Duelling alien races, the Autobots and the Decepticons, bring their battle to Earth, leaving the future of humankind hanging in the balance.
Lively, and surprisingly well paced, adaption of the famous 1980s toy line / cartoon; action director Michael Bay gives us an absurd, yet unashamedly entertaining, three-in-one: transforming the military propaganda movie into a teens-in-peril picture before reconstructing that into an 'Armageddon'-esque event film. 'Transformers' manages to defy the odds and embraces its hi-concept of giant sentient robots (in disguise) with glee, and though Shia LaBeouf's humorous, energetic and generally amiable acting style suggests he must've studied the entire John Cusack back catalogue (he even looks a bit like him) it would've been nice to see a little more from our hulking metal heroes, (i.e. perspective, character etc) though scene-for-scene; they're given a fair share of screen time, and I imagine they couldn't risk investing any more into the budget without going north of $300 million. 'Transformers' does well to make the human characters / stories as appealing as possible, and employs some reasonably well written jokes used to good effect in early scenes with Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf), his would-be girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox) and car/Autobot protector Bumblebee (reinvented here as the Lennie Small of the 'Transformers' universe). Fans will already know of the civil war between Autobots and Deceptagons, their respective leaders Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) and Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving) embroiled in years of conflict on home planet Cybertron, so the writers add a little something new with a maguffin called the All Spark; some power cube of pure energy sought by both sides, which just so happens to be on Earth. I mentioned military propaganda, and its here by the B-52 cache load, albeit packaged in a way better suited to a video game or, appropriately enough, an action figure diorama. There's even a scene in an American military base in Qatar (no mention as to why its there to begin with, I'm guessing not to protect Saudis from Transformers) where U.S. soldiers and Arab citizens fight side by side against deadly Deceptagon Scorpinork. Human characters also include buff bozo Josh Dhurman as Captain Lennox, his comrade-in-arms Sgt. Epps (former R n'B singer Tyrese Gibson) and a platoon of customary army cut outs (i.e. Hispanic guy, bespectacled joker and others who're there to make up the numbers). Lennox barely survives the Qatar base attack and heads stateside to rendezvous with allies for an inevitable, yet highly anticipated, showdown. Josh's character is written as the quintessential all American hero, not those scum rapists in 'Abu Ghraib' who immediately come to mind anytime anyone mentions the U.S. military, but a handsome, straight, decent, virile family man not afraid to pick up an M-16 or give an order to "Make it rain" (euphemism for a napalm airstrike, apparently). Story three (the most tiresome by far) has the Pentagon's top man; John Voight and some annoying young DSP analysts trying to decipher Transformer sonic code picked up by the Mars Rover mission. Don't ask. Now Jerry Bruckheimer is to Michael Bay what Bert is to Ernie, so it's strange to see a Bay film without his old partner on board, but even though Bruckheimer was probably too busy counting his monies from 'Pirates of the Caribbean' to sign up, top marks have to go to producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and his editing team. As 'Transformers' is always on the money when it comes to action, now say what you will about how bad a director Michael Bay is, but he understands, and has mastered the art of shooting a certain kind of action sequence, for not since James Cameron has any Hollywood action director been able to handle large scale, hyper kinetic set pieces quite like Bay. Steven Spielberg is also on board as co-producer, and I'm willing to bet he had a hand in the tooth fairy scene. 'Transformers' is a watchable, fast paced bit of CGI fluff that's bound to appeal to retro fans, families and newcomers alike; here's hoping they don't ruin it with sequels. More than meets the eye.
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. A live-action version of the original Transformers TV series involves an alien race of robots called the Autobots and the Decepticon s crash landing on Earth where they battle for the ultimate power source: Energon.
The children's cartoon sci-fi series from the 1980s is brought bang up-to-date in this big-budget, live-action blockbuster with all the essential, state-of-the-art effects you could possibly want. Long ago, on the planet of Cybertron, an alien race divided into two camps - the Autobots, and the evil Decepticons. In an effort to prevent the Decepticons from gaining possession of the 'Allspark', a cube with the capacity to grant infinite power, the Autobots managed to smuggle the object to Earth, where they secretly hid it. Now, hundreds of years later, with the Decepticons searching for the cube, it's a race against time, as the Autobots enlist the help of young earthling Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) to foil the Decepticons' plans for world domination.
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