Complete crap

Rating: 1/10 (26 October 2007)

Honestly, was this the best they could do with a huge budget, computer animation for the robots and people like Stephen Spielberg on board? Where do I begin? First the robots... the CGI is neat looking but the robots themselves are over designed and look like they were drawn by Louis Wain. It is very hard to distinguish one transformer from another unless they are changed into a vehicle at the moment, which makes the quick moving battle scenes a confused mess where you sometimes find it hard to know who is on which side.
Next, let's tackle the plot. You have a very thin and contrived (not to mention cliché filled) plot which wouldn't even have made a very good comic book story. Very disappointing indeed. They could have come up with something more interesting than a weird cube and a frozen evil robot found by some obscure arctic explorer 100 years ago.
Finally let's look at the characters and their interaction and development. For the transformers themselves, you know very little other than they are robots and the some are good, some are evil. Some turn into cars, others into tanks or jets. You get no background on them at all and unless you have seen the 80's cartoons, you have no idea who they are and you really don't get to know these characters during the movie. While many people might remember them from the 80's cartoons, a little more background would be nice for the younger generation who missed out on the 80's altogether.
As for the main human characters, there is little to redeem them. They are poorly acted and are mainly there to scream and tremble as robots battle around them and destroy the city they live in. Sam is a complete loser who is sadly trying to win the heart of a girl (Mikaela) who is way out of his league and looks more like someone who constructed in a plastic surgeons office than a real girl. Why does every movie today involve a couple who is either separated and hate each other or in hopeless crush situation that you know will not last past the adventure? You just don't have normal kids in films anymore (though Sam comes the closest). The are either super crackers who can break into the pentagon while typing with their toes, modified to look like pageant models or have some mysterious figure in their family history that destines them for some great adventure.
The movie is poorly executed with CGI battles one moment and a sickening crush on the hot girl scene the next. The characters are shallow and have few it any redeeming qualities to them. You find yourself wishing they would get killed no matter who comes out the winner among the robots just so you didn't have to put up with the slow and boring scenes of the boy trying to make it with the plastic girl. In the end the movie becomes just one big smash fest, which while fun to watch, is ruined by the length of time spent griping about how annoying the human characters are. Once the real action starts, you are just ready for this crap bomb to be over. 1 star, and that is because they had so much potential and came up with such an empty movie in the end.