'Transformers' - The Hottest Ride Of The Summer!
By: Tim - aurora - Dunn

'Transformers', probably the most awaited movie of the summer and for good reason too, within the first five minutes of the movie you become addicted. Transformers is yet another incarnation of the longer then traditional two hour movies which more often then not means there's something wrong with it. This years major greater then 2 hour supposed block busters includes Spiderman 3 which could easily have had an entire hour cut out and still left you bored. Then there's the other side of the spectrum with Pirates 3 which while filled with tremendous effects tends to leave a lot of people kind numb in the brain trying to figure it out, although I still say it was way to predictable to me. Maybe its just the movies that are greater then two hours and is a sequel that spells bad news, who knows. One thing I do know is after almost two and a half hours your bummed that the ride is over. If nothing else the one thing you have to admit is that Transformers does not leave you wanting for very much as a CG production.

OK, so its a great CG movie and in this case also a great action movie, and also a decent war movie so what about the story. Well its not to very bad in that either and for a simple reason, its a simple story. We start off with a wee bit of Cybertron history as told by Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots. We learn that the Allspark, a mystical object which creates life and infuses it with the Spark of life, has made its way to Earth after Megatron and his Decepticons have all but destroyed their home world. Megatron, in search of the Allspark, crashes on Earth. Then in the early twentieth century Captain Witwicky, leading an expedition to the North Pole, stumbles upon Megatron and provides the clue for finding the Allspark.

Meanwhile other Decepticons have made it to Earth and are hunting for both the Allspark and Megatron. Unlike the Autobots who respect all life, the Decepticons care less for humans, which provides for some great humor through out the movie! The Decepticons attack a military base in Qatar and hack into the Defense grid computer systems looking for information triggering their exposure to the government. A small military force fends off the Qatar attack and manages to capture a thermal image of the foe. But with the base destroyed they must find another way home.

On the other side of the world is young Sam Witwicky, who is after only two things, money for a car and the girl that he lusts after, Mikaela Banes. Its when we first meet Sam that we run into some of the quirkiness in the movie. Sam is giving a report on his family tree, focusing on, you guessed it his great grandfather Captain Arichbald Witwicky, but instead of showing pride and respect for him, he's actually auctioning of items from the Captain, in order to raise money for his first car. In other words Sam is your normal teenage boy after the high school hotty who is with the football teams quarter back. Happily, although not at first, for Sam his first car happens to be the Autobot Bumblebee who's mission it is to safe guard Sam. Bumblebee also manages to help Sam get the girl, very literally!

Rather quickly Sam learns that his car is alive and naturally is afraid of it. After a somewhat funny chase by Bumblebee after Sam and after a battle between Bumblebee and Barricade, both Sam and Mikaela meet up with Optimus Prime and the Autobot gang. Optimus tells and shows them of the downfall of Cybertron and tells them that Sam holds the key to saving mankind. Now with a bit of courage and the smallest bit of nobility starting to develop in Sam and for that matter Mikaela too, the race is on to find the Allspark.

The ensuing quest brings together several small groups that have been somewhat developed in the first half of the movie which includes, of course Sam, Mikaela and Bumblebee, the military force from Qatar, a group of scientists, the Secretary of Defense along with his military might, a secret government section known as Section 7, the Autobots and the Decepticons. If it seems like a lot of disparate groups for a simple movie then your right. While they all have their needed parts in the story, some of them just do not get developed properly. In fact some are developed in an extremely crude way, namely anything dealing with Section 7. Granted Transformers comes from both a comic book/TV cartoon series heritage that does not mean that one of the most powerful groups in the story should be as moronically portrayed as they are. If there is a downfall in this movie its that there is way to much childishness placed into this movie. By childish I mean that some of the jokes placed on humans by humans are, well, just plain a stupid waste. If they could have kept the characters as serious characters and not morons then this movie would have been even better.

But there is an decent under story to this movie as well and that's the old adage that you can't judge a book by its cover. Or in this case you can't judge a person until they have been tried by fire. Sam grows from the weak, foolish teenager to a hero that even the 70+ grandma with her grand kids behind me was cheering for. Mikeala grows past the dumb, self centered hot chick, to have her sad past ripped open and transcend way beyond it, thanks to it. The human race takes a small step forward on the path to decent moral beings in a universe filled with many races, or at least Optimus thinks so. The Autobots transform from just an exciting CG concept to the next generation of E.T.

Now for the important the CG. A great many of us have been watching the stray clips and trailers passed out over the past year or so and drooling the entire time. Sadly those clips where pretty piss poor. Well that is compared to what they really look like on the big screen! This is one of those movies that is a must see on the biggest screen you can find, then buy a big bag of popcorn, but skip the pop unless you have a steel bladder because there's no real break to sneak out at. The movie keeps a fairly constant pace throughout till the end when the war rages heavily. Due to the nature of this movie we have CG in the vast majority of scenes meaning that CG and live action must meld seamlessly. This is one of the areas where the movie truly excels. The Autobots and Decepticons whether traveling in their Earth machine form or as the CG created robot form looked, feel and act as if they are all real world objects.

The lighting and texturing work does not take second seat to the transformation animation sequences and in fact often out shines the animation. We see the Transformers in both day scenes and night scenes, in battle scenes and in comical backyard trashing and hiding scenes. It matters not when or where the scene is designed to take place the lighting and texturing works and works almost perfectly (I'm sure there's flaws but I'll have to see it a couple more times before I find them, a task I'm ready to take too!) Not only do we see them in just about every lighting situation they could dream of but we see them in the sands of Qatar, in fields, in the air, on city highways, under bridges, in builds, in ice, in boxes, every where but under water. The effects needed to make the action work in all these areas matches the quality of work done on the characters themselves. There's also a few scenes with Sam and Mikeala riding on or with the Autobots in robot form and again done extremely well.

Speaking of effects, the weapons used are fantastic. A nice mix of several flavors seen before but in a new form as so many things in this movie find themselves. We have a nice array of Transformer weapons each with their own visual effect and each worthy of praise. One of the cooler weapons, I'm happy to say they did not neglect, is Optimus's sword. While kept slightly low key in its visual styling, the dazzling sword was perfect in being realistically convincing. This is the main key to the movie, make it look real.

The thing that most people think of and look forward to is the actual transformation animation sequences. Fear not this movie does not fail to deliver! We see all the characters changing and changing a lot. Again they showed no fear in trying to find a situation where they might not be able to deliver. But failed they did not, if they did it never made it to the final cut. We see them changing all over the place and in several scenes several times. From the first transformation scene only five minutes in to the final transformation scene shown during the credits we get what we all dreamed for. There's one scene in particular with Starscream in battle with the air force that really shows a lot of work and sweat on the animators part and to them my hats off to their success. Granted the transformation scenes are so complex that to actually show a full realistic transformation impossible so a lot of the more difficult parts get blurred by speed, action, light, intervening front objects/characters or just cut aways. But instead of being something to gripe about it all works together in a nice blend with the over all cinematography.

Back to the lighting quickly. Remember back in the early days of CG where we all HAD to added lens flares in our work else we where ostracized. Then in the mid to late 90's it became a bad, evil taboo thing. While they are back but in a much sexier incarnation. The lighting in this movie really shines. No, seriously, there are several scenes where lens flares are used to show off the Transformers metal as well as some of the action sequences. Not only is it not distracting nor anathema to us older CG guys but it provides the perfect look and feel for the story. I don't doubt we all will soon being seeing more of these new age lens flares frequently and sadly probably too much again. But for today I'm happy to say I welcome them back into the technique fold.

Conclusion:
I have left a lot of both story and effects out of this review because this is a movie you must go see. The showing I was at today was pretty much sold out and filled with just about every type of person you can think of. Everyone was laughing and at times hard at a great many parts in the movie. Laughing not because the movie was poorly created but happily skillfully written, at least the comedy and action. While the many groups of characters do not all get the full development they deserved that aside it is a well written movie. Transformers does excel in creating something that does appeal to all ages. From the obvious high school nerdiness of Sam and his wannabe romance with Mikaela to the intense battle scenes this movie delivers a full plate for you to feast upon. A word of caution for parents wanting to take young kids though, there is talk from Sams mom of a sexual nature that embarrasses Sam and my not be appropriate for young kids. Plus the Decepticons hold no regard for human life and treats some people as bothersome bugs, while comical it still may not be appropriate for some young kids.

All being said Transformers is a brilliant piece of CG workmanship. This is how blockbuster summer movies should be made. Something fun, funny, serious, and action packed. It excels in CG artistry and even pushing the limits to new levels. Its a movie that you hope you see a sequel of in the future and the door is definitely open for it.

Ratings:

IMDB Film Rating: User Rating: 8.3/10 (6,424 votes)

- For a movie going experience I give it: 5 out of 5 stars.
While certain parts of the story is left weak in character development the important characters, whether man or machine, get the treatment we want. This movie as something for most everyone in it. Its the perfect summer block buster movie done the way they should be!

- For a technical piece of CG and VFX work I give it: 5 out of 5 stars.
Face it this is a CG movie although you get so entranced with the realism you tend to forget that point. I guess that's the best praise you can give all the artists that must have sweated blood on this production.

Credits:

Cast:
Sam Witwicky - Shia LaBeouf
Mikaela Banes - Megan Fox
Sergeant Lennox - Josh Duhamel
USAF Tech Sergeant Epps - Tyrese Gibson
Maggie Madsen - Rachael Taylor
Glen Whitmann - Anthony Anderson
Defense Secretary John Keller - Jon Voight
Agent Simmons - John Turturro
Tom Banachek - Michael O'Neill
Ron Witwicky - Kevin Dunn
Judy Witwicky - Julie White

Optimus Prime - Peter Cullen
Bumblebee - Mark Ryan
Jazz - Darius McCrary
Starscream - Charles Adler
Frenzy - Reno Wilson
Ratchett - Robert Foxworth
Ironhide/Barricade - Jess Harnell
Megatron - Hugo Weaving
Bonecrusher - Jimmie Wood

Director - Michael Bay

Story Writers - John Rogers, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman
ScreenPlay - Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman

Executive Producer - Michael Bay, Brian Goldner, Steven Spielberg, Mark Vahradian
Producer - Ian Bryce, Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Don Murphy
Supervising Producer - Matthew J. Birch
Co-Producer - Allegra Clegg
Associative Producer - Kenny Bates, Matthew Cohan

Original Music - Steve Jablonsky

Cinematography - Mitchell Amundsen

Visual Effects Asylum
Digital Domain
Kerner Optical
KNB EFX Group
ILM
Proof Inc.

MPAA:Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and language.
Runtime: 144 min