Transformers was easily my favorite movie of 2007 (whatever that may say about the movies that I like or the quality of the movies that came out in '07). It was the only movie in many years I'd seen multiple times at the theater. While Ghost Rider (my second favorite of the year) and Spider-Man 3 have better stories they can't match Transformers for adrenaline and visual beauty. Don't get me wrong, Sandman looks impressive, but Optimus Prime is quite possibly the most awesome feat of computer animation ever put on screen at the time.

 

One of the biggest questions is how it compares to the Transformers we all know and love. If you're familiar with the cartoons or toys at all the one thing you have to keep in mind is that this movie is it's own animal. It has a unique story with ties and nods to the original but not a strict adaptation like The Green Mile is of Stephen King's book.

 

We've got alien robots from Cybertron that end up fighting their war on our planet. These robots change form - usually a vehicle of some sort - as a means of camouflage and other purposes. In its essence this is the Transformers story, but there is no Arc that crashes with them aboard or anything of that sort. Is that a bad thing? Not really. The cartoons had years of episodes to explore different stories, the movie has to tie everything up (more or less) in a couple of hours. They need something more compact and enough real-world ties to attract the average moviegoer.

 

On the other hand the details of the story are not that strong. The Transformers are following the Allspark which has landed on Earth. Megatron had located it but was incapacitated before he could retrieve it. The Decepticons have a team on Earth looking for clues to Megatron's fate and the location of the Allspark. The Autobots have been doing the same but have more subtle and less destructive ways of doing it. They've sent a scout, Bumblebee, to connect with Sam who unknowingly has possession of a map to the Allspark. The opposing Transformers will have to fight a vicious battle for possession of the Allspark.

 

The whole Allspark concept is not that strong when compared to some stories, but it's not any more far-fetched than the Transformers enacting elaborate plans to collect energon in the cartoon. I think the properties of the Allspark are not very well explained nor are the events that lead to it being on Earth. However, this part of the story is good enough on which to set an action-filled movie.

 

It's the rest of the story that I don't like so much - at least the code cracking bit. As the Decpticons try to hack the government networks to find information on their missing leader the Dept. of Defense calls in some analysts to figure out what is going on. They don't know, at this point, that alien robots are among them. The star cracker is an Australian girl who then turns to another friend to dig deeper into it. She and her friend are chased and arrested for their efforts and end up locked in a battle against the Decepticons.

 

I think this whole part of the story is completely unnecessary. I don't much like any of the characters involved in it. Everyone around this girl is clueless and inept. She has to take the code away from the high-powered server farm to some guy's Best Buy special machine which has no trouble at all bringing the alien sequence up instantly and cracking it in about 2 seconds.

 

It's funny that I can buy giant alien robots but have trouble swallowing the other bits. It comes down to characters. Without going into a literary apology of characters vs. plot I'll just say that the code crackers don't sell their plot.

 

One of my biggest issues with the movie is that we spend so little time with the characters of the Transformers. Most of the Decepticons have virtually no lines and little personality beyond being mean killers. The whole code cracking bit could have been time we spent getting to know the robots' personalities beyond brief introductions. The cartoon had little human involvement; I can understand the need to bring in more of that element to appeal to an audience that aren't Transformers fans already, however, part of why the cartoon was so influential was the strong and distinct personalities brought to life by some of the most revered names in voice acting. In the movie the ones that should have been the stars were often little more than set pieces. If there's anything I would change about the movie that would be it: less code-cracking team, more Transformers - not action necessarily but characterization.

 

Speaking of characters, how do the Transformers line up with their earlier namesakes? For the most part they are based on the original (or G1) concepts although most have been altered. Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots. You can't have a movie without him. Prime has gone through many incarnations over the years, but the movie takes him back to my favorite form, the big rig - a Peterbilt to be exact. He's a long nose instead of flat which I think works well giving him a larger profile, he doesn't have a trailer that mysteriously appears, and his color scheme is a little more flashy which bothers some fans although I don't much care either way. I think it looks just fine. A big plus for the movie is that the classic voice of Prime, Peter Cullen, is lending his voice once again and does a great job.

 

Bumblebee is another staple. He's a VW Beetle in his original form but takes the form of a Camaro in the movie. What? How can Bee NOT be a Beetle?? I had that reaction like most fans, but after seeing the chase scene with him and Barricade (one of my favorite moments from the movie) I have to say that it would have looked goofy if this were the original design. I think Bay, the director, made the right call changing the style. Something I'm not so keen on is Bumblebee not having a voice for the majority of the movie. Here's our one chance to get some real characterization since we spend so much time with him, and the guy can't talk.

 

Jazz is the the consummate sports car. He's not a Porche anymore which is a little disappointing, but he looks good as a Solstice. Small and agile he doesn't really match what I remember of cartoon Jazz, but his energetic attitude and entertaining quips are in line. Ironhide is the weapons specialist. He's big, bulky, and armed to the teeth. He's got a rough edge to him that fits. He's a pickup truck instead of a van and black instead of red, but it's not hard to get used to. Ratchet is the medical technician. In his earlier form he was a van like Ironhide although he was painted up like an ambulance. Now he's a Hummer decked out to be an emergency vehicle. It's an effective design tweak, and I think he looks great.

 

Megatron is another that is an essential in order to have a true Transformers movie. This time, though, he doesn't transform into a handgun which is really not that great an idea anyway if you think about it. Now he's an alien spaceship. It would have been neat for him to have an Earth form, but the story being what it is it makes more sense to leave him in his original form. Unfortunately Frank Welker isn't the voice for the movie. As much as I like Hugo Waving I wanted Frank. However, after hearing the voice comparisons in the extra features I can see why Bay made the casting decision he did.

 

Starscream is the one Decepticon that is closest to his original form. He's a jet, updated to be more modern, but it's a change that works well. He looks good and is a menace in the skies. He's at odds with Megatron much like the original show which is great, but we don'e see enough of it.

 

Of all the designs I think Barricade is my favorite. He takes the idea of Prowl and makes it bad. He uses the illusion of servitude and authority to toy with the minds of those he's after. The slogan "to punish and enslave" is so perfect for this kind of character that I can't help but love it. I think the main reason I'm so fond of him is because he has so much more character than the others. His choice of forms, his perversion of the slogan, and his general style say a lot about him beyond being flatly evil. He's pretty much a new creation for the movie although the name has been used before.

 

Blackout is probably my next favorite. Again, he's pretty much a brand new creation as far as I can remember of the original line. He's a brutal looking helicopter who takes part in one of my other favorite scenes - infiltrating a military base and going berserk. I love the style of having his blades hang down behind his back. We see a lot more of him than most of the Decepticons so that is probably a large reason I like him so much.

 

Bonecrusher is pretty awesome, though. He's a specialized military vehicle used to clear mines. He's basically a huge armored truck with a vicious looking claw. When he transforms he stands on his wheels which allows him to basically skate along the roads. He's perhaps the most mindlessly vicious of the bad guys and takes part in my other favorite scene which is battling Prime on the highway. He's not part of the Constructacon team and is a big departure from his original form.

 

Brawl/Devastator is a small bit of contention. Brawl was a tank, Devastator was the giant robot formed by the Constructacon team. Supposedly the name Devastator was only a misleading placeholder for the true name Brawl, but it's the name used in the movie so I guess that's who they decided he would be. He's a one robot wrecking crew with more armaments than most of his adversaries combined. He's the primary destructive force in the final battle taking humans and pretty much the entire Autobot team to even slow him down.

 

Skorponok is basically a large robotic scorpion. He's sneaky and deadly but more animalistic than intelligent. This is similar to his original form except he's more on Ravage's scale than a giant city. Frenzy is the Bumblebee of the bad guys. We see more of him than any other Decepticon. He's kind of based off some original designs and kind of a new creation. The original Frenzy was a tape that was part of a team controlled by Soundwave who was a tape deck. This Frenzy is a radio making him more like Soundwave but his personality is spastic which is completely opposite of Soundwave. He provides a lot of slapstick humor that some find annoying but that I love. I guess I was just happy to see a Transformer getting some real screen time.

 

There are a number of humans in the story and more recognizable names than I care to go through. We have the crackers I keep talking about, a special ops military unit, a secret men in black-style agency called Sector 7, and the DOD. The leads, though, are Sam Witwicky - loosely based on Spike Witwicky from the cartoon - and his love interest, the mega-hot Mikaela. Sam is played by Shia LaBeouff, a young comedian who's evidently been in some stuff I've never watched. I didn't have high hopes for him, but I was pleasantly surprised. His energy and humor mixed with youthful intelligence gives Sam a distinctive personality that I enjoy even if he can be occasionally annoying. Megan Fox is the lithe young beauty that plays her role with a hard edge while still remaining alluring. I enjoy the performances turned in by both actors although I have gotten tired of Shia over the years.

 

So far we have enough elements for a decent movie, but what comes next is what makes it really shine. A lot of people complained about Michael Bay being the director. Bay is not, and is highly unlikely to ever be, my favorite director, but I think he was a good choice for Transformers for multiple reasons. First of all the guy knows cars. He's adept at putting together fast-paced sequences involving all the characters in their vehicular forms. Another plus is his relationship with the military. The use of the vehicles he was able to use as a direct result of that adds a fantastic element to the battles. From a military viewpoint I don't think anyone else could have made the movie as realistic.

 

Bay's style is not perfect, though. He likes shaky cameras to put the viewer in the middle of the action which works well to heighten excitement, but we get so close that it's hard to follow exactly what's going on. We don't get the opportunity to get a fulfilling view of the robot designs. I spent so much time concentrating on picking out the details of most of the characters from the brief glimpses that I drifted away from the story at times. The movie would have benefited from catering to our desire to gawk at the robots without anything else going on. Give us a transformation to stare at (which we get with some of them but most of them suffer once again from being too close to the action). Once we've had some appeasement time then get back to the mindless action.

 

Another thing that really makes this movie shine is the incredible graphic work. The sense of realism out of these robots is impressive. It goes a long way into keeping the viewer in the moment rather than screaming "see it's just a movie after all!" I think that's why despite the flaws of the plot I can still enjoy watching this.