Review of Transformers (2007) by Lihui C — 24 Apr 2014

7 years ago this movie completely blew me away. Everything about this movie was just awesome. The action was intense, the special effects were incredible and still looks great to this day. And the acting was so well done between the robots and the human characters that I almost believed that the Autobots and Deceptions were real. It was even because of this movie that I was formerly introduced to the "Transformers" franchise. Of course after exposure to other incarnations, multiple viewings and other better movies, it's not as perfect as I thought it was but it's still a fun and spectacular special effects extravaganza.

The first live action Transformers movie is about the ongoing war between the Autobots and Decepticons and how they bring their war to Earth looking for the Allspark cube and get us in the crossfire including a young teenager Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), his crush Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox), a military unit and various other characters.

Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox as Sam and Mikaela respectively make for good likeable leads. "Transformers" was the breakout role for both of them especially more so for Megan Fox since it launched her career as a movie actress and sex symbol. She played a good role since her character was rough, gritty, street-smart and incredibly gorgeous to boot. Shia also did well here too as the awkward and geeky teenager looking for a car so that he can impress the girl. He delivered some good lines including the classic "I bought a car" line and had some good chemistry with Megan. Other mainstream actors like Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Anthony Anderson, Jon Voight, Kevin Dunn, Julie White and John Turturro were here but the most memorable was Turturro as the federal agent Simmons from Sector 7. Turturro brought a lot of good humor to the series since he knew what he was working with. But the biggest icing on the cake was bringing the original Optimus Prime "Peter Cullen" back to voice the character since he had the commanding and noble voice that defined Optimus. As for Megatron, Hugo Weaving came in and he did a great job for the most part giving Megatron that sinister and menacing voice that Frank Welker originally gave even though his role in this movie was short. (Trivia: Welker couldn't come back to voice the character since Michael Bay thought that his current voice didn't fit but I've recently watched the newer tv series "Transformers: Prime" and Welker reprised the role there and he was just as good as he was in the original show even though he sounded much older.) So I don't completely understand why he couldn't come back but that's a nitpick and Weaving still did a great job.

Even after seven years the special effects and action scenes still pack an incredible punch and considering that most of the effects were done by Industrial Light and Magic it shouldn't be a surprise. And while Michael Bay is pretty infamous for making high octane popcorn films with fast edits and stylistic visuals, he was a "decent" choice for directing this trilogy but with one criticism and it's the most cliché thing to say now since everyone else before me has said it but I'm still going to say it anyways. (The human characters overshadow the Transformers themselves in their own movie trilogy.) Because of this, character development from most of the Autobots and Decepticons is minimal to none with most fan favorites reduced to cameo roles. And unless if you are at least familiar with the other incarnations including the G1 series from the 80s, you might not get some of the references or know the relationships with one another. Even the script is questionable at times with the robots doing things out of character like Optimus Prime saying "Oops" or "Sorry my bad" after accidentally trampling a backyard water fountain and a small garden or even Bumblebee urinating on Simmons when he refuses to talk. (I'm not kidding, he actually does that in the movie.)(These are more personal nitpicks because I like the "Transformers" franchise and like other fans I'd like the characters to be more faithful to their original incarnations, much like the reboot of "Star Trek" which modernized the franchise but remained faithful to the original series but I'm going off topic.).

That all being said, "Transformers" is a flawed but entertaining and fun summer sci-fi action flick that I still enjoy to watch every now and then.