Absurd. Ridiculous. Insane. Utterly Outrageous. DON'T MISS IT.

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2007)

A special military outpost detects an aircraft that's way off course. Two leaders on the team, Sergeant Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Tech Sergeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson) are present with the troops to greet the aircraft, which by military record, crashed and burned some time ago. All havoc breaks loose when this aircraft reveals itself not to be what it appears. When most of their unit is wiped out in the resulting assault, the sergeants are less concerned about making a report to superiors and more concerned with making it home with the other survivors in one piece. Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, fast-talking high-schooler Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBouf--in just about every movie this year) is prepared for an important rite of passage. His dad Ron (Kevin Dunn) has agreed to buy Sam his first car. However, Sam somehow settles on a beat-up yellow Camaro, not realizing that there's--ahem, "more than meets the eye" to this car.
Okay, let me start by saying that this is very much a Michael Bay film--and as such, we know what to expect. (See the title) Grand doses of horrendous dialogue. Extreme twists in logic. Editing that would make most of us run screaming to the nearest kung-fu flick. That's all here, but it's far from the point. THIS is a summer movie in the way we've come to expect! High action, incredible pacing, and way cool music played very loudly. Bay channels a little David Zucker as well--there's some dead-on, rapid-fire humor that's actually funny! Note Lennox's frustration as he runs across tech support in India in his attempt to contact Washington. The one-liners we'd expect from him are also accounted for, but he has wisely stocked the cast with a who's-who of expert one-liner delivery personnel. (LeBouf, Gibson, Anthony Anderson, and John Tuturro to name a few.) Of course, the center piece of the film is the Transformers themselves, who are a sight to behold. I grew up on every incarnation, from TMS to Sunbow to Mainframe and beyond; and while I'd often say "That's cool", I knew in my brain of brains there was no way to make me believe cars and planes were capable of such transformations. Now Digital Domain has shaken hands with Industrial Light and Magic and...well...let's just say I'm now in the market for a car, and I'm going to scrutinize those puppies VERY closely. You needn't be a fan, you just need a desire for solid summer diversion. If that's what you want, roll on out.