Someone stole your childhood memory and turned it into an army recruitment film sponsored by GM

Rating: 6/10 (5 July 2007)

There are a number of good things about Transformers the movie. Good special effects, some funny dialog, and mostly good acting from the cast. Unfortunately there is so much product placement it nearly ruins what would otherwise be a decent summer blockbuster.
The biggest violation of all is that they changed most of the autobots from the original forms. Why does this happen? Because the movie was sponsored by GM. So forget seeing Bumblebee as a VW, and forget Jazz being a Porsche. Now instead you have a new Camaro and Solstice respectively. A freakin Solstice! The product placement doesn't stop there either. Many scenes will have a giant billboards behind them, and sometimes someone will just blurt out a product name.
That being said, there are some positives. The special effects for instance were quite good, although sometimes it's hard to tell what's happening. Most of the actors put in pretty good performances as well, with Shia LaBeouf being the stand out. Megan Fox is also pretty easy to look at, and she puts in a solid effort so no harm done there. John Voight on the other hand is border-line terrible as the secretary of defense, but he was probably just getting paid. He was WAY better in Zoolander.
So if you are 14, have low expectations, are a big fat comic book nerd, or you just want to see cool robots with lots of stuff blowing up, then you'll find a lot to like in Transformers.
Otherwise with so much blatant product placement it's hard movie to recommend.
Lastly I need a final WTF! for the absence of Thundercracker and Skywarp. Oh well I'm sure they will be in the sequel.