Transformers (2007)

Finally Michael Bay's overblown direction is put to great use. With Transformers, Bay is able to use animation for countless overblown action scenes, while keeping the drama at a minimum. The action dominates the movie while some decent humor is thrown in.

Sam is your average high school junior. He is desperately trying to get a car by selling a bunch of his kind-of famous grandfather's stuff. He is also in love with a hot girl who is, of course, dating a muscle bound rich kid. With his father's financial help, Sam goes to a used car dealer, where an old yellow Camerro (an Autobot) chooses him, literally, as his owner.

Meanwhile, a Decepticon (evil alien robot) has attacked a military base and tries to hack into their computer. The alien is looking for information on Sam's grandfather. Years ago Sam's grandfather was an explorer and found something in the antarctic that they want. The Autobot found Sam because one of his grandfather's items can lead them to it.

The action, special effects and fight scenes are all tense and exciting. The Autobots and the Decepticons destroy everything in sight as they fight each other. The movie is exciting, even when the aliens are in automobile mode. The cars racing down highways are as much a commercial for them as the rest of the movie is for the toys.

Transformers is lightened up with some humor. Some of the jokes work while others fall flat. One line has a little girl ask an Autobot, that fell into her pool, if he is the tooth fairy. Another attempt at a funny scene has the Autobot try to hide in Sam's backyard from his parents. The funnier scenes come at the expense of Sam's hormones. While standing next to the girl he likes, one of the Autobots embarrasses him by saying out loud, "The pheromone level in the male indicates he wants to mate with the other." The funniest scene in the movie, though, is when Sam's parents come into his room and discuss masturbation.

Last but not least, Bay throws in plenty of praise and references to the military. Duhamel and Gibson play soldiers who survived the first alien attack. Their path briefly crosses Sam's. They often find themselves in the middle of a battle but, other than Duhamel having a wife and child waiting on the home front, they are not given any personality and thus their parts seem expanded just to take advantage of the fact that the military is currently in the news so much. If anything could have been trimmed, it is their parts.

Still, Transformers is Bay's best movie and my pick for the best movie of the summer of 2007.

I don’t often agree with Eric but he’s exactly right on this one. It is nearly perfect as far as exploding eye candy goes. Here is a movie that Michael Bay was born to direct. It has more fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat action than any other movie I can think of. I can’t imagine any director topping the amazing highway chase sequence at the climax.

Like Eric I enjoyed the humor, this movie hits just the right note. It even manages to have some heart. Or at least as much heart as giant alien robots can convey. I wasn’t a fan of the original show (at the time I thought I was too grown-up for cartoons) but from what I remember this version seems true to the original concept and characters.

Yes, this movie pays tribute to the military. However, Eric I’m surprised you didn’t mention that only the evil Decepticons transform into military vehicles while the good Autobots are all some form of automobile or truck. Coincidence or bleeding-heart propaganda? You decide.

I wish I had seen this movie on the big screen because some of the CGI action here is very impressive. In fact, as far as CGI goes this is some of the very best that I've ever seen. There are moments when it's hard to believe those really aren't giant robots running around.

My biggest complaint about the movie is that it's far too long. My second biggest complaint is that I completely fail to see the charm of Shia Labeouf. My solution to both those problems is that they should have edited LaBeouf's part way down. And Megan Fox has a smokin' bod, but I never gave a shit about either of their very unconvincing High-School students. I felt more emotion when Bumblebee was captured and tortured than I ever did for either of those two. I preferred the Australian computer hacker and the military guys and wished they'd been the human stars.

The plot also takes forever to get going. I mean we all know why we're watching the movie and that's to see giant robots kick-ass. So why does it take so long before we actually see them? The story slowly builds up to their first appearance like we're supposed to be surprised when they show up?

I can only imagine it was because you both saw this movie on the big screen that you both rave about it so much. Perhaps it loses something in the translation to a television screen. Beyond that I can't imagine what else you both saw to enjoy to the degree you claim. It's some quality eye-candy, but very little else.