A solid effort

Rating: 7/10 (6 July 2007)

I grew up with the Transformers and find the whole "diehard" nitpicking a bit ridiculous. The original cartoon was meant to be a tie-in to sell more toys, nothing more nothing less. Given that fact, all this pseudo gravitas created by the rabid following is funny to watch and listen to. If you take your Transformers THAT serious, stay home because this movie strives for nothing more than what we got with the early 80's cartoons.
Effects are spectacular, explosions and action are top notch. But then again, that is no surprise, this is a Michael Bay movie. People really need to get off the hate Bay band-wagon and just understand and know summer means getting the blazes away from the real world and stepping into a cooled theater and enjoying some fun. Bay knows how to do that in spades and gives it to us here.
The story is weak, holes through and through, but so what. The film succeeds in giving us exactly what we want from a Transformer film: robot's in action! If you have created some sort of alternate reality world where Transformers is about something more, again, stay home. There is comedic moment sprinkled all through the action. That does remove a sense of danger from the film, but then again, this wasn't supposed to be a rated R fest.
My only disappointment with the film is the score. Normally with a Bay production we get a great anthem of score music. There really isn't much in the way of that in the film. We get some coolly placed rock music, but the score never really reaches out and grabs you. I had hoped for a variation on the Transformer theme, but what we get is a by the numbers score.
This is another solid effort from Bay. A good way to get out of the heat of the summer and enjoy some fun.