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I can't believe I am going to recommend Transformers...

Posted by RGA on June 30, 2007 at 21:57:37:
But I saw this last night on a lark. I grew up on the Transformers getting the toys etc so when I heard of Spielberg's involvement I figured why not. If nothing else it will be a slick action flick and a mindless 2 hour diversion.

Let me start by saying that Transformers the cartoon was little more than a half hour advertisement out to sell toys. The 1986 cartoon film which had Orson Wells voice a character was even worse for virtually all of the transformers were destroyed taking new shapes so a whole new set of toys could be purchased.

SO what to expect 20 years later and with deep cynicism of a Michael Bay directed film -- I've only enjoyed one film from Bay in the Rock and even here many hated it.

Transformers is Long, Loud and even a little fatiguing with just the sheer amount of visual special effects which are about as well handled as can be. But bring some ear plugs because when a truck transforms into a metal robot you can imagine the bone crushing high pitch metal on metal sound.

The plot is comic book depth - an alien race of cybertronic life have divided into two groups of good and evil and have battled across the universe to find their stardoohicky block that will do something or other to save their home planet or help them begin again or some such nonsense. None of that really matters because plot is notexactly a strong suit to this film.

So then what is there to like -- well the humans actually. The lead human characters are more interesting than the ridiculously tall robots. Their lines consist of things like "I am Megatron" "You fail me again StarScream" and "There is no us only me". That's about the depth of the bad guys here and the good guys "Well Optimus Prime doles out preachy lines of Humans have the capacity for good and we were once like them blah blah.

So the film gets my recommendation based on the human characters. Sam is our 16 year old hero who convinces his dad to buy him his first car - the used car dealer says the car chooses the driver and in this case it holds true. His yellow sports car turns out to be Bumblebee a good transformer (an Autobot) who actually helps Sam get the pretty girl Sam is crazy about. Of course Sam eventually finds out that his car is not just a car at all but an E.T.

The film has numerous humorous moments with Sam's parents (at an American Pie level) and Bay puts the transformers into funny situations with them trying to hide in the garden from the parents. Turturro is way over the top as a trigger happy FBI agent while Voigt plays it dead straight - this was a little uneven in my view but you could take it or leave it

There are enough comic elements and genuinely affectionate writing for the human leads coupled with stunning if almost overpowering special effects to certainly entertain 12 year old boys -- and I would argue the 12 year old boy in all of us.

But the plot is paper thin as is the writing for the Transformers themselves. It suffers the same problem the X-Men suffer from. So many characters and very little time to develop any of them. Unlike the X-Men -at least we get some humour and a lead character who serves as OUR eyes through the proceedings.

Thumbs up - a sequel is almost a lock.