Entertaining, but still lacking in places

Rating: 7/10 (26 July 2007)

I went into Transformers expecting to see a childhood memory butchered into a mass appeal CGI fest. I was pleasantly surprised that this was not so, and the movie had me well entertained almost the entire way through. The cast was good and likable, even though the script had some seriously dodgy dialog in places it did the job, and the Tranformer effects and character designs themselves were well realized.
The main problem I had with the movie was the way the Transformers were treated as side characters to the human cast. The characters I remember were reduced to mere CGI set pieces with little personality, and most only have a few lines of dialog and are only introduced briefly towards the middle of the film.
I also am not particularly a fan of the way Michael Bay directed the more hectic action scenes, with the camera shaking all over the place. I know some prefer it, but I personally did not, and thought it took away from the incredible CGI.
Overall, a good, but not great movie which could have done with some more Tranformer screen time and character development.