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Director Michael Bay (The Rock, Armageddon) lends his high-gloss, kinetic style to Transformers, the first live-action movie based on Hasbro’s popular line of ’80s toys. But it’s executive producer Steven Spielberg who gives the high-octane film its heart. Spielberg insisted that screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek, Mission Impossible III) pattern the story around the trope of ‘a boy and his dog’ — only the dog is a car. That boy is played with great charisma and winning screen presence by Shia LaBeouf (Fury, Lawless), and his car turns out to be Bumblebee — an alien robot who can transform into a bright yellow Camaro. Transformers doesn’t spend a whole lot of screen time on their relationship, but it’s impactful when it does, inviting the audience to emotionally engage with a creative property that might otherwise be little more than cool-looking robots banging each other up.
LaBeouf’s character, eleventh-grader Sam Witwicky, becomes the center of attention for both the Transformers and the U.S. military. Thanks to backstory involving his dead grandfather, he’s the key to finding an extra-terrestrial artifact called the ‘all spark’ — a cube of unknown origin that brings mechanical objects to life. The film divides itself between LaBeouf’s storyline, uniting him with the good Transformers (the Autobots), and a military storyline featuring Jon Voight, John Turturro, Josh Duhamel, and Tyrese Gibson. A lot of the early action comes from the military’s encounters with the bad Transformers (the Decepticons). As state-of-the-art as the visual effects are, and as visionary as Michael Bay can often be, the film is infinitely more interesting when it focuses on the more human and mundane. Witwicky’s nervous interactions with Bumblebee and his new girlfriend, played by the ridiculously curvy Megan Fox, help the film tickle the ‘wish fulfillment’ sweet spot for every nerdy boy and man who has ever dreamed of having a cool car and a hot girlfriend.
Bay’s over-reliance on hand-held photography and occasional whirlwind editing can be headache inducing at times, especially during the prolonged, climactic showdown between the Autobots and Decepticons in downtown Los Angeles. The film’s color grading is aggressive, too, often leading to skin tones that look orange. But Transformers is otherwise well cast and well paced, with enough thrills, humor, and heart to entertain most mainstream moviegoers.
With Rachael Taylor, Anthony Anderson, and Peter Cullen reprising the voice of Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Kevin Dunn and Julie White are comedic scene-stealers as Witwicky’s parents.
Oscar Nominations: Best Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing