Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
7/3/07
On paper, it sounds absurd.
Not only is Transformers a movie based on a beloved line of 80's
toys (not all that surprising) and produced by Steven Spielberg (the only
surprise there is that he's doing it in 2007 and not 1987), but it's directed
by red-meat auteur Michael Bay. What you get is strangely close to
what you'd expect based on that description: shockingly photo-realistic
transforming robots who're a little cutsier than I might have preferred,
way too much comic relief, and a climactic orgy of robot vs. robot vs.
human battle so staggeringly awesome it's like the filmmakers were reading
my 8-year-old mind.
In Quatar, a US military
base is attacked by a helicopter that transforms into a killer robot and
tries to hack its' way into the US Military's top-secret computer networks.
The only survivors, led by Sergeant Lennox (Josh Duhamel), are left to
fight their way across the desert to warn their superiors of what's coming.
Meanwhile, we meet young Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf): descended from
a courageous arctic explorer whose artifacts he's selling off on eBay,
he's about to get his first car, and hopes it'll attract the attention
of the girl of his dreams, Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox). Things break
his way pretty quickly, in part because the beat-up Chevy Camaro he ends
up with seems better at flirting with her than he is. Maybe that's
because it's not just a car: one night he sees it drive away on its'
own and transform into a giant yellow robot we'll later learn is called
Bumblebee. It puts out a summons for other Autobots of its' kind,
who arrive on Earth in a meteor shower. Their leader, Optimus Prime
(voice of Peter Cullen) explains that their robot society was created by
a mystical Cube capable of bringing machines to life. The Cube was
lost in a great war between the Autobots and their enemies the Decepticons,
led by Megatron (voice of Hugo Weaving). Megatron traced the Cube
to Earth, but crashed and froze in the arctic, where he was found by Sam's
great-grandfather, whose glasses (yes, the ones up for sale on eBay) happen
to have the Cube's location burned into their lenses (long story).
But as much as the Autobots want to find the Cube and destroy it, the Decepticons
hope it will animate Earth's machines into a lethal army. So, the
race is on, one which also involves the US Secretary of Defense (Jon Voight),
a top secret spy organization led by Agent Simmons (John Turturro), and
an intelligence analyst (Rachael Taylor) who identified the Decepticons'
computer-hacking signal.
As you can tell, there's
a whole lot going on in Transformers, and not all of it is good.
A little time spent with Sam and his goofy parents (Kevin Dunn and Julie
White) goes a long way, and a sequence where the robots have to “be quiet”
outside the Witwicky house so Mom & Dad don't hear them is as painful
as it is nonsensical. A lot of the comic relief is way over the top:
Bernie Mac's used car salesman is only in one scene, but Anthony Anderson
leans heavily on his most grating notes as a civilian hacker who ends up
hip deep in the action. Turturro has his moments, but is also really
out of control at times, befitting a character who's going to be stripped
down to embarrassing underwear at one point. To be fair, the Opening
Night crowd I saw it with loved these characters, and I'm sure the film's
slapstick will help it to reach a broader audience, but I was there for
giant robot action and had to wait much longer than I'd have liked until
the movie really starts to deliver. But once it does... whoa, Baby!
Go ahead and name an objection
you've had to big-ticket Giant Creature spectacle in movies going back
to the dawn of Giant Creatures and Transformers finds a way around
it. Cheesy effects? Hell, no: these shape-shifting behemoths
look so real they could have walked right in and sat next to me if there'd
been an available seat. And the effects that shift them back and
forth between their mechanical and robot forms are utterly seamless.
Everything happens at night? Try Nothing: the climactic rumble
between Autobots & their human friends and the Decepticon hordes occurs
in broad daylight in a major (though unnamed) US city. The creatures
have no personality? If anything, some of the Autobots have a little
too much, but the main event's participants Optimus Prime and Megatron
are tremendous characters (more on that later). No interaction between
the humans and creatures? Not only is the relationship between Sam
and Mikaela and the Autobots a major theme of the movie, but both humans
and robots hunker down to fight side-by-side in a battle with clear goals
and tons of exciting action for both sides. The movie's final 40
minutes or so are simply above reproach, unless of course you're the sort
of person who'd roll their eyes when Megatron is finally unfrozen and his
first words are a bellowing “I... am... Megatron!!!!” in which case, I
just feel sorry for you.
I'd never seen a episode
of the old Transformers animated series (or even played with the
toys, they were among the first wave of new toys I wasn't interested in
growing up), but I couldn't help but feel great for Transformer Nation
to hear the great work original Optimus Prime Peter Cullen puts in reprising
his role. OP is a really nifty Capital H Hero, willing to sacrifice
his own people's second chance to save the Earth from annihilation by the
Decepticons. And he's got one great speech after another. Cullen's
smooth and virtuous vocal stylings are a big reason the Autobots are so
easy to buy as real characters (the rest of them are a little silly at
times, but luckily get it under control for the climactic rumble).
Hugo Weaving, that geek icon from The Matrix to Lord of the Rings
and V for Vendetta adds another notch to his belt by lending his
wonderfully ominous voice to the Capital E Evil Megatron, who's demonic
appearance is wonderfully designed. Across the board, the Transformers
of both races look flawless.
The human performances are,
as I mentioned, a mixed bag, but the most important characters are well
played. As in Disturbia, Shia LaBouf
shows a gift for 80's-style teen heroism, and Fox plays every guy's dream
girl (beautiful, mechanically inclined and even a little criminal past
for spice) with spunk and sincerity. She kinda reminded me of a young
Jennifer Connelly. Duhamel makes a great military hero, although
no one under his command really stands out. Taylor is appropriately
brainy and delivers tons of expository gobbledygook with authority.
Voight does a good job of balancing the low opinion we have of government
types these days with a sincere desire to, you know, save the planet.
I was kinda amused by the way Hollywood would never dream of offering a
heroic President in a movie at this point. The feet of a silly Bush
impersonator are glimpsed for a moment and then for the rest of the film
we're given the impression that the Secretary of Defense runs the country.
Writers Roberto Orci &
Alex Kurtzman, who collaborated successfully with Bay a couple years ago
on The Island, steal from the prototype July 4th blockbuster, Independence
Day, early and often, usually to their benefit. Bay directs with
his trademark absolute certainty that the movie is great until it finally
comes around to his point of view, and keeps the hyperactive editing to
a minimum. Another thing I expect from Bay is to get strong work
from his composer, and Steve Jablonsky's score is tremendous, refusing
to treat what goes on as anything less than epic.
At the end of the day, I
wish Transformers had been a little more 2007 Michael Bay and a
little less 1987 Steven Spielberg, but I guess I should be glad that a
movie based on action figures is as accessible to an adult action audience
as it is. If any part of you tingles at the thought of giant robots
fighting it out in the streets, you really need to go because you're unlikely
to ever see it done as much or as well as it is here. And, of course,
if you're at just the right age where the teen angst plays as well as the
robots... whoa, Baby!
I squeezed in a 2nd theatrical viewing
of the movie and liked it a little better this time, writing about it in
my 7/19/07 blog entry:
Second viewings are about
3 things:
-seeing a movie for what
it is rather than what you'd hoped it would be
-watching for details (visual
or storytelling) you missed the first time around
-the internal consistency
check: does this story hold water when you know where it's going.
For that matter, does it get better when you know where it's going?
My second viewing of Transformers
earlier this week passed all three counts with flying colors. I did,
in fact, enjoy Michael Bay's game of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots a lot more
the second time around for all three reasons.
-Transformers
is, as I've mentioned in my original review, quite broad. Broader,
really, than any action movie should be. But once the shock of that
wares off, a second viewing shows that it's no Godzilla: Bernie
Mac's one scene is kinda nasty, and the endless, horrible scene where the
Autobots try to “hide” outside Sam's house while his parents skulk around
was even worse once I'd already seen it (OK, I liked the moment when the
parents are overjoyed to see that their loser son is hiding a beautiful
girl in his room, but that's a long way to go for a mild laugh).
In fact, I got up and went to the restroom during that sequence, came back
and it still seemed to drone on for another ten minutes. Yikes!
But on the plus side, John Turturo and Anthony Anderson seemed much more
consistently in character than they'd seemed the first time around, even
if Agent Simmons' underwear embarrass the filmmakers at least as much as
they do him.
Another 2nd viewing advantage
was being able to be patient with the movie's pace. The first 90
minutes seemed awfully draggy to me the first time around, but I think
a lot of that had to do with anxiety that Bay was never going to get around
to delivering the goods. Knowing that the climax is as goods-packed
as can be, I was able to sit back and enjoy the deliberate build-up.
-There's so much visual business
going on with the Autobots and Decepticons that one could just hit freeze-frame
on the big screen and look them over all day. I'm sure I'll be noticing
new details on their amazing frames the 20th time I see the movie.
As a newcomer to the Transformers
universe, it was also nice to have been able to touch base in the media
with all the different in-jokes and reference to Transformers lore the
movie contains and then notice them in their proper places.
-Another 2nd viewing benefit
for a Transformers newbie such as myself was another chance to take stock
of all the different Autobots and Decepticons in play, and to better understand
the logistics of the climactic Royal Rumble. In terms of motivation
and strategy, it holds together very well, with the one exception that
the Decepticons seem to give up a few good shots at Sam to turn and fight
Autobot pursuers. But I guess they're all really pissed at each other.
Anyway, to summarize, I had
an even better time soaking up Transformers'
pleasures in a nearly empty mid-week screening than I did in a packed house
on its' opening night. And I can't wait for the Autobots to roll
out in the inevitable sequel in a couple years. |
