More than meets the eye...

Rating: 7/10 (7 July 2007)

'No sacrifice  No victory'  the underlying motto behind director Michael Bay's latest Hollywood special effects extravaganza, in which he reinvents the almost faded 80's cult- animated hit, Transformers, for the post 9/11 global climate, producing a film that is both visually spectacular and edge-of-your-seat entertaining right from the opening scene to the final credits. The narrative of this film is not new, and when the world as we know it is facing complete annihilation, America again comes to the fore as our fate balances in the hands of two warring extraterrestrial robot factions: the Autobots and the Decepticons. The Autobots, led by Optimus Prime (voiced by Australia's own Hugo Weaving), befriend Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf), whose ancestral legacy ties him to the unfolding drama. And along the ride Michael Bay makes countless costly sacrifices for the sake of entertainment; Buildings are demolished, cars are destroyed, explosions are plentiful  this is one "loud" movie  I could literally feel the action in the back row.
Much of the film has a familiar feel to it. Bay imports images that have become the common currency in post 9/11 media - military air-bases in Qatar, panning exterior shots of the Pentagon - and at times it reads a little too much like the NBC's 'War on Terror'. But he does poke fun at the current trend towards acronyms (although there are no WMD's to be found in this film). Veteran actor's John Turturro and John Voigt add weight to a youthful cast, including Australia's Rachael Taylor, as a Pentagon assigned signals expert, delivering the most politically significant message in the entire film, influencing the Americans to look beyond their earthly neighbours and the usual suspects in their hunt for the enemy.
There is definitely 'more than meets the eye' to this film, and I was taken by surprise by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtz's hilariously laugh-out-loud screenplay. Overflowing with sexual euphemisms, jibes (Aboard Air Force One the US President asks a flight attendant to "wrangle me up some ding-dongs, darling"), and self-referential jokes ("This is easily a hundred times cooler than Armageddon"), the sharply comedic dialogue provides a nice counter balance to the relentless action that takes up the latter half of the film.
Adorned with state-of-the-art big boys toys (Prototype Camaros and F-22 Raptor Jets), the impressive CGI is seamlessly integrated into the regular stock. The final battle scene between Optimus Prime and the recently defrosted Megatron is technically ingenious for the way in which Sam Witwicky is melded into the CGI action. Technically, Transformers has set a new benchmark in the realm of computer-enhanced action, but this does little to distract from the typically formulaic manner in which the drama unfolds. Despite the primary colours and clichés with which Bay paints his latest epic, Transformers stands as a vibrant and exciting movie spectacular, with a poignant, albeit ambiguous political agenda, and a sound design that is worth the sacrifice of the admission price alone, and all the better to experience on the big screen.