Flawed, Yet Still Very Fun

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2008)

This movie is by no means a challenging one. But I honestly can't see what people expected from a movie about alien robots that change into cars.
THE GOOD: The Special effects were awesome. Going into the movie I was prepared for cheesy looking robots. I didn't really think something like that would look good in a live action movie. It wasn't really a concern but I sure am glad I was wrong. They looked really good. Definitely a strong point in the movie. Being a Michael Bay movie of course there is plenty of explosions and such. And I am a simple man. Put giant robots in a movie with lots of explosions and I will be happy. I also don't think Shia was given enough credit for his role. He didn't really have the best lines, but he was very good in his delivery of most of them. He brought some humour to a role that was written to try and be funny, but many of the lines would not have worked if not delivered by someone with talent. He is a better actor than people give him credit for. Megan Fox didn't do to badly herself. The last half hour of the movie was really cool and really captured the way this sort of movie should be.
THE BAD: They may have pulled of not being cheesy with the robot's looks, but they didn't do very well with the dialog of the movie. The teen romance plot just seemed unnecessary, and seemed to drag on for a lot longer than was needed. I think Bay may have included in response to people who think his movies are just popcorn flicks. That sort of thing just doesn't seem to work in his movies, and it really didn't work in something that would have worked better as a popcorn movie. The characters were all pretty one dimensional and clichéd. For example Shia's character is a lovable loser and Megan's is a beautiful, but misguided girl.
All in all it was a very enjoyable movie that I was more than happy to buy on DVD after seeing it at the cinema. It was in no way perfect, but I am willing to accept the flaws. I found the movie a lot of fun and that's really all I wanted going into it.
At this point a sequel looks very good.
7.5 Out of 10