Transformers, two days later.
Writing a proper, thorough review of Transformers is not an easy challenge. There are a lot of conflicting feelings swirling around this otherwise straight-forward sci-fi actionfest. Sorting those out into something coherent that someone else might read and comprehend is a bit daunting. Further, enumerating most of these ideas without citing examples (i.e. providing spoilers) would be even more difficult, so I'm not even going to try.
Let's get the easy part out of the way: this was an exceptionally fun movie. If you disagree with this statement, you may as well stop reading the review. Was it flawless? Absolutely not, and I would never presume to defend such a statement.
Transformers, to hear Spielberg tell it, is a story about a boy and his first car. Of course, his first car turns out to be an alien robot capable of reconfiguring its (his) body to resemble that of a terrestrial automobile -- specifically, a beat-up Camaro. This thread pervades the entire movie, even in the thickest, most chaotic action sequences, and it is this that unifies the movie.
Story / Plot: 6/10
A lot of people call this a "Michael Bay" movie. What most people typically mean by this varies, though. Some use it as a term of endearment -- count me among them. Others use it as a term of disparagement. Either way, the common elements that unite these perspectives tend to be enormous, explosive set pieces, little attention to complex (or, really, even sensible) story plotting, and a fairly large cheese factor. This movie has all of these things, and if any of them pose a problem for you, you will probably have that same problem with the movie.
One point of interest, though, is that unlike most Bay movies, there are actually several stories going on here. I think this, more than anything, is the movie's weakness. Remember what I said about the unifying thread? That's one story, and that's the heart and soul of the movie. That story works. The story it grows into also works: the Autobots vs. the Decepticons.
However, there are two other stories going on. One is about a super-secret government organization known as Sector Seven that even the Secretary of Defense doesn't know about (*eyeroll*), and the other is the story of the world's super-hackers trying to assess what the Decepticons who attack SOCCENT in Qatar during the first scenes of the movie were after. Ultimately, these two stories roll into one. And neither of them end up mattering, at all. The Sector Seven plot is ultimately relevant only insofar as to present us (or, more accurately, Sam Witwicky, the movie's protagonist) with the hidden location of the Allspark and the frozen Megatron, both on Earth for thousands of years. The super-hacker plot...is ultimately completely pointless altogether.
Unsurprisingly, then, it's these two plots that end up dragging the movie down. I've seen the movie criticized in a number of otherwise positive reviews for being too long. I would tend to agree -- it's inflated unnecessarily by these two entirely worthless plots which could have, much like Episodes I and II of the Star Wars franchise, been better summed up by a scene or two rather than entire sub-plots of their own.
The story is about a boy and his first car, which turns out to be an alien robot. This in turn ends up sweeping the boy -- and his entire planet -- up into an intergalactic conflict between two warring alien factions, which makes Earth the new battleground for their conflict. Whenever the movie deviates from this, it falters.
To that end, I'd rate the A plot as an 8/10 (there are still some fairly silly contrivances, such as going to downtown L.A. to "hide" the Allspark from the Decepticons, which ends up really just being an excuse to smash up buildings in an epic closing battle). The B and C plots, however, only get a 4 and 2 out of 10, respectively. The Sector Seven plot gets a 4 only because it's vaguely relevant to the backstory of why anything is going on, but it's still fairly unnecessary. Lending the A plot 2/3rds of the overall score, and the average of the two secondary plots the remaining third, you end up getting a 6/10 movie plot.
Acting / Characters: 7/10
There are four types of characters in this movie: human protagonists, transformers, supporting characters, and supernumeraries. Unfortunately, most of the people who would traditionally be regarded as protagonists or supporting characters become supernumeraries.
But let's look at the good. Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky delivers a completely genuine performance. Indeed, he carries this movie entirely, and whenever we're getting close to breaking out of our belief, Shia is there to bring us back in by grounding the movie in a bit of skeptical humor. How would someone act if they were suddenly confronted by their car being sapient, and capable of transforming into a humanoid robot? Shia's performance is about as close as I would imagine the reality to be. You'll hear nothing but praise for him from me.
A surprising turn was also in the character of Mikaela Banes, portrayed by Megan Fox. I expected Fox's character to be little more than eye candy and penile motivator for Sam, but instead she delivers a surprisingly good performance and her character is, as Sam rather cheesily states early on in the movie, "more than meets the eye."
Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson deliver small, but genuine performances as U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq who suddenly find themselves at the mercy of an unstoppable enemy. However, their performances are a lot smaller than their screen credit might suggest -- they're little more than memorable supernumeraries, much as Wedge Antilles was in the original Star Wars. The same goes for Kevin Dunn, portraying Sam's father. His role is fairly small, but it's delivered well and the humor among Sam's family really helps to keep the audience engaged and entertained in the slower parts of the movie.
The remainder of the human cast, though, leaves a lot to be desired. Anything and everything concerning the B and C plots mentioned above tends to be fairly bad. John Voight does little but show up and look alternately irritated or surprised as the Secretary of Defense. The less said about those involved in the super-hacker subplot, the better. Special mention should be made of John Turturro. I read an early review before seeing the movie that characterized Turturroas having the right amount of nuttiness given the subject matter, so I expected him to be slightly off the wall, but interesting. Instead, he ends up presenting himself as alternately as a 2D character, with the axes being retard or a bully.
Interestingly, though increasingly less and less surprising, is the quality of performance delivered by the "fake" characters of the movie. Unlike some of the humans, the Transformers are 100% believable. Bumblebee, despite lacking a voice, is an endearing good-hearted guardian. Optimus Prime is a regal, powerful leader. Ironhide is a feisty fighter. Jazz is a fast-talking acrobat. Ratchet is a methodical, intellectual healer. As soon as they're introduced, any interest in seeing most of the human cast -- again, with the exceptions of Shia and Megan -- disappears completely. You want to see these robots. These are the main characters, and you want screen-time spent on them. As mentioned above, it's sadly squandered in the B and C plots instead, but enough time is spent on them to leave you impressed by their "not"-performances.
The Decepticons other than Megatron are given little development time. This somewhat disappointing, but not terribly surprising. Their silence gives them a bit of menace as they tear apart those that stand in their way.
LaBeouf / Fox: 9/10
Supporting Cast: 4/10
Autobots: 9/10
Decepticons: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
Visceral: 10/10
Uniting what one might otherwise separate into "visual effects," "set pieces/sequences," and "sound," is the overall "visceral" experience. And it is here that Transformers does not fall down once. This movie demands multiple viewings, if only to absorb the ridiculous amount of stuff happening at any given moment on-screen. What's even more impressive is that much of what you're seeing, unless it's definitely digital -- such as the transformed robots -- is probably real, practical effects. It pays off, too; the airy insignificance of many of the Star Wars prequel effects are completely absent from Transformers, where everything crunches, explodes, or crashes with an inarguable sense of reality.
In particular, though, hats truly off to ILM. Being in the industry, I'm typically the first to criticize the tiniest fault in visual effects work; I'm hard to please and have extremely particular opinions on the visual aesthetic, particularly when the pursued visual style is realism. Hopefully, that will make the following statement have some significance: the visual effects in this movie are completely amazing. I almost used the term "unbelievable," but that's exactly what they aren't -- they are entirely authentic. At no point did I find myself even thinking, "Damn, that's some awesome CG." These are transforming robots, and they really did do all the things we saw. It's amazing.
One criticism I've seen leveled against the movie is that the combat sequences are confusing. The first criticism is usually the trademark Bay close-up shaky-cam. This, ultimately, is a stylistic choice, and if you don't like it, then I'm not even going to try and change your mind. It's personal preference, through and through. Some might prefer wide-angle, grandiose and stable shots as opposed to in-your-face camera-work. Personally, I think such shots would lack the motive energy necessary to sell them and keep the pace engaging.
Another criticism I've seen goes along the lines of "It was hard/impossible to tell who was who!" Honestly, I can't follow this line of thinking. At the very least, the Autobots are color-coded: Prime is red and blue, Bumblebee is yellow, Ratchet is green, Ironhide is black, and Jazz is silver. The Decepticons are a bit tricker, but can be fairly quickly distinguished by either their time in the movie, or their unique features: Megatron is the biggest, Starscream has the chicken-legs, Blackout has the helicopter blades on his back, Devastator/Brawl is the only other Decepticon involved in the final battle, Bonecrusher fights Prime one-on-one earlier in the movie, and Barricade is the police car, who we at first see on the highway, but who then disappears for the rest of the movie.
I'll probably cause a lot of eyes to roll, or alternately offend a lot of people, but what really gets me is the "they all look the same!" remark I see from time to time. Given that upon closer inspection, no, they do not look at all the same, one has to wonder if these are the same people who accuse Chinese or Japanese people of "all looking the same." I just cannot take this criticism seriously.
One thing overlooked a great deal in this section is the music. Rightly so, in that it's not extremely memorable in its own right. I do remember there being a recognizable theme, but I'd be hard-pressed to recall what it was. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. Star Wars was so grand because of John Williams. Transformers, though, doesn't seem to gain or lose anything from its music. I suppose this is a good thing -- the music does not annoy at any junction, but neither does it stand out. Stand out, memorable music in a film is always excellent, but the lack of it is rarely a mark of disfavor.
Overall: 8/10
So, there are some blemishes marring this otherwise awesome, tongue-in-cheek megarobot romp. Their origins are many and varied, but overall this was without a doubt a very satisfying experience. It's not an ultra-smart film, but rather is just smart enough to do what it needs to. It's certainly got a lot of character, and its principle characters are inarguably memorable and fun to watch. And, of course, as one of the people I saw the movie with remarked, "When I want to see giant robots smashing into buildings, Michael Bay is there for me."
I, for one, can't wait to see the sequel(s).
Let's get the easy part out of the way: this was an exceptionally fun movie. If you disagree with this statement, you may as well stop reading the review. Was it flawless? Absolutely not, and I would never presume to defend such a statement.
Transformers, to hear Spielberg tell it, is a story about a boy and his first car. Of course, his first car turns out to be an alien robot capable of reconfiguring its (his) body to resemble that of a terrestrial automobile -- specifically, a beat-up Camaro. This thread pervades the entire movie, even in the thickest, most chaotic action sequences, and it is this that unifies the movie.
Story / Plot: 6/10
A lot of people call this a "Michael Bay" movie. What most people typically mean by this varies, though. Some use it as a term of endearment -- count me among them. Others use it as a term of disparagement. Either way, the common elements that unite these perspectives tend to be enormous, explosive set pieces, little attention to complex (or, really, even sensible) story plotting, and a fairly large cheese factor. This movie has all of these things, and if any of them pose a problem for you, you will probably have that same problem with the movie.
One point of interest, though, is that unlike most Bay movies, there are actually several stories going on here. I think this, more than anything, is the movie's weakness. Remember what I said about the unifying thread? That's one story, and that's the heart and soul of the movie. That story works. The story it grows into also works: the Autobots vs. the Decepticons.
However, there are two other stories going on. One is about a super-secret government organization known as Sector Seven that even the Secretary of Defense doesn't know about (*eyeroll*), and the other is the story of the world's super-hackers trying to assess what the Decepticons who attack SOCCENT in Qatar during the first scenes of the movie were after. Ultimately, these two stories roll into one. And neither of them end up mattering, at all. The Sector Seven plot is ultimately relevant only insofar as to present us (or, more accurately, Sam Witwicky, the movie's protagonist) with the hidden location of the Allspark and the frozen Megatron, both on Earth for thousands of years. The super-hacker plot...is ultimately completely pointless altogether.
Unsurprisingly, then, it's these two plots that end up dragging the movie down. I've seen the movie criticized in a number of otherwise positive reviews for being too long. I would tend to agree -- it's inflated unnecessarily by these two entirely worthless plots which could have, much like Episodes I and II of the Star Wars franchise, been better summed up by a scene or two rather than entire sub-plots of their own.
The story is about a boy and his first car, which turns out to be an alien robot. This in turn ends up sweeping the boy -- and his entire planet -- up into an intergalactic conflict between two warring alien factions, which makes Earth the new battleground for their conflict. Whenever the movie deviates from this, it falters.
To that end, I'd rate the A plot as an 8/10 (there are still some fairly silly contrivances, such as going to downtown L.A. to "hide" the Allspark from the Decepticons, which ends up really just being an excuse to smash up buildings in an epic closing battle). The B and C plots, however, only get a 4 and 2 out of 10, respectively. The Sector Seven plot gets a 4 only because it's vaguely relevant to the backstory of why anything is going on, but it's still fairly unnecessary. Lending the A plot 2/3rds of the overall score, and the average of the two secondary plots the remaining third, you end up getting a 6/10 movie plot.
Acting / Characters: 7/10
There are four types of characters in this movie: human protagonists, transformers, supporting characters, and supernumeraries. Unfortunately, most of the people who would traditionally be regarded as protagonists or supporting characters become supernumeraries.
But let's look at the good. Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky delivers a completely genuine performance. Indeed, he carries this movie entirely, and whenever we're getting close to breaking out of our belief, Shia is there to bring us back in by grounding the movie in a bit of skeptical humor. How would someone act if they were suddenly confronted by their car being sapient, and capable of transforming into a humanoid robot? Shia's performance is about as close as I would imagine the reality to be. You'll hear nothing but praise for him from me.
A surprising turn was also in the character of Mikaela Banes, portrayed by Megan Fox. I expected Fox's character to be little more than eye candy and penile motivator for Sam, but instead she delivers a surprisingly good performance and her character is, as Sam rather cheesily states early on in the movie, "more than meets the eye."
Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson deliver small, but genuine performances as U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq who suddenly find themselves at the mercy of an unstoppable enemy. However, their performances are a lot smaller than their screen credit might suggest -- they're little more than memorable supernumeraries, much as Wedge Antilles was in the original Star Wars. The same goes for Kevin Dunn, portraying Sam's father. His role is fairly small, but it's delivered well and the humor among Sam's family really helps to keep the audience engaged and entertained in the slower parts of the movie.
The remainder of the human cast, though, leaves a lot to be desired. Anything and everything concerning the B and C plots mentioned above tends to be fairly bad. John Voight does little but show up and look alternately irritated or surprised as the Secretary of Defense. The less said about those involved in the super-hacker subplot, the better. Special mention should be made of John Turturro. I read an early review before seeing the movie that characterized Turturroas having the right amount of nuttiness given the subject matter, so I expected him to be slightly off the wall, but interesting. Instead, he ends up presenting himself as alternately as a 2D character, with the axes being retard or a bully.
Interestingly, though increasingly less and less surprising, is the quality of performance delivered by the "fake" characters of the movie. Unlike some of the humans, the Transformers are 100% believable. Bumblebee, despite lacking a voice, is an endearing good-hearted guardian. Optimus Prime is a regal, powerful leader. Ironhide is a feisty fighter. Jazz is a fast-talking acrobat. Ratchet is a methodical, intellectual healer. As soon as they're introduced, any interest in seeing most of the human cast -- again, with the exceptions of Shia and Megan -- disappears completely. You want to see these robots. These are the main characters, and you want screen-time spent on them. As mentioned above, it's sadly squandered in the B and C plots instead, but enough time is spent on them to leave you impressed by their "not"-performances.
The Decepticons other than Megatron are given little development time. This somewhat disappointing, but not terribly surprising. Their silence gives them a bit of menace as they tear apart those that stand in their way.
LaBeouf / Fox: 9/10
Supporting Cast: 4/10
Autobots: 9/10
Decepticons: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
Visceral: 10/10
Uniting what one might otherwise separate into "visual effects," "set pieces/sequences," and "sound," is the overall "visceral" experience. And it is here that Transformers does not fall down once. This movie demands multiple viewings, if only to absorb the ridiculous amount of stuff happening at any given moment on-screen. What's even more impressive is that much of what you're seeing, unless it's definitely digital -- such as the transformed robots -- is probably real, practical effects. It pays off, too; the airy insignificance of many of the Star Wars prequel effects are completely absent from Transformers, where everything crunches, explodes, or crashes with an inarguable sense of reality.
In particular, though, hats truly off to ILM. Being in the industry, I'm typically the first to criticize the tiniest fault in visual effects work; I'm hard to please and have extremely particular opinions on the visual aesthetic, particularly when the pursued visual style is realism. Hopefully, that will make the following statement have some significance: the visual effects in this movie are completely amazing. I almost used the term "unbelievable," but that's exactly what they aren't -- they are entirely authentic. At no point did I find myself even thinking, "Damn, that's some awesome CG." These are transforming robots, and they really did do all the things we saw. It's amazing.
One criticism I've seen leveled against the movie is that the combat sequences are confusing. The first criticism is usually the trademark Bay close-up shaky-cam. This, ultimately, is a stylistic choice, and if you don't like it, then I'm not even going to try and change your mind. It's personal preference, through and through. Some might prefer wide-angle, grandiose and stable shots as opposed to in-your-face camera-work. Personally, I think such shots would lack the motive energy necessary to sell them and keep the pace engaging.
Another criticism I've seen goes along the lines of "It was hard/impossible to tell who was who!" Honestly, I can't follow this line of thinking. At the very least, the Autobots are color-coded: Prime is red and blue, Bumblebee is yellow, Ratchet is green, Ironhide is black, and Jazz is silver. The Decepticons are a bit tricker, but can be fairly quickly distinguished by either their time in the movie, or their unique features: Megatron is the biggest, Starscream has the chicken-legs, Blackout has the helicopter blades on his back, Devastator/Brawl is the only other Decepticon involved in the final battle, Bonecrusher fights Prime one-on-one earlier in the movie, and Barricade is the police car, who we at first see on the highway, but who then disappears for the rest of the movie.
I'll probably cause a lot of eyes to roll, or alternately offend a lot of people, but what really gets me is the "they all look the same!" remark I see from time to time. Given that upon closer inspection, no, they do not look at all the same, one has to wonder if these are the same people who accuse Chinese or Japanese people of "all looking the same." I just cannot take this criticism seriously.
One thing overlooked a great deal in this section is the music. Rightly so, in that it's not extremely memorable in its own right. I do remember there being a recognizable theme, but I'd be hard-pressed to recall what it was. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. Star Wars was so grand because of John Williams. Transformers, though, doesn't seem to gain or lose anything from its music. I suppose this is a good thing -- the music does not annoy at any junction, but neither does it stand out. Stand out, memorable music in a film is always excellent, but the lack of it is rarely a mark of disfavor.
Overall: 8/10
So, there are some blemishes marring this otherwise awesome, tongue-in-cheek megarobot romp. Their origins are many and varied, but overall this was without a doubt a very satisfying experience. It's not an ultra-smart film, but rather is just smart enough to do what it needs to. It's certainly got a lot of character, and its principle characters are inarguably memorable and fun to watch. And, of course, as one of the people I saw the movie with remarked, "When I want to see giant robots smashing into buildings, Michael Bay is there for me."
I, for one, can't wait to see the sequel(s).