Review of Transformers (2007) by James R — 10 Jun 2017

It's been a decade since this movie came out and I still really enjoy this popcorn flick. It's still a Michael Bay film, so haters are still gonna hate, but I think this movie works well with its combination of action, comedy and plot (even though it's ridiculous at times).

The film is based on the Transformers cartoon show from the 80's and while it pays plenty of homage to the tv series it itself is its own story. The Transformers are a race of robots that lived on the planet Cybertron, but through a civil war their society branched off into two factions: The Autobots lead by Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and the Decepticons led by Megatron (Hugo Weaving).

The two factions fought over an item called the AllSpark which could give life to anything it touches. It was lost and both sides have been looking for it ever since to help rebuild their world. Megatron crashes into Earth during 1895 in the Arctic Circle and is found by an explorer who gets the coordinates to the AllSpark burned into his glasses.

Flash forward to 2007 and Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) the great-great grandson of the explorer has the glasses in his possession and buys an used Camaro from a local dealer. Long story short Sam finds out his Camaro is in fact the Autobot named Bumblebee (Mark Ryan) who calls the rest of the Autobots to Earth since they now have the AllSpark coordinates.

During this time Sam comes in contact with a fellow classmate named Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) who is possibly the hottest girl on the planet. Mikaela joins Sam and Bumblebee when they meet Optimus Prime and his crew including: Jazz (Darius McCrary) a smooth talking Autobot, Ironhide (Jess Harnell) the weapon specialist, and Ratchet (Robert Foxworth) the team medic.

Together they team together to stop the Decepticons from uncovering the AllSpark and reviving Megatron! I went a bit too long there. The plot is kinda complicated to a certain point and even this doesn't touch everything.

The movie also stars Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson as Captain Lennox and Sergeant Epps. These two are based in Qatar and first uncover the Decepticons when they attack a base. They eventually team up at the very end.

Plot aside now the movie actually has some pretty cool action sequences. There's a lot of CGi used, but it's used pretty damn realistically. The movie still even holds up for a movie that came out ten years ago.

There's a lot of fun moments in this film and although there's some ridiculous plots and moments (Sam really is the only one who can bring the damn AllSpark up to the rooftop when he's surrounded by soldiers?!) it is a good watch.

Shia LaBeouf may be a bit goofy, but damn he does really good in this film. He's funny and kind of plays the audience because this is all new to him as well. He's not perfect and not entirely the smartest person and it works for him.

Megan Fox is probably a weaker link here. She's absolutely beautiful don't get me wrong, but her acting in this one is pretty wooden at times. Overall, solid beginning to the franchise which unfortunately could never recapture the fun and excitement that happened for this film.