Fans of the series rejoice!

Rating: 7/10 (20 August 2007)

Ever since Steven Spielberg attached his name to the project many moons ago, I followed the movie's progress with a passion ever since. And seeing children in the theater, who were my age when the cartoon was airing new episodes every day after school, brought memories of a time when I thought there would have been nothing cooler on Earth than seeing a live-action version of the Transformers on the silver screen. Thankfully, the movie did not disappoint, for though many spots throughout the film were overly cheesy or flimsy, the essence of the Transformers remained strong from beginning to end. Any fanboy would take immense pleasure analyzing this film from front to back.
An opening introduction to Energon... err, AllSpark, leads us to two stories. The first is of a helicopter, thought downed in Afghanistan, reappears on a U.S. Army base in Qatar, transforms into a giant robot and attacks, trying to steal all the United States' defense hard-drive. The second is of Sam Witwicky, who after buying a car with his father, finds that it also could be more than meets the eye.
What made the Transformers great is all present and accounted for: the exceptional voice over work, the smooth transforming of the Transformers, and the unbelievable wit and hilarious one-liners of the Transformers themselves. There's nothing funnier than Megatron's reaction when he's lying next to a human, or Barricade's interrogation of Sam when he's caught, OR the cop's questioning of Sam at the precinct ("Take some Mojo, huh?"). Some of the overlong script's wit wanders a little though when it's all decided, including a Captain of the U.S. army, that taking the AllSpark, hence, the Autobot/Decepticon battle royale, into the CITY was a good bet, where millions of terrified humans would run for their lives and get stepped on. But some of the Tranformers' best episodes are also explored as well, such as why the Autobots even bother to help the humans with groups like Sector 7 around to annoy them. It's another overblown blockbuster, sure, but this film has a loyal fanbase to embrace what was an excellent transition from cartoon to film. Many thanks to Bay and Spielberg.