Transformers

Transformers (2007)

They’re More Than Meets The Eye

From the popular 1980s animated series and the line of toys/action figures to (does anyone remember?) the 1986 movie featuring the voices of such notable stars as Eric Idle, Leonard Nimoy and Orson Welles and the 1990s “Transformers: Beast Wars”, comes the highly anticipated 2007 live action “Transformers”.

The movie starts off with a brief history of the transforming robots, their world and the mysterious life giving AllSpark. Two separate factions are in pursuit of the powerful AllSpark which is hidden somewhere on Earth. (Lucky us, or maybe not, as we’re soon to find out.)

Cut to a military base in Qatar where Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and his team, including Tech Sergeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson) are stationed. Things seem uneventful until a U.S. helicopter arrives in secure airspace. One might not give a second thought to this except for the fact that this military chopper has been missing for several months. Things soon take a turn for the worse when the helicopter morphs into a killing machine that annihilates most of the base and tries to tap into national security information.

The pace quickly changes as we’re introduced to Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), a high school student making a genealogical presentation for his history class. Sam tells the story of his great grandfather (played in flashback sequences by William Morgan Sheppard), a sea captain who explored the Arctic Circle. While telling the story, Sam is also in the process of trying to hock a number of heirlooms, including a pair of his grandfather’s spectacles, in order to save enough money to buy his first car.

His dream comes to fruition when his dad (Kevin Dunn) takes him to a used car lot and Sam picks a bright yellow Camaro (well, actually, the car sorta picks him). Sam’s first order of business? To get noticed by his fellow classmate and high school crush, Mikaela (Megan Fox). His plan seems to work when he gives a stranded Mikaela a lift home. But it seems Sam’s car has a mind of its own particularly with music on the radio and when he sees the car being stolen one night, he pursues and gets the shock of his life when he sees the vehicle “transform” into a robot.

In the meantime, National Security, including Defense Secretary Keller (Jon Voight) has been hard at work trying o determine what happened in Qatar. Some of the world’s brightest minds, including analyst Maggie Madsen (Rachel Taylor) who enlists the aid of her friend and fellow computer wiz, Glen Whitman (Anthony Anderson), are called upon to discover the mystery and hopefully stop it from happening again.

However, while this is going on, Sam’s world becomes more chaotic when he has a second run-in with police, this time resulting in the police cruiser transforming into a robot, bent on locating the glasses of Captain Witwicky. All isn’t lost. Sam’s Camaro a.k.a. , as we soon learn, Bumblebee, arrives just in time to save the day. Soon after, an unusual meteor shower results in several new arrivals to the scene. Sam and Mikaela are introduced to Optimus Prime (voice of Peter Cullen), the leader of the group known as the Autobots, as well as Jazz, Ironhide and Ratchett. Optimus Prime tells the duo the nature of the Autobots, their nemesis the Decepticons and their leader Megatron (voice of Hugo Weaving). Optimus Prime also reveals to Sam that Megatron (who was in pursuit of the AllSpark) was discovered by Captain Witwicky, frozen in the Arctic Circle. The glasses, it seems have been inscribed with the coordinates that reveal the location of the AllSpark. Will the Autobots be able to stop the Decepticons from reaching it first? You’ll have to watch “Tranformers” to find out!

I’ll admit, while I knew a little about the “Transformers” from the 1980s cartoons (…Autobots, Decepticons, Optimus Prime…) and from a funny mention in the movie “Clerks II”, I really didn’t know a lot about them. But that doesn’t keep this from being a fun adventure to see on the big screen.

While the cast is good, it’s definitely Shia LaBeouf who shines as Sam, the typical teenager who gets understandably freaked out when he sees his car come to life but is determined to save his “friend” when there is a time of crisis. From the time the “Transformers” themselves hit the screen, you’re cheering for them just like any other character in a movie. And while some movies make you cringe due to the amount of CGI used, it all seems to work in this film.

The story was solid and was told in such a way that (like I said above), if you’re unfamiliar with the Transformer’s world, you’re not lost. I also liked the set-up to a possible sequel, which I’m sure will be coming in a couple of years.

There were a couple of minor things with the movie that could have been different. More screen time for Megatron would have been nice just to see how much of a hardcore villain he could be. While the Glen and Maggie angle added some comedic relief, I just didn’t think it added that much to the story. We actually last see them before the main battle begins. But these were just minor things.

“Transformers” is one of the definite must see movies of the summer. This action packed thrill ride is definitely “more than meets the eye”.

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