TRANSFORMERS (2007)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
"Transformers" is a bloated, excessively overdone, special-effected to the nth degree mess of a movie, or more appropriately an ad for great special effects that lose their appeal the fiftieth or sixtieth time we see them. This review could easily describe Michael Bay's own "Armageddon" (a guilty pleasure of mine) or the insanely stupid, falsely patriotic bent of "Pearl Harbor." Yes, this movie is excessive but it does manage to entertain and work overtime on pleasuring thrill-seekers. Still, despite liking some of what I saw, one wishes enough that someone told Bay to dial it down a few notches.
Shia LaBeouf is Sam Witwicky, a high-school teen nerd who is looking for a date with the hot, luscious Mikaela (Megan Fox) and hopes to seduce her with the yellow Camaro his father bought him. Problem is that the Camaro tends to break down and also play love songs when least expected, not to mention drive away from him! That's right, the Camaro is a transformer, an alien robot from the planet Cybertron! Mikaela understands Sam's nervous chatter since she sees that this Camaro is not your usual custom-made car. Before you know it, several other transformers, including Optimus Prime, have descended on Earth looking for Sam since his great-grandfather had been in the Arctic Circle once, witnessed a transformer, and there is something about his glasses that hold a secret to the discovery of the Allspark, a huge Rubik's Cube of sorts that can shift in size to the palm of your hand. So we have the good transformers, the Autobots, and the evil transformers, the Decepticons.
Yeah, this material is pure comic-book silliness yet director Michael Bay has made it fun and engaging in a poppy, humorous manner, thanks to writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. The humor continues along with the inspired casting of John Turturro as a federal agent, Sector Seven Agent Simmons actually, who wants answers from Sam and knows everything about Mikaela's juvenile record. These scenes, along with the lunacy of Sam's parents who have no idea that these giant robots are in their backyard, give this movie a lift. But once the kinetic robots go into action, the movie loses its sense of humor and decides that the audience needs its action overload set on super overdrive.
I am all for an action movie that is excessive, but Bay's rhythmic explosion and swooshing sounds and clanging metal robots thrashing and hurling and destroying everything in their path (all filmed with a hand-held camera) grows wearisome. Since these giant transformers are indistinguishable from each other, it is hard to know who to root for. Poor Shia and Megan Fox are relegated to the background rather than the foreground. Mostly, you'll pine for those early scenes of domesticity and high-school humor of the John Hughes variety. For some, "Transformers" is an action epic that gets the job done. Yes, it does and it is a marvelous sight to see these transformers in action, though they are at their best when they threaten or speak in Dolby-ized tremors that may shatter your eardrums. But once the movie is over, ask yourself the following: what worked best? The special-effects and explosions in the climax or the humor mixed with action in the first hour?
