Prime yourself for the ride of your life:

Rating: 4/10 (4 December 2007)

It is now the year 2007 and the time-line of the infamous robot wars from deep space that started back in the nineteen eighties and throughout the last thirty years has transmogrified into what we see hear today. Michael Bay's translation of this highly regarded cult is a more than modest attempt to not just widen the appeal of this sci-fi phenomenon but to use the technology of modern film-making to its full potential. While potentially seeming to be a teen movie, with its young cast of heroes set against over bearing, but kind and loving, parents, the generation gap never seems so agonisingly embarrassing, but comical, to our young hero here and the authoritative figures that wouldn't look out of place in the next Men in Black movie, Transformers is a wonderful action and adventure sci-fi that can, and should, appeal across the broad.
With the Autobots, the good guys, and the Decepticons both gunning for the same prize; Sam Witwicky, the unwitting teen who holds the one article that can save or destroy the planet, it now depends on which clan of robot will reach him first.
With its origins forming in nineteen seventies Japanese culture, these tiny toys were taken overseas by the American toy company Hasbro (My Little Pony, Monopoly, Twister) near the mid nineteen eighties. After this jump from the Rising Sun to the land of prosperity it was now time for these tiny 'bots to make a big impression on the minds of a new and willing culture: The Transformers had arrived.
This is pure Hollywood, pure Stars and Stripes, and being slightly a little formalistic in its delivery, with seemingly one dimensional and stereotypical caricatures, it isn't that bad a job in its more physical attributes. Whilst not altogether weak characters, some deeper development might have given this movie more scope, but, this isn't what Transformers is about, with its ethos of all action, all razzmatazz in its main concept of world domination by metallic ET's, this was never going to be a deep social comment on the subject of war and peace.
Divided into two acts, the first being the introduction of our characters and 'bots, with, at times, an amusing and witty dialogue, exciting action that captivates this theme well, not too slow and not too rushed; intriguing and more than capable both in the visual and physical aspects of this genre, there really is a fine blend to keep the ball rolling in the right direction, to prep us readily for the second act.
With Michael Bay utilising his skill of vision, direction and imagination it isn't long before the second act kicks in, when all are sitting comfortably in their respective roles it is now time for the action to kick in proper. It is the second act that we see these motorised warriors in their prime, it is the visual believability that holds its own, and the action and pace never lets up for a moment, this fighting of the metal giants is stupendous, fighting among the city streets and skies, if this had been "scratch and sniff" then we would more than quiver in our seats; This is where modern movie making takes a bow and it is the work of Academy Award winner (Cocoon (1985)) Scott Farrar, Visual Effects Supervisor, and his achievement at winning the 2007 Hollywood Film Festival "Visual Effects Supervisor of the Year" Award. His work on Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) and Jurassic Park (1993) et al show wonderment at his ability to make us believe that these robots are not mere fantasy but are actually among us, working larger than life size models of their tiny counterparts that seems now so far away from the early days of nineteen seventies Japan.