Plays it safe and, not surprisingly, ends up being mediocre

Rating: 5/10 (27 June 2008)

Transformers follows the standard "box office blockbuster" formula very closely. Throw in a lot of special effects, some simplistic humor, your standard good vs. evil battle and a hot girl. What you end up with is a watchable, but utterly forgettable movie.
As a kid I grew up with the Transformers toys, comics and animated series. I was excited to see the robots brought to life with high-end special effects. In this respect, the movie does not disappoint. Each Transformer is an elaborate, well-thought-out machine. Their transformations are incredibly intricate, believable and well done.
So what's wrong with the movie? Well, beyond the special effects, it doesn't really try to do anything special. The Batman series is a good example of taking a story intended for kids and making it more sophisticated for the big screen. Tim Burton's original was an all-time classic and "Batman Begins" was an unexpectedly dark, realistic interpretation of the comic book character. Transformers doesn't aim nearly as high as either of those movies. It sticks with a very basic, straight-forward interpretation that would have been right at home in the kid's animated series.
The Transformers themselves have wooden, unlikable personalities. In many ways they seem completely interchangeable. The central human characters are weak as well. Megan Fox is unbelievably attractive, yet her acting is laughably bad. The writing is at least partially to blame; nearly every character from human to transformer is under-developed. The humor is for the most part juvenile and the plot never really goes anywhere. The viewer simply waits for the next dramatic battle and hopes the cheesy dialogue and predictable plot development in between won't be too painful.
In the end, not much reason is given for the actions of the Transformers. Some are simply evil and want to rule the universe, others are simply good and try to protect all life. Even the animated series offered a little more insight into the motivations of the Autobots and Decepticons. Rather than develop a more interesting story, the movie seems intent on cracking lame jokes and constantly showing Megan Fox in a tight skirt. This is certainly not a terrible movie, but there's nothing memorable or special going on here either.