How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 24 July 2007
This a movie review of TRANSFORMERS. |
“Why are we fighting to save the humans? They're a primitive and violent race,” Ironhide
There are a large number of people who have been waiting for a live-action Transformers movie for 20 years. Possibly the best toys ever invented, turned into a kinetic 80s animated TV series, and followed by a 1986 cinematic outing. Who in their pre-teens could forget the sheer culling of characters in a movie, the likes of which a kids cartoon had never seen before or since? Now we have a Hollywood attempt to bring the brand to the silver screen with the bells and whistles of a mega-budget production.
There are a large number of people who have been waiting for a live-action Transformers movie for 20 years. Possibly the best toys ever invented, turned into a kinetic 80s animated TV series, and followed by a 1986 cinematic outing. Who in their pre-teens could forget the sheer culling of characters in a movie, the likes of which a kids cartoon had never seen before or since? Now we have a Hollywood attempt to bring the brand to the silver screen with the bells and whistles of a mega-budget production.
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There are some ideas that seem to scream ‘bad-ass’! And you wonder how they can be messed up... but they do. Giant robots mashing each other up is one of those bad-boy concepts. Luckily for fans and action junkies the creative team behind Transformers have not fumbled the franchise, but equally have not hit the high notes either.
Director Michael Bay, while an able orchestrator of mayhem (BAD BOYS 2, ARMAGEDDON), is not up there with the likes of James Cameron (Aliens), Steven Spielberg (RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK), Gore Verbinski (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN), Bryan Singer (X-MEN 2) or Peter Jackson (LORD OF THE RINGS). Bay has occasional tasty bouts of flair, but that unfortunately seems absent here; perhaps thinking that showing feisty robots is enough.
Don’t get me wrong, the film is exciting and the visuals eye-popping, but Bay shoots just about everything pretty close-up, which is often confusing and hampers the spectacle. He is not as hyper-active and nonsensical as he can be, but there appears to be a really jaw-dropping Transformers film trying to get out.
Having bad machines (Decepticons) fighting good machines (Autobots) is all well and good, but having them battle for hundreds of years over some cube, the powers of which seem curiously inconsistent, is a bit weak (even for a summer blockbuster). Also, why bother to attempt characterisation if you’re going to write awful “poignant moments” for the cast. Rising star Shia LaBeouf (A GUIDE TO RECOGNISING YOUR SAINTS, DISTURBIA) comes out with cred as the pivot the film revolves around, while everyone else acts badly, or is wasted – especially John Turturro as a weird special ops dude (who instead could have been pretty scary).
Worth the admission but evaporates in the memory worryingly quickly.