Toys, exploding cars, a awkward teenage boy, a sexy girl out of his reach, a battle between good and evil robots for the force of life, a scene-stealing dog, a no-nonsense Secretary of Defense, a leggy computer expert, two tough as nails U.S. soldiers, a secret agent with silly underwear, and parents who are accepting of their son's sex life, whatever it may be: put these all together, and you have a pop culture synopsis of a summer blockbuster. Transformers is directed by Michael Bay who brought us The Rock, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor. For added prestige, throw in Steven Spielberg as Executive Producer. This film, which has to have more car chases and car crashes than any movie ever made is filled with nonstop action sequences designed to scramble our senses and leave us wobbling in ecstasy. Toy giant Hasbro has been cranking out transformer robots since 1984, and so many generations of fans are guaranteed to line up around the block to see this flick.
As the noble and kind Transformer Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) notes in the opening narration for the drama, the planet Cyberton was decimated by a civil war between good Autobots and their enemies, the Decepticons. Both groups have converged on earth to search for a life source cube called the Allspark. Two U.S. soldiers (Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson) and their comrades in Qatar are stunned when their base is attacked by a helicopter that transforms itself into a mean fighting machine while another of its kind is able to download top-secret files from the military computers. Secretary of Defense John Keller (Jon Voight) doesn't know what to make of these shocking developments but he is even more upset when another robot hacks into Air Force One's computer.
Meanwhile Transformer Optimus Prime and one of his sidekicks, Bumblebee, make contact with Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), a high school teenager who is mostly interested in cars and girls. His grandfather was an Arctic explorer and he's trying to sell his eye-glasses on eBay, unaware that that the explorer discovered the Allspark and the coordinates for its location are etched on the glasses. Sam is surprised when the Camaro his dad buys for him transforms into the robot Bumblebee. He is even more astonished when Mikaela (Megan Fox), a supercool babe, joins him in his adventure when the good aliens enlist his help in their quest.
Transformers is aimed at males who love car chases, military battles, and nonstop action sequences punctuated by ear-shattering musical accompaniment. For the rest of us, there is enough humor and playfulness in the movie to keep us satisfied. Take, for instance, the cute bling-wearing Chihuahua with a cast on his leg. Or the scene-stealing antics of John Turturro as an obsessive secret agent. We also liked the soulfulness of Optimus Prime who demonstrates more courtesy and kindness than anyone else in the story. Holding everything together is the energetic performance of Shia LaBeouf who wins the adoration of the sexy babe from the wrong side of the tracks and the friendship of Bumblebee. This movie is just a lot of fun!
Special features on the 2 Disc Special Edition DVD include "The Story Sparks" — Steven Spielberg discusses his love for the franchise and early concept art for the film. Explores how the writers adapted the cartoon into a live-action movie and why Michael Bay is the perfect director for the film.
"Human Allies" & mdash; A look at how the actors were selected and their experiences on the set.
"I Fight Giant Robots" & mdash; An exploration of the military training that Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson underwent for their roles and the various stunts that the actors were asked to perform.
"Battleground" — A piece on the senior officials from the Department of Defense and Air Force who consulted on the film to give it authenticity and the key locations that the U.S. government provided access to.
