve and protect" written on his police car disguise. The arrival of all the Autobots is pretty cool as well as the subsequent exposition and introduction of the characters. As a person unfamiliar with the Transformer lexicon, I could still feel the legacy that these robot characters have with millions of fans who were in their thirties in 2007. I also like the verbal reference to "Armageddon". As mentioned, all the main characters gather at Hoover Dam where there is more well-handled exposition. Then comes a very entertaining climax that includes scenes such as the climatic battle between Blackout and Captain Lennox's team. Lennox has an awesome moment when he slides in between Blackout's legs firing his weapon while jets fire on Blackout as well. Unlike the third film in the Transformers series, this first film has a true climatic moment when Sam bravely pushes the Allspark into Megatron's chest. I like how Lennox gets a ride home with Ironhide (Josh Duhamel's favorite Transformer is Ironhide by the way).

The pace of some scenes in "Transformers" may be a little too fast for my taste mostly because multiple lines are spoken on top of one another but this is a characteristic that I can overlook. The more times you watch the film, the more annoying the product placement becomes so that is unfortunate. As with the Star Wars prequels, Transformer fans felt upset at Bay for some decisions he made in the live action adaptation. It proves that you can't please everyone because some fans have made these forms of entertainment their whole lives. Because of their obsession, they won't be happy unless they get to make the films themselves and that is very unlikely to happen. The writers from "Mission: Impossible III", Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who wrote this movie are fans of the cartoon TV show so what more do you want? Another fan of Transformers was Steven Spielberg himself. Many were also upset that the focus of the film was on the human characters instead of the Transformers but there are reasons for that. We must be able to relate to the characters and in order to achieve the realism that Bay wanted, the central story of this film must not be the mission of the robots but instead the reaction of the world to this alien presence. The cast of this film did their jobs very well and was well chosen. I was somewhat familiar with Shia LaBeouf from Disney Channel before this movie. Because Sam was similar to Shia's character on "I, Robot", I thought that Shia's abilities as an actor was limited to playing characters that were always out of control emotionally. I was thankfully proven wrong when I saw "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". Jon Voight from Bay's "Pearl Harbor" did a great job. His action moments versus Frenzy were good. Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson had perfect chemistry together and you believed them as soldiers. Anthony Anderson's performance is probably my favorite in the whole movie. He is really funny. It was also good to see Kevin Dunn and the late Bernie Mac. This film was my introduction to John Turturro and I liked his character. Simmons comes across as a guy who takes his job too seriously and he humorously loses a lot of credibility as a result. Even though I was not a Transformers fan when this film came out, I was pleased that they had Peter Cullen reprise his role at Optimus Prime. Other voice actors that I was pleased to hear were Hugo Weaving, Darius McCrary, Jess Harnell and Charlie Adler.

The musical score as composed by Steve Jablonsky is perfect for this kind of show and the film itself is one of my top 25 favorite science fiction films. I expected a lot of action from Michael Bay and I got it. This is one very entertaining show that was nominated for three Oscars (it should have one for Best Visual Effects in my opinion). While the film is a tad too fast paced in some scenes, I was nonetheless taken for a great ride at the movie theater. Unfortunately, the sequels were for the most part a let down.

4 Stars out of 5