Disturbing Pro-War Propaganda Disturbs otherwise Harmless Action Flick

Rating: 6/10 (5 July 2007)

I was ready to switch my brain off walking into the theatre, especially when it comes to Michael Bay. But what bothered me were the obvious pro-Iraq war messages being delivered front and centre. A lot of current events involving world affairs play a part in the story. Why? This is a dumb movie based on a kids toy. That's what's disturbing. The pro-Military message: "We are in for the long fight", (like Bush's perpetual War Against Terror) is being drilled directly into young teenagers heads. For the sake of the Transformers legend (Good robots battle Bad robots over Energy Cube) there isn't much need to bring Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Bush, and Rumsfeld (played by Jon Voight). Worse, there is the heavy line at the pinnacle of the movie, where our hero says "No Sacrifice, No Victory". Pick up your Army brochures in the lobby.
The film gets off to a disturbing start, with an all too familiar site of US soldiers (and civilians) fighting and dying in the middle east. What is this scene doing in a kids Transformer movie? There are also jabs at outsourcing in India, immigrants speaking Spanish, and clichés about African-Americans. Technically, there was too much reliance on CGI to wow you at the end. Unfortunately, Michael Bay's patented moving camera shots left me feeling a little dizzy, and mostly unable to get a good angle on the robot fights. Seriously, when you cut from a tracking shot straight to another tracking shot, you need to be able to get your bearings. But no, you cut away too quickly for anything to register. This carries on at the end for way too long. There are really so many wow shots one can handle in succession to have any real appreciation for the peril that anyone might be in.
It is really too bad this all falls apart in the third act, because I could feel the Spielberg influence in Shia LaBeouf's character, and could dig the Boy and his Car subtext. I also applaud the over-the-top attitude about how the robots behave. This is the first American movie that has really embraced the kooky Japanese MechaGodzilla type of nonsense. This comes complete with a clueless military, two kids that always hold the key to everything, and kid-friendly heroes. Michael Bay has no idea how to make a proper film, having directed 1000's of TV commercials. At least there was some decent story elements that entertained me most of the time. But Bay will never get any legitimate credibility as long as he literally has no ideas beyond - keep the camera moving.