Almost more of a comedy than a sci-fi film

Rating: 6/10 (10 December 2014)

Back in 2007, Michael Bay was back with his newest project: Transformers. With "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor" already under his belt, he was known for films who managed to shine more through gigantic special effects than through critical acclaim. However, "Transformers" brought him at least a bit of the latter. This was Shia LaBeouf's breakthrough movie and with 150 minutes it runs very long again just like Bay's previous works.
The first 100 minutes are really something like "American Pie meets sci-fi". The humor switches between really funny and downright cringeworthy on some occasions. The last third of the film is basically no comedy at all anymore, just 50 minutes of science fiction and action sequences as we get to watch Optimus Prime battle Megatron. The movie got some acclaim at the teenager-oriented movie awards and at the Oscars it received three nominations in the technical categories, but lost them all (2 of these to the newest Bourne movie). One of these nominations was the sound editing category, where the team from "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy reunited. In the sound mixing category, Kevin O'Connell scored his 20th and so far most recent Academy Award nomination. Still no win though. A somewhat sad Academy record. "Transformers" features new faces in some of the key roles, including LaBeouf, but frequent movie-goers also get to see Jon Voight, John Turturro and some more experienced Hollywood actors. This includes regulars from "House M.D.", "Law & Order" and "Prison Break" for example in some of the parts.
One character who did almost nothing for me (except being delighted to see Anthony Anderson in her scenes too) was Rachael Taylor's. It added really nothing of worth to the whole story. I could have done completely without her and that wasn't even the actress' fault.
This movie does not have one gigantic major flaw. It's okay for the most of it, but it wasn't really outstanding either. Megan Fox is nice to look at and the special effects are pretty spectacular. LaBeouf gives a performance that is appropriate for a superhero movie. Personally I'd recommend it more to younger audiences. There's not really any harmful violence going on and the humor in the first 100 minutes (which would actually work as a comedy film on its own) is just aimed at teenagers mostly. So if you like science fiction films, give it a go.