DreamWorksStarring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel
Directed By: Michael Bay
Rated: PG-13
DreamWorks
Unlike most of the people in my generation, I didn't grow up watching the Transformers cartoon. I thought it looked hokey--big, giant, talking robots from space that turn into cars, planes, and other Earthly objects. Please. When I heard about a live-action version was in production, I scoffed. When I saw the teaser trailers I laughed. And when it hit the theaters, I refused to go--until my wife and friend dragged me kicking and screaming to the theater.
When movie started to roll, I found myself rather surprised. During the first forty minutes or so, it was a sensory overload of action that ranked up there with some of the best sci-fi action films I've seen. But still, in the back of my mind, I kept thinking, "It's fine now, but eventually they're gonna talk--and that's going to be where the film goes from good to pure awful."
As is often the case when I pre-judge a film, I was wrong.
The story is that, centuries ago, a war took place on the planet Cybertron between the good robots (the Autobots) and the bad robots (the Decepticons). They were fighting for control of the Allspark, a device of unlimited power. The Autobots removed the Allspark from Cybertron, but the Decepticons went in search of it. The device was found on Earth in the Arctic in the 1800s, but the Decepticons' leader, Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving) was frozen under the ice. More than a century later, the Autobots, led by Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) come to Earth to find the Allspark--only to find that the Decepticons are here, too. Caught in the middle is Sam Witwicky (LeBeouf), whose car turns out to be Bumblebee, one of the Autobots. The two robot factions go to war, each trying to retrieve the Allspark. The fate of Earth and the universe hangs in the balance.
Silly, right? Only, for some crazy reason, it doesn't come off that way at all. Director Michael Bay treats the film like a straight action film, and as such it comes off as a fairly serious (if somewhat outrageous) story. The writing is incredibly witty and smart, and the giant robots--beautifully rendered computer-generated creations that they are--manage to be believable characters somehow. I wouldn't have believed it was possible, but...there you have it.
It's been a while since I've seen this film (due to my procrastination skills, I'm writing this nearly two months after the fact), but I really can't think of anything bad to say about it. It is well worth a look. The time will fly by. You won't even realize it's more than four times the length of one of the cartoon episodes from the 80s.
Bottom line: It's insane how good this movie is, considering how cheesy and awful it could have been.