Transformers
Studio: Dreamworks
Rated: PG-13
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox
Director: Michael Bay
WorkNameSort: Transformers
Our Rating: 2.50
So it doesn’t totally suck. Transformers is as good as one can expect a Michael Bay summer blockbuster to be, if not better. Like the shape-shifting robots it depicts, the film is a well-oiled machine, directed with breathless sensorial assault by a showman for whom large, loud and long are rubrics for a film’s success. Updating the beloved kids’ TV series for 21st-century politics and technology, Transformers‘ elaborate plot involves the continuing battle between Optimus Prime’s Autobots and Megatron’s Decepticons for control over a world-controlling cube called the Allspark. The fate of the universe rests in a suburban wiseass (Shia LaBeouf), who happens to own an item that can lead either crew of Transformers to the Allspark. Or something. At any rate, the government and military get involved, yada yada yada, explosion explosion explosion. There’s an underlying layer of comedy throughout, a refreshing sign that the filmmakers aren’t really taking this stuff seriously, but in the end it’s easier to laugh at it than with it. When Optimus Prime attempts a quasi-profound lecture about humans being just the same as the robots, Transformers sinks to the level of ’50s B-movie sermonizing and never fully recovers.
This article appears in Jul 4-10, 2007.