Transformers

Extremely proud of the action and comedy presented in this live action revamping of Hasbro’s transforming toys/cartoon of the ’80s, director Michael Bay obviously comes through with superb action sequences but unfortunately Bay’s comedy isn’t always as successful. While there are many funny, improvised one-liners from the actors, the low points are almost exclusively Bay’s attempts to circumvent the genre movie stereotypes with humour. There’s the predictable but unlikely phone operator, the slapstick of an elite squad of Autobots outside the Witwicky house and the addition of new Decepticon Frenzy, who, according to Bay, replaced "distant cousin” Soundwave when it was decided fans would have been upset by the latter character’s depiction. As for the rest of the Transformers, they are culled from already established characters, although they have undergone some updates in form. But, outside of Bumblebee and maybe Optimus Prime, they lack personality and are almost indistinguishable from one another, especially during battles. Bay also attempts another oft-used technique to avoid categorisation as a genre movie, adding a love story that’s just as big a part of this movie as the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons for the all-powerful All Spark. The human characters are handled with much greater care than the robots and the love story between nerd-turned-hero Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and popular hot girl Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) happens naturally and unobtrusively away from the action. If you can get past the silly moments and the glut of characters, Transformers is a fun action movie that provides just the right amount of nostalgia. Plus, Bay offers up an informative commentary that is very self-congratulatory, a little repetitive and suffers from many moments of silence, although the second disc of bonus featurettes offers an extensive look at the movie from the original concept of transforming robots in Japan to the completion of the film.