Tony Thio
Developing from the simple story of 2 warring robot factions hailing from the planet Cybertron: the heroic Autobots led by Optimus Prime, and the evil Decepticons led by Megatron, Director Michael Bay crafted a spectacular film that closed to a standing ovation at the gala premiere.
Who would be a better director to handle this movie than Michael Bay? The director of explosive, big-budget action films such asBad Boys 1 and 2, The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Michael Bay has certainly succeeded in making the audience believe that a toy franchise can actually be the basis of a believable, very entertaining film.
It begins with the reason for the alien robot race’s existence: how the all-important AllSpark is lost into the vacuum of space after the robots go into a war between the good and the evil. Falling onto Earth, entities from both warring factions trawl the galaxy in search of this all-important device.
The first explosive-laden action scene comes not long after, when 2 Decepticons, Blackout and his partner Skorponok obliterate the Soccent Operations Base in Qatar. Appearing as a MH-53 JM Pave Low III/IV helicopter, Blackout destroys everything in its path while the mechanical scorpion Skorponok downloads top-secret files from the super computers. Secretary of Defense John Keller (Jon Voight) calls an emergency conference to analyze the data (a mechanized sound) that they’ve gleaned from the “hacker”, and assemble teams of computer experts to figure out the hacking source. Meanwhile, another Decepticon, Frenzy (voiced by Reno Wilson) – which appears as a boombox – has already hacked into the computer onboard the Air Force One.
At the centre of the story is Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf), an average student who’s interested in girls and cars, but bored with school. Psyched about getting his first car, a few laughs are in store as his Dad (Kevin Dunn) first drives pass the Porsche dealer before driving into a car lot owned by Bobby Bolivia (Bernie Mac), that sells beat-up cars. Following Bobby’s words, “You don’t choose the car, the car chooses you”, Sam gets a mysterious, beat-up yellow 1974 Camaro as his first drive.
Sam’s pathetic attempts to impress the school jock’s girl Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) keep falling flat until one day at a party when he offers to send Mikaela home, after she had an argument with the jock. The car’s weird habit of playing the right song (“Sexual Feeling” and “Baby Come Back” being notable examples) at the right moment only serves to increase the initial tension. However, what really freaks Sam out is when the Camaro drives away at night on its own, and transforms into a giant robot that beams a ray of light into the nightsky.
The Camaro is in reality, Bumblebee (voiced by Mark Ryan), an Autobot that had been sent by Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, to gather information about on the AllSpark. Its Autobot friends head on to Earth after seeing Bumblebee’s ray of light.
Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) transforms into a semi-trailer truck, Jazz (voiced by Darius McCrary) transforms into a spankingly new Pontiac Solstice, Ironhide (voiced by Jess Harnell) transforms into a GMC Topkick pick-up truck, and Ratchet (voiced by Robert Foxworth) transforms into a Hummer H2, and together they meet up with Bumblebee, who by now is no longer the beat-up car, but instead, has transformed into a 2008 Chevrolet Camaro.
Meanwhile, Frenzy has located the one object that would lead the Decepticons to the AllSpark as well (Bumblebee found out first, thereby sending the ray of light to the other Autobots), and the Decepticons have assembled en masse to rescue their leader Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving), who had been frozen in Antarctica for hundreds of years just as it found the AllSpark, as well as get the AllSpark and continue on their hell-bent pathway to galaxy-domination. And that is when we get introduced to the rest of the Decepticons.
Starscream (voiced by Charlie Adler) transforms into an F-22 Raptor, Bonecrusher (voiced by Jimmie Wood) is a Buffalo H Mine-Protected vehicle, Brawl is a modified M1 Abrams tank and Barricade (voiced by Jess Harnell) is a Ford Mustang police car that just like Bumblee, was sent by the Decepticons to gather information on the AllSpark.
And that’s when all hell breaks lose, and the explosive-laden action unravels as the robots battle each other, brought to a devastating finish by Michael Bay’s brilliant direction.
Transformers is the first motion picture to be permitted to film in and around the Pentagon grounds since 9/11, and due to its collaboration with the military, the production was also able to gain access to high end hardware previously not seen on film, such as CV-22s, F-117s, C-17s and were allowed to film in military installations such as Holloman, Kirtland and Edwards Air Force Bases, something which added that touch of realism to the action scenes that featured military bases. The fact that almost every military role, including extras, were played by military or ex-military personnel also added that realistic touch, and it would be hard to distinguish the military action on screen with any news report on ongoing wars, such is the realism that the famously meticulous Michael Bay wanted for the film.
Much kudos has to go to the production’s animation department. The robots are indeed a breathtaking sight, and it showcases Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)’s animation prowess. In rendering the Transformers onto screen, Michael Bay felt that the classic “boxy” style of drawing Transformers wouldn’t work in a 3-D environment, and thus, each Transformer robot was designed with thousands of visible pieces, and even the simplest notion of turning a wrist required up to 17 visible pieces. ILM spent 38 hours rendering each frame of the characters’ digital models and on screen, the Transformers looked almost lifelike. In short, visually, the film is astounding. ILM has once again outdone themselves, and in Transformers, have created top notch visuals for others to measure up to.
As with every Michael Bay movie, there are loads of explosions, and in Transformers, Michael Bay has spent most of the $225million budget on more than 14 action sequences, including the destruction in Qatar, and the explosive highway sequence that is Bonecrusher’s rampage. Short of spoiling your experience, all I can say is keep your eyes wide open, for you do not want to miss any bit of the action. They are all very impressive spectacularly done sequences that will have you enthralled and salivating for more.
The acting is superb. Shia LeBeouf and Megan Fox are the perfect human surrogates for the cybertronian battle, and screen veteran Jon Voight, Josh Duhamel (Cpt. Lennox), Tyrese Gibson (Sgt. Epps), and Rachael Taylor (Maggie) delivers, despite the difficulties of acting as though the robots were right in front of them, even when they weren’t (the robots were only added after filming was done).
All in all, Transformers, voted “Best Summer Movie You Haven’t Seen Yet” at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards, is a stunning marriage between computer animation and brilliant acting. And just like the audience that stood up and gave it an ovation when the credits rolled, I’m very sure that you too, would surely enjoy the movie. It is a movie that far surpasses any expectations that you’ll have.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Movie Details:
Opens: June 28
Running Time: 144min
Cast: Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox, Jon Voight
Director: Michael Bay