More Than Meets the Eye: A Review of "Transformers"

Michael Bay has gained a reputation for creating popcorn of the brain. His stuff tends to be so light you hardly notice it going down and it rarely fills you up, but you have a relatively enjoyable time while eating it. It tastes fairly good, but you wouldn't want to make a steady diet of it. He also makes movies that guys tend to love. They have a lot of things blowing up and cars going really fast and bullets flying. They are short on plot and character development.

You should be aware of this before going into a movie directed by Michael Bay. Therefore, you should be adequately prepared to see "The Transformers" which is a movie based on a toy which spawned a cartoon and a comic book series and now is a major motion picture. This is a roller coaster ride of a movie with a lot of things that blow up and giant robots that fight each other and destroy buildings and each other and lots of cars. If you are looking for a plot that really makes sense, deep characters or serious plot development you need to go home and rent a documentary or two or perhaps something by Merchant-Ivory and written by Jane Austen.

The story focuses on the two warring clans of Transformers. There are the good Autobots versus the evil Decepticons. They come from a world called Cybertron in search of some kind of powerful cube-thing that carries a lot of some kind of mysterious energy that can save their world called the "Allspark." It is not necessary to understand what the Allspark is, it is only necessary to know that both the good and bad robots want to get their hands on it.

They come to earth looking for a young man named Sam,played by Shia Lebouf. He is a kid who is getting his first car. He ends up buying a beat-up Camaro that turns out to be a transforming robot named Bumblebee. He is also a great grandson of an arctic explorer that not only found the Allspark, but the frozen body of the evil Megatron many years ago. The lcoation of the Allspark was somehow imprinted on his glasses. Again, exactly how or why is not important.

Before to o long we meet Optimus Prime who is the leader of the Autobots. He is joined by Jazz and Ratchet and some other guy who imitates Clint Eastwood. They want to get their hands on the Allspark before the Decepticons who want to use it to turn the earth's machines into transformers, create a new army and then rule the earth and the rest of the universe.

Along the way there are some truly impressive special effects. The robots really do look like real robots and they really look like they are standing there in front of people and buildings. Unlike movies like "The Matrix" which looked like a cartoon, this one manages to look as realistic as a movie about transforming robots can look.

There is also a healthy sense of humor about this movie that manages to pay off more than it doesn't. There is a scene where Sam is looking for the glasses in his home while the giant robots stand in his back yard and try to hide themselves from his parents. The scene is much funnier than it should be and creates some very amusing visual imagery.

The end of the movie is one big long chase scene and fight scene. If there is a problem with the movie it would be that it goes on a bit longer than it really needs to. Considering that the final solution takes only a few seconds, you wonder why no one else was able to think of it before the one character does at the last second. Of course, then there is the ending that seems to send out the idea that there could be a sequel in the works very soon.

Creating a movie franchise based on toys is a bit of a risk, I imagine. Then again, creating a movie franchise on a ride at Disney probably seemed like a crazy idea as well and that managed to pay off three times. Can the Transformers do the same thing? Well, it's possible, but I have my doubts the rest of them could be as entertaining as this one.

The robots transform into everything and anything. At times this can be amusing as a small robot transforms into a radio while infiltrating Air Force One. That little thing turns out to be one of the hardest to kill.

You may recognize some of the voices. The guy who did the voice of Optimus Prime for the cartoon series does the voice here too. I appreciated that because that reminded me of my childhood, much like this entire movie did. I had several of these characters when I was growing up and it was cool to really see them in action on the screen.

Most of the acting is adequate. This is a movie where you do not go to see subtle performances. This is on par with silent film where people have big reactions to big robots. Therefore, the acting does all right. John Voight seems rather lost in a role that seems ill-defined. John Tuturro looks to be cashing in a paycheck a bit but also seems to be having a good time. Bernie Mack even makes an appearance for a little comic relief but gets shown up by a transforming Camaro.

I think the violence is extreme and may scare a kid who is too young. On the whole, however, this movie is OK for families. I am a believer that kids are not as fragile as we tend to think they are. Mostly they will be dazzled by the fast-moving plot and cool-looking robots.

It is also a movie that I think works well on a big screen. So, I do encourage you to see it in the theaters with the big sound system and huge screen. These are big robots and they deserve a big venue.