Dull and dangerously militaristic

Rating: 4/10 (22 December 2010)

Michael Bay knows his craft. He is one of the best at what he does. But he has become a posterboy for the right-wing moviegoers. I have a problem with his cinematic integrity. His movies are commercials instead of films. Now, Transformers isn't The Great Gatsby. I know that. But Transformers has no story, no soul and has such a dangerous underlying militaristic tone: it presses all the wrong buttons with me.
The movie is aimed at video-gaming 13 to 17 year old boys, with hormones coming out of their ears. Bay sells his movie to these kids with a hot Megan Fox (yes, I agree to that. I am still human), shiny robots and a lot of military showing off. You know, I really don't think the locations in the Middle East and Egypt are coincidence. It conditions young minds that the US can fight battles there. I've read that the DoD wants scripts upfront and can say no to producers when they request hardware for their movies. The producers of movies like Jarhead, Full Metal Jacket etc. got no help. Think they said no to this movie? If the propaganda machine of the DoD thinks it's a good film, what do they think is good about it?
Judging it purely on it's cinematic merits: it has a lot of explosions and pretty good action scenes, even though I couldn't tell what was going on half of the time. That whiny kid from Suburbia looks like a 30 year old playing an 18 year old and Turturro's comedic timing leaves a lot to be desired. The comic relief scenes are sometimes awkward and again: the story is really thin.
I compare this movie and the message in this movie with the prettiest girl in class: She looks fantastic. You can't take your eyes of her. You love her tanned legs, the way her skirt is barely long enough and when she pouts those lips, you just dream away. Just looking at her brings up almost primordial urges inside you. But when you start listening to her and then really looking at her: you will realize she is not that nice, pretty dumb and really a bit dangerous in the way she changes the behavior of the guys around her.