I enjoyed Transformers. I think it's the best Michael Bay film in a long time. For better or worse, Michael Bay has stamped his signature on the film, the slow-mo, the herky jerky editing, 360-degree panning cam (which I couldn't help but smile at, since it was parodied by HOT FUZZ as well, which I saw last week) the hyper-kinetic cinematography. Yeap, riddled with Bay-isms, film looks like a music video and a commercial, and ultimately, Transformers is really a Michael Bay film that happens to have... Transformers in it.
Many people I know, many blogs I've read have raved about the film. I'm not surprised, it's an entertaining popcorn film, a joyride for the masses. It's funny, it's action-packed, it's good eye-candy (besides the robots, MEGAN FOX provided the rest of the visual candy)
.... and there are lots of explosions. It's not a soulless, pretentious piece of garbage like PEARL HARBOUR (a film I hate with a passion, so much that I would terminate my friendship with any friend who dares say in my face that the film's good), nor a smug, self-aware rubbish like BAD BOYS 2. (but other than that, I enjoyed BAD BOYS and THE ROCK, treated ARMAGEDDON as guilty pleasure, and thought that THE ISLAND wasn't THAT bad)
But for me, as much as I enjoyed it, I find that it's structurally flawed. The important Autobots characters (including Optimus Prime) are introduced too late into the film, thus besides wowing me with the special effects, they didn't help much with the story. Like I said before, the CGI in the film's pretty groundbreaking, to the point where occasionally, I would repeat to myself "whoa man, I'm seeing realistic-looking GIANT ROBOTS in a LIVE-ACTION film", but sometime during the explosive final battle at the last act, I started getting really confused "who is fighting who?" and then "er... why am I rooting for the Autobots again?". Doesn't help much when the fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron turns out to be such a disappointment.
It became a rare Michael Bay film where I actually cared more about the HUMAN CHARACTERS! (I most likely belong to the minority, I'm sure most others prefer the robot-on-robot action) Maybe it has to do with the amusing acting and the comedy. Shia Lebouf is really likable as the protagonist Sam Witwicky, who tries hard to win the affections of his dream girl Mikaela (Megan Fox!!!!), and while romantic subplot in Michael Bay films tend to be really puke-inducing (look at the animal crackers scene in ARMAGADDEON, look at EVERYTHING in PEARL HARBOUR), the romance in TRANSFORMERS is actually interesting enough. Maybe it has to do with Megan Fox. Maybe Shia Lebouf's character is just much more likable than the romantic leads in the other two films (... which, coincidentally, were both played by Ben Affleck).
Film is really more an ensemble film, and some characters stick out, like John Turturro's wacky Agent Simmons, Anthony Anderson's super hacker (who is completely identical to Kevin Smith's character in DIE HARD 4), and the heroic soldiers led by Sergeant Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and USAF Tech Sergeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson), Rachel Taylor's Aussie accent is yummy.
But who am I kidding, this film is an instant classic because of MEGAN FOX!!!!!
Sorry, I think my mind had just exploded, I'm ending this film review prematurely. I can't continue writing this properly, just drop your comments and we'll resume discussion about the film.
(I cringed when the film ended with the Linkin Park song)
Megan Fox promoting Transformers at Jimmy Kemmel
Megan Fox clip in Transformers...
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