An unbalanced movie delivering good and bad expectations

Rating: 4/10 (22 July 2007)

Firstly, let's get the obligatory bit out of the way - yes I am a fan of G1 Transformers, however I was not expecting a direct adaptation, had given Bay the benefit of the doubt and had even come to like the new designs.
I expected a film with a lot of action, but little plot - as long as there was plenty of action, robots fighting and transformation. The film fell short in both departments - in action and in plot.
Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of action, however not consistently throughout the movie and in particular the very, very brief encounters with some of the Transformers compared to the length of time spent with 2-dimensional, cheesy human actors.
Whilst not expecting a good plot there are still expectations that there should be one, and certainly an action film should be remembered for its action sequences and not an analysis of the many gaping and open-ended plot holes. The film is very unbalanced leaving a lot of the expected action crammed into a 'suger rush' at the end, with a very long, drawnout and not very interesting hour or so sandwhiched between great action, good humour and character development. By the time the real action sequences came around I was so bored and disinterested I didn't actually care - a good plot needs to carry viewer empathy otherwise it's no better than a video game.
Bay's greatest problem with this was in trying to make the film credible and based on real physics as there are moments in this film that throw that whole concept out of the window, and the minute you stop 'believing' the film is when you see it is no more realistic or 'adult' than the cartoons. For such a simple, childish plot, why have it a 12a certificate? One or the other - is it for adults or for kids? In short, the robots are great but the plot is embarrassing. Hopefully the sequel will be better thought-out.