Originally Reviewed
Monday October 29, 2007
I was never into Transformers as a child; something about cartoon robots morphing into cars didn't excite or impress me very much. So I watched this film knowing absolutely nothing about the history of the series and caring even less. My reason's for watching it mainly centered around the fact this film did extremely well at the box office and that Michael Bay (say what you want about him) knows how to make an entertaining action film.
Shia LaBeouf stars as Sam Witwicky, a high school kid with dreams of owning his first car, which end up leading him on an adventure he could never have expected. To come up with the money Sam tries to pawn off some of his great grandfather's stuff on eBay. One item, a pair of old glasses, seems to hold more value than Sam could ever expect as they hold the key to the resting place of a device that contains enough power to destroy an entire planet.
Back in the 1850's Sam's great grandfather made an amazing discovery, he unearthed an alien robot known as Megatron who had ventured to Earth in search of the device known as the Allspark. Megatron ended up and the bottom of the Artic frozen in time until Captain Archibald Witwicky later came across him. Over a hundred years later the evil robots known as the Decepticons begin to appear on Earth when they discover the classified information regarding Captain Archibald Witwicky and his discovery, their goal is to obtain the Allspark, free Megatron from his frozen prison and destroy all human life. The only thing that stands in their way is a group of robots known as the Autobots, lead by Optimus Prime, and Sam Witwicky is in for a real surprise when he learns he's about to be in the middle of a war that could end all life on Earth!
Transformers is a fun and action packed film with a lot of great talent, but where it really suffers is in the story. While Michael Bay films are well known for gut busting explosions and high octane action sequences, they're also known for highly mediocre story-lines and Transformers is no exception. I can imagine a lot of people will be confused by the storyline and progression of events, partly because I myself was confused at times to what exactly was going on. The action and special effects do more to hide a suffering storyline than complement it, with the whole Autobots and Decepticon history and back-story littered throughout the film being quite confusing, especially if your not familiar with the show.
If you go into this not expecting much of a story and are able to piece together what little story there is then you'll enjoy a decent action film with highly sophisticated special effects. The robots themselves are flawlessly re-manufactured and it's truly amazing how realistic they actually look. The action is fast paced and exciting and there is rarely a dull moment, but with two and a half hours of really nothing but "eye candy" the action and special effects do begin to get old after a while.
Overall, I found Transformers enjoyable, what little acting there was I thought was pretty good. Shia LaBeouf is excellent as always, Megan Fox is a fox (pun intended) and the film manages to incorporate a nice balance of action, drama and comedy. Would a watch this film again? Probably not anytime in the near future. While it was a fun film, not being a fan of the Transformers franchise in general I'd rather spend two and a half hours watching something like Lord of the Rings which not only packs more "eye candy" but actually has a really griping and well written story. Fans of the Transformers series should get a kick out of this, but if your not one of those people this shouldn't be a film high on your list to check out.
7/10
"Michael Bay (say what you want about him) knows how to make an entertaining action film."
ReplyDeleteAmen! He really does, and he's proven that over and over again, and I really don't get all the bashing he gets. He not only makes awesome, jaw-dropping action, but has a great sense of humor. To prove that, if you haven't already, see his Verizon ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXRCf9LbLM0
I loved every single, cheesy bit of Transformers; I've seen it 5 or 6 times already, and it never gets boring. The final, huge and long battle scene in the city is amazing!
@Ventilation Shaft - a lot of the Bay bashing has to do with the fact he can't keep his mouth shut about things and when he speaks out it's usually extremely over the top and inane. He's kinda like the guy who thinks he knows everything but actually doesn't know anything. That's why Bay is hated, and it seems to have carried over to where people just hate his films as well. I think Transformers was received fairly well, but from what I've heard most people hate the second one, which I have yet to see yet.
ReplyDeleteOK, fair enough; I personally don't follow him outside of the film business so I'm not familiar with what he says exactly that make him come out so obnoxious. As long as he keeps delivering products I'm satisfied with, I've no grudge against Bay.
ReplyDeleteAlso, generally speaking, 9 out of 10 people say they hate Bay. Deriving from that fact, his films should be box office bombs all the time. And yet, they always earn a huge pile of money. Do people go to see his works only to bash him afterwards? If that's the reason, than who's the fool here?
About TF 2, it's a weaker film than the first, definitely. The mayhem went up the scal, for sure (and there's an awesome fight scene in the woods, Optimus vs Decepticons), but the whole flick doesn't seem as tight as TF.
@Ventilation Shaft - people just like to complain, gives them something to do in there mundane lives. Just like everyone complaining about spoof films yet they all go and see them, they make a lot of money and movie studios keep cranking them out. It's the circle of foolishness.
ReplyDelete