Great visual and sound effects, lots of humour and a lot of flaws.

Rating: 8/10 (30 June 2007)

Transformers is a very mixed bag. There are great things about it and there are some not-so-great things about it...
The good:

The visual effects. Perhaps the best special effects I've ever seen in a movie. The transformations are amazing not to mention super-awesome. The CGI fits in seamlessly with the live action and it's easy to forget how logistically difficult a lot of it would have been to film.

The sound design. The sound effects complement the action perfectly making everything twice as exciting. Probably less acknowledged is the alien atmosphere created by some of the score which heightens the tension very effectively and probably without the majority of the audience noticing.

Shia LeBeouf. Without him the movie wouldn't be nearly as engaging. He has natural comic timing and is probably second to none in expressing disbelief of the "holy crap, there's a giant alien robot transforming in front of me" variety.

The humour. Transformers is funnier than most good comedies which I was not expecting in the least. The transformers themselves are often funnier than they are impressive.

The Decepticons. Man are they cool. The opening scene is particularly kick-arse.

The bad:

Megan Fox. If hot means "can't act and doesn't weigh much" then yes, she's very hot. It's not a good sign if you want one of the main characters to die or at least get out of the way and stop trying to act. Her performance just seemed very shallow and probably wasn't helped by her dialogue.

The script. Although the overall storyline is good, some of the dialogue is terrible. Too much of the film is spent on mumbo jumbo technical explanations the audience just doesn't care about. The less serious parts of the script work very well though.

Michael Bay. Although some of the action scenes are very well put together and the humorous parts are timed very well, Bay can't help but ruin some of the scenes with unnecessarily flashy editing and over the top drama accompanied by none-too-subtle dramatic music. It's not that Michael Bay's style is too loud, it's that it's too clichéd.

The music. Nothing new here (other than the alien sounding parts). Practically rips of Batman Begins and is otherwise forgettable. The music should enhance the film by bringing out interesting themes or emotions, not force feeding us the drama we can plainly see on the screen in super slow motion.

The ugly:

Megatron. He's ugly. And super cool.

So, my verdict? The good outweighs the bad pretty comfortably. If you took out the bad you might even have a classic on your hands. Instead you get revolutionary action scenes and some great comedy with Michael Bay's unique brand of mediocre directing sprinkled throughout.