Critical Mass - Transformers
With the summer movie season in full roar, Transformers steps onto the scene louder, bigger, and more explosively than its fellow summer films. In this film, Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) holds the key to a war that has been fought over centuries by beings from the planet called Cybertron. The Autobots, led by Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), fight to protect earth from Megatron (Hugo Weaving) and the Decepticons, who plan to use the device to enslave Earth and build more of their mechanical brethren. The action begins when Sam purchases his first car, a beat-up, old Camaro which just happens to be the Autobot Bumblebee (Mark Ryan). Sam is joined by his high school crush Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox), who is hopelessly out of his league, but needs a ride home after ditching her boyfriend. When Sam and Mikaela discover that Bumblebee is not from Earth, they go on a ride which can only end by saving the world.
This movie is as subtle as any film directed by Michael Bay (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Texas Chainsaw Massacre) can be; which is to say, it hammers you from the beginning, lets up for a few minutes, then hammers you until the end. Transformers is loud, long, and in your face. The action scenes are over the top, the characters are somewhat shallow, and the explosions are massive. Normally, this would mean that a film is not well done. However, when the movie in question is about huge robots from outer space, then all these negatives become positives. While Bay won't win an Oscar for Transformers, he deserves credit for creating a fun ride.
The special effects in Transformers are first rate. The robots looked like they belonged in the environment--nothing seemed to be obviously fake about them. Some long-time fans of the Transformers toys (like me) will be disappointed in small details about the movie, such as the fact that Bumblebee is a Chevrolet Camaro instead of a Volkswagen Beetle. Few of the characters in this film transform into the same devices as their originals, though most are very close. Only a few from the expansive Transformers line make it into the film, which is actually good as the peripheral human characters grow quite extensively.
Shia LeBeouf does a fine job of carrying this film. The 21 year-old actor is very comfortable with the camera and his lines are delivered much the same as he delivers them in all his movies. His smooth-talking, slightly neurotic persona fits well with the story. All the actors who are given much screen time find a way to at least make their presence known, though outside of Sam and Mikaela, none of the characters are very well developed. However, the movie is called Transformers, and not People, so this can be understood. It's a long (2 hours, 24 minutes) ride which will hold most of its appeal for teen boys and boys over 30 who grew up with the original.
For all the good things said about the film, it is rated PG-13 for a reason. There is a lot of violence, though most all of that is violence against robots which are obviously fantastical in nature. There is a fair amount of swearing, along with some fairly strong sexual overtones, an old woman giving a man the finger, and some intense scenes. A brief discussion of masturbation takes place which is played for laughs. Depending on the maturity of your youth, they should be fine with it. Also, the introduction to the movie states that all life was brought about by a cube called the Allspark, which contradicts the Christian belief of God's creation. The core message of the film is that sacrifice is sometimes necessary, which could make for good discussion afterwards.
I went into this film not expecting a great deal from it. I still have my collection of Transformers at home (which my four year-old has since determined to be his) and I own a DVD of the original Transformers movie. Seeing some of Michael Bay's previous films, I expected this to be no different. This film is different from his previous blockbusters because of the source material. Since the story requires you to already suspend disbelief, the largeness and volume of it really don't detract from the film. The human element is still there though, because when everything is stripped away it is a boy-meets-girl, boy-falls-for-girl, boy-finds-his-car-is-a-giant-robot, girl-falls-for-boy, they-all-save-the-world kind of story. Typical summer movie fare though. Transformers is a decent film that is somewhat faithful to the source material. If you're just wanting something fun that you don't have to think about this summer, then give it a shot. Who knows, you might find more than meets the eye.