All about the product

Rating: 2/10 (11 January 2008)

A car that turns into a robot. Great idea for a toy; not such a great idea for a film. But the toy was conceived with the idea of it being marketed by a television series; that gave rise to an animated film; and now to this live action remake. If the film was pure sci-fi, it might not be too bad; but the attempt to make a partially human-centric story around these devices, in a semi-real world context, is disastrous, featuring by turn ridiculousness, clichés and product placement (and not just of the Transformers themselves); the film borrows from the conventions of thriller, teen movie and knowing comedy without offering any originality or coherence as it does so. What are on offer are a lot of spectacular special effects, but watching the robots fight over skyscrapers I was reminded of the original 'King Kong'. The special effects of that film were then cutting edge, but now seem primitive; yet the reality depicted in this movie is no more convincing, in spite of the modern graphics, so divorced are the images from any sense of meaning. You can make a fun movie about fighting aliens: 'Independence Day' is a good example, but the concept of 'Transformers' lies wholly in the product, and the narrative justification we get is stretched very thin. If this really is what Hollywood currently considers as premium movie-making, we can only hope that our descendants will first damn, and then forgive us.