Entertaining (but flawed) action fluff

Rating: 6/10 (22 December 2018)

"Transformers" is a lot of fun. Despite the negative reception the future installments of the franchise would receive, this Michael Bay effort is at least entertaining. Action scenes are plentiful and satisfying and the CGI has aged quite well for the most part. Unfortunately, the human characters are either very annoying or stock cliché. Shia LaBeouf's Sam Witwicky is always nervous, always sweating, always making excuses for himself. Megan Fox is there as the eye candy love interest and of course we have your typical military types, comedy relief types, and government agent types. Despite the long run time, the film doesn't feel like it buckles under its own weight. Too bad the Transformers don't show up until an hour in. "Transformers" is great popcorn fun but the characters and Michael Bay-style humor will leave some viewers rolling their eyes.