Wild/Loud Summer Fun w/Robots

Rating: 8/10 (17 August 2009)

I was not a Transformers kid when I grew up in the 80's and I think that's why I wasn't so hard on Michael Bay's film when I caught it in the summer of 2007. Going into the film for the first time, the only characters I knew by name were Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Bumblebee (and I only knew of him through the mention of friends). So, without having the fanboy mentality, I was able to enjoy the movie as it was...and I did. I thought it was a fun action flick and one of the best popcorn movies from the year. Based on the Hasbro toyline and it's resulting animated series/comics, the film follows high-schooler Sam Witwicky who discovers his Camaro is a shape-shifting alien robot; he is soon brought into the middle of a war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, warring factions of a race of sentient robots.
Let's be honest. The only things that matter about this movie are the special effects and the action sequences. ILM did a fantastic job with the Transformers in this film. The robots look amazing and their transformations are seamless. I've heard that some classic fans aren't satisfied with their designs but I felt they did a good job adding what realism they could to giant fighting robots. The action sequences aren't as abundant as one would expect, but I'm not complaining. I felt there were enough action scenes without going overboard and drowning out story. The battles feel epic and they aren't heavily edited into quick jump cuts so you can still understand what is going on.
The cast does an adequate job and keep the movie from feeling B-grade. Shia LaBeouf was charismatic and had a good sense of comedic timing; John Turturro was a fun addition as the mental Sector 7 agent Simmons. Jon Voight seemed almost out of place in the film, though added a bit of class. I know there have been a lot of complaints about human characters in the movie, but it's a necessary element and I'm not complaining. The supporting cast did a great job; my favorites had to be Kevin Dunn and Julie White as Sam's eccentric parents. I felt the movie shouldn't have gone over 2 hours as it does begin to strain on the patience after a while but it still made for a fun ride.