Transformers (2007)

Transformers is a modern twist on the classic Hasbro toys and cartoons that those of us born in the late '70s and early '80s grew up on. The movie tells the story of the Transformers arrival on Earth, and the battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons to possess the All Spark. I was a huge fan of these toys and especially cartoons as a child; I even got my youngest brother hooked with a '90s remake called Dinobots. All said, I really enjoyed this movie, it fulfilled all of my expectations. Shia LeBeouf was excellent as Sam, the protagonist, as was Josh Duhamel, playing the lead soldier. There are several great actors and performances in this movie; overall, a well acted film. I liked the plot of the movie, I thought the story made a lot of sense, but there were a few problems. The movie begins with a stereotype high school story that involves Shia LeBeouf as a dorky kid who wants to get, and ends up, with the hot girl. To me, that plot line was completely unnecessary and hardly believable. When Molly Ringwald plays a teenage dork, it is credible because she actually is kind of a dork. When Shia, one of today's hottest young actors, plays one, it is hard to take seriously. Additionally, some of the moment-to-moment plot details were a little too corny for me, like when a transformer removes Shia's pants; that was pretty pointless. The only other problem I had with this movie was that the director was Michael Bay, which is unfortunately obvious throughout. Anyone who has seen Pearl Harbor will understand what I am talking about. The biggest problem is that a lot of the action hard to follow; it moves too fast and it is not clear which transformer is doing what, or even which transformer is on screen. Something I loved about Transformers was the voice of Optimus Prime, I thought it was spot on, both forceful and soothing at the same time. Megatron's voice was also close to perfect, very evil and dominating. The only voice that was lacking was Star Scream, whose voice really needed to be a bit more insane. There are two great lines in this movie. This first is a joke at the beginning, when a character comments that the machines must be of Japanese origin, which is funny since Transformers were invented in Japan. The second is the last line of the movie, in which Optimus references the classic "more than meets the eye"; this brought the movie home perfectly for those of us who remember the old toy commercials. This movie is not perfect, but I really liked it. Shia LeBeouf's parents are hilarious addition, and for a movie that references something I loved as a child, everything worked really well. Compared to the new Star Wars movies, it was close to perfect. My wife had little interest in seeing this, but it was not made for girls who grew up in the '80s, it was made for little boys. I give Transformers 3 and half stars.