A US airbase in the Middle East picks up an unknown aircraft in
the vicinity. A pair of F-22 Raptors are tasked to locate and escort the unknown
aircraft back to the base. The aircraft turns out to be a US military helicopter
that had been previously reported as being shot down. Once the copter is on the
tarmac at the airbase, it’s surrounded by armed troops, who order its crew to
surrender. In response, the chopper’s rotor blades fold back as it turns into a
really big robot. Although the troops open fire, the robot still mops the floor
with them. It battles its way to the command center, where it tries to hack into
the central computer, looking up files on the US war machine.
Meanwhile, back in
the States, a young man named Sam (Shia LaBeouf) is out buying his very first
car with his father. Stopping off at a used car dealer, Sam picks out a yellow
Camaro. However, unbeknownst to Sam, the Camaro has actually picked him out. The car
literally has a mind of its own; sneaking into the car dealer’s lot just before
Sam and his dad pulled in--and then doing everything possible to ensure that Sam
picks it out. Even when Sam is trying to woo high school hottie Mikaela (Megan
Fox), the Camaro conveniently breaks down at a nice, secluded romantic area. But
when Sam catches the car driving around by itself, he dubs it Satan’s Camaro.
Yet Sam and Megan soon realize that the Camaro is actually a sentient,
transforming robot named Bumblebee, who’s the vanguard of a squad of benevolent
robots who are charged to protect Earth from the Decepticons.
When I first heard that Michael Bay was directing a live-action version of the
1980s Transformers cartoon, I couldn’t help but think that this was a match made
in cinematic heaven. Who better to bring to live-action life a cartoon series
that was essentially an extended toy commercial than the king of the big-budget
popcorn flicks? And it’s not as cynical as it sounds, for Bay has done a
marvelous job at capturing the eternal child-like sense of wonder with this film.
There’s a scene when a pair of robots duke it out on the highway, and it’s
witnessed by a little boy, who’s sitting in a car with his mother. As the robots
battle and smash their way past them, the kid joyfully exclaims to his terrified
mom how cool the whole thing is.
And that’s who Transformers was really made for: children, and those adults who
still retain their child-like sense of wonder. I must admit I’ve never seen the
original Transformers cartoon, so I was never much of a fan of this franchise.
But I am a fan of the Godzilla films, and that child-like excitement I had of
watching the Big G trash Tokyo was more than satisfied by watching these
over-sized robots turn downtown Los Angeles into a war zone. The special effects
are, as expected, fantastic, with the CGI robots blending into the real world
seamlessly. My only quibble with the effects is that it was hard at times to
tell the robots apart from one another (when they weren’t in their vehicle
disguise), especially in scenes when they were pounding on each other.
Although they’re not really the stars of this production, the human cast is
still very good. Jon Voight is very sturdy as the Secretary Of Defense, LaBeouf
has a leading-man-in-training glow to him, and Josh Duhamel (Turistas) is
well-cast as an army captain. Megan Fox and Rachel Taylor provide the smoking hot babe quotient, while the always great John Turturro is a comic stand out as the twitchy and somewhat strange agent Simmons.
I reviewed the Two Disc Special Edition, which--in addition to a commentary by
Bay--also includes some extremely well-done ‘making of’ documentaries on a
second disc. This isn’t Shakespeare, and nor is it trying to be. If you’re
looking for a serious examination of the human condition, then rent The 400 Blows.
But if you want a fun popcorn flick--with plenty of action and humor--then you can't go wrong with Transformers.
--SF
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