A Noisy Mess

Rating: 6/10 (10 July 2007)

I was, as a youth, deep in the prime years of Transformers. I owned them, I played with them, I watched the show avidly and was 11 years old when the first "Transformers: The Movie" came out. It is with some sadness I report that Michael Bay has tarnished my fond memories.
The movie had such great potential; the action, art direction, the characters, the powerful themes of humanity and triumph over evil. Bay mangled them all. This movie suffers from many critical flaws which result in it being simply a bad movie. No character development is created for the title characters: The Transformers. We never care about their battle, we simply watch it. This leads to the next problem, with the exception of the Scorponok scene, there is no suspense or interest. Big machines just trade gunfire. If I wanted that I could play the video game - and at least be involved. The action is either too fast to see or in Bay's trademark groan-inducing slow motion. The Transformers take too long to transform, there's way too many moving parts to make it even believable, and the film makers lose track of what they should be doing (telling a story) and instead focus on fancy lighting and excessively complex noise.
Please let someone like James Cameron, who can direct technological-oriented films and not lose their heart, direct the sequel.
6/10