"Transformers" (2007) - Movie Review

Let us say for example that some one is totally unaware of the comic Spider Man and went to theatre to watch the movie, “Spider Man”. At the end of it, they would have realized the character of Peter Parker and his reason to fight injustice. So to enjoy the movie, one does not have to be a great cartoon freak of Spiderman. Similarly, “Batman Begins” which deals in depth realistic approach towards a comic character or even for that sake “X-Men” which may not run skin deep but good enough to keep you bolted to your seats. “Transformers” is a live action adaptation of a cartoon developed from Hasbro toys. And it is directed by Michael Bay who has some obsessive compulsiveness to blow things in every proportion possible.

One fine day if I see my car transform into a mega structured mechanical device, I would first of all stand still and be speechless for at least ten seconds, not utter crazy dialogues to make it look funny. Or if it starts to drive crazily on its own, I would chase it but ultimately return it or do whatever to get rid of it and not take a girl to impress. Or if I see a car to buy suddenly does something which makes the other cars burst their glass shields, I will never buy the car in first place. Sam Witwicky (Shila LaBeouf) and his father Ron Witwicky (Kevin Dunn) are happy to buy the car since the car sales man (Bernie Mac) reduces 1000$ for that event. I can imagine how bad their negotiation skills are. Why do movies coming as an “entertainment” extravaganza stamp and dance around the character flaws without any guilt. If the central character of the movie that is going to play a major part in it is shown so shallow, how can we believe when he does some unthinkable actions? Having said that, Shila LaBeouf is impressive as the teenage kid Sam with unusual charisma and casual presence.

The movie is a dream comes true for all those cartoon loyal fans, with the applause from the audience section which rose at various occasions when all the robots grouped together. With that in mind, I guess they have satisfied them. But to be frank, the fans will be convincing themselves that the movie is fine since it contains some high power action sequences which they only saw in two dimensions in cartoon. Those would have basically made them forgive some of the silliness the characters do. There are nice moments of humour though which makes us tickle well enough for an action movie like this. As every one would have known that I did not read the cartoon or grew up with the toys, it might be blamed as not “understanding” the concept and style of the characters. But as said in the first paragraph, there should be a general address of all the audience who did and did not get a chance to immerse themselves in to this fictional science fantasy characters.

It seems with every movie, the employment and precision of CGI is beating itself in its arena and getting better. The Camaro building itself into the machine of friendly nature “Bumble Bee” and with unbelievable convenience and style, the rest of those machines “transform” itself into different cars, trucks, fighter planes, choppers are simply brilliant. It is a treat to watch those happen. Even after that there are certain action sequences which are a big confusion on whether the “good” robots are killed or they are killing the “evil” robots.

For Michael Bay I guess this is a movie he would have dreamed since child hood when he started blowing small things in his back yard. He has “transformed” his dream into two gigantic robots fighting tooth and nail to achieve a “cube” which in its all power would of course give the capacity to build an empire for them. For some reason the good robots which are called “Autobots” protect human beings and the evil “Decepticons” despise them. Now earth as their battle field, it is all about destroying some 400 cars, 100 trucks and 10 fighter planes. And adding to it, there needs crashing up of all the main buildings in the heart of the city.

I was terribly upset with the way “Live Free or Die Hard” abused the privilege the “summer entertainment” tag provides. “Transformers” joins the list but due to its category of identifying itself as a science fantasy movie, it comes second to “Live Free or Die Hard”. I am going to slightly discuss a scene which pretty much tells why this movie joins the list. Sam is having the “cube” and he is advised by Seargent Lennox (Josh Dummel) to make it to the roof of a building which is at least 50 floors high. And Sam already exhausted and under attack makes it up to the roof by himself within say……10 seconds. Yes, 10 seconds is the flipping of one scene to another. He then has the courage and the energy to dazzle in the edge of the cliff. When you think this is the last cut of it, you have lot of characters left half way. What happens to the group of people who are trapped in Sector 7? They send message to attack it, but do they escape or do they die in it? The final laugh is when they “destroy” the evidence of all these robots. The whole fight took place in the center of the city with all the buildings crashed and vehicles tossed up. May be they had the device what M.I.B uses. I hope I can use it for myself to forget the money I spent on this movie.