07.18.07
Lee1990 Movie Review - Transformers
“More than meets they eye” was the catch phrase for this iconic 80’s cartoon series, and this movie proved to be more than I expected.
I’ll be the first to admit that I was delighted a few years back when I first heard rumors of a live-action movie being made out of this series, but that initially turned to dismay when I heard that Michael Bay had been given the director’s chair for this one. He has produced a series of shallow-charactered explosion-fests ranging from the ghastly Pearl Harbor to the just silly Armeggedon, to the recent flop The Island. My hopes rekindled (justifiably so it turned out) when I learned that Steven Spielberg (E.T., War of the Worlds, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers) was the executive producer. He is excellent at both story and character, and his hand shows heavily in Transformers.
The plot starts out in Michael Bay style, with an attack on a US base in the Middle East. At first, no one has any idea who attacked, but are equally baffled by the fact that the assailant managed in the course of the attack to hack the US defense computer network in less than ten seconds, a task that would take an Earthly super computer years to accomplish.
As several soldiers flee the massacre into the desert, they are pursued by a scorpion like machine unleashed by their attacker. This eventually leads to the first chance for Mr. Spielberg to show his hand with a humorous sequence in the middle of a fierce battle between the machine and the soldiers which is seamlessly worked into the action. One soldier tries to use a local phone to call for reinforcements, and has to deal with a heavily accented operator who wants a credit card number to complete the call.
Flash back to California. A high school freshman name Sam Witlicky is on his way to get his first car. As they pull into a used car lot, an old yellow Camero pulls in behind them (you have to be quick to notice it, but there is no driver in the car). As the slick salesman (played with comic genius by Bernie Mac) tries to push a lousy car off on Sam, a mysterious, high pitched noise causes all the windows on every car except the mysterious yellow Camero to shatter, leaving the Camero as the only choice. Camero in hand, Sam takes off on phase 2 of his plan, find a nice girl to go with the car.
After a brief encounter with the school jocks, Sam manages to get the girl in his car, which is mysteriously playing various appropriate love songs on the radio, seemingly at random and without Sam’s control.
Later that night, Sam sees his prized possession driving away and takes off in pursuit. At a scrapyard he is amazed to see his car transform into a 25 ft tall robot that sends a signal into the sky.
The next morning, Sam sees what he refers to as Satan’s Camero drive into the driveway. He takes off on bicycle with the driverless Camero seemingly patiently following him down the street. While attempting to evade the robo car in a garage, Sam approaches what he believes to be a police car. This car promptly transforms into an extremely hostile robot who begins to interrogate Sam before he can escape. As he escapes, he runs (literally) into his dream girl and both wind up in the Camero being chased by the police cruiser with the bad attitude.
After an escape the yellow Camero takes them to an abandoned factory, where the two dazed teens are introduced to the remaining alien machines, who explain that they are autonomous cybernetic lifeforms called Autobots from a planet called Cyberton.
They have come to Earth in pursuit of the Allspark, a power source that created the Cybertronian race. They are in battle for survival with warlike, power-hungry Cybertonian machines called Decepticons. The Allspark must not fall into their hands, or humans and Autobots alike are doomed to extinction. Sam possesses they key to finding the Allspark, whose location is what the Decepticon police cruiser was trying to discover.
Spielberg shows his hand with humor and feeling worked into many places in this movie, including a scene where Sam is searching his room for the key while the curious Autobots inadvertently stomp all over his parents manicured yard.
All in all Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay seem to have played well off each other in this movie. There is action to spare, and humor and feeling placed in enough places to keep the movie from becoming nothing but a tedious series of explosions, always a problem with Michael Bay films.
9 of 10.
