Action, Humour.......and More Action

Rating: 9/10 (3 August 2007)

Transformers Finally a non-sequel!!! It's not that this year's sequels weren't good, but you have to admit that the vast number of franchises was getting stale. In comes Transformers with as much hype to fill in the entire world's theatres, and whilst this film is not for girls, it is one hell of a ride for fans of the original animated series and even to those who didn't know who the hell Meagatron was!
In Qatar the American military forces, are attacked by a mysterious and unknown force, which leaves many dead with the sole exceptions of Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and his team. Meanwhile, back in the "normal" world, luckless Sam gets his first car, which incidentally turns out to be an autobot with the name Bumblebee. Eager to impress high-school hottie Mikela, Sam offers her a ride, but when things start to go wrong and Sam is attacked by one of the Deceptions, Sam and Mikela must put aside their prejudices and work alongside the Autobots led by the legendary Optimus Prime in an epic battle against the Deceptions under the commands of the menacing Megatron.
I wasn't expecting any superb acting turns from this movie, but I was surprised to find that the film sported many good performances. Shia LeBeouf is an excellent choice for the role of Sam WitWicky, giving a performance bustling with charisma and crackling with energy. He has been rightly tagged as Hollywood's next big thing! Megan Fox is a newcomer, but even though when she was on screen, her acting skills were the last thing I was thinking about. Still, her character is ruddy brilliant, and Michael Bay gad already used this technique with Scalett Johannsen on The Island. Josh Duhamel isn't bad either, even though his problems and inner conflict are hardly hinted at. Jon Voigt's character is unnecessary and is in my opinion miscast as his role should have gone to a younger, more menacing actor. But overall, this is a very good haul, with the young leads obviously standing out.
The screenplay is decent, and the dialogue is classic Michael Bay. What bothers me is that when important topics are raised these are drained by an explosion or any other form of noisy distraction. Pity though! Also the film is unbelievably humorous, and whilst most of its humour is dark, the jokes centre on awkwardness and embarrassment instead of the usual slapstick humour. The film also goes around the usual boy meets girl fun, and this played quite well, with LeBeouf easily making us sympathize with him.
The special effects are unprecedented, and this is because it is much more difficult to use special effects with robots which are huge and made up of a good many things, than with let's say Spiderman. The effects are put to good use, but they never take complete control. Megatron is obviously the film's tour-de-force and the Autobots are similarly good, even though the voice acting could've been far better. Still, their ridiculousness had me roaring with laughter! The final battle is epic, but it's a little to.busyto truly stand out. Mini battles happen within the big battle which causes confusion.
Verdict If treated as a comedy, this film will go down in film history books, as an action movie, it is the mother of all, but as the best film of the year, it needs more drama to go down with the brilliant humour and action.