06/10/10 - Transformers

Transformers (2007, 144 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418279/

This is my second time seeing Transformers, but I decided to do a Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen showing with some friends just for "fun." We'll see if this turns out to be a good decision or absolutely terrible.

The first Transformers movie chronicles how Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) came to be friends with the good Transformers (Autobots). He also somehow gets a girlfriend in Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) while also dealing with his obnoxious parents (Ron Witwicky played by Kevin Dunn and Judy Witwicky played by Julie White). There's also a bunch of other military and other political people that end up playing a role in this Transformers story. The main one in my opinion is Agent Simmons (John Turturro) while Defense Secretary John Keller (Jon Voight) is also pretty important. Lesser roles go to: Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel), USAF Tech Sergeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson), Maggie Madsen (Rachael Taylor), and Glen Whitmann (Anthony Anderson).

My main problem with Transformers (both this viewing and my first viewing) was how it just couldn't find the right balance between action and plot. For me, it's completely acceptable if a big action movie just abandons its plot for the sake of being good fun. Directed by Michael Bay, it's obvious that Transformers is going to have some big action scenes - it's what he's known for. So, I guess I'll first focus on this part. Really, there's two main ones: the first is a desert duel between the military and one of the Decepticons while the second is the grand finale. Honestly, the first one is pretty lame. I never get the sense of terror that these Transformers are supposed to cause. I think a contributing factor to this is that the film is PG-13 so there's no real deaths on screen, just lots and lots of explosions and damage. Sure, it's obvious that some of these guys are dying but it's more a spectacle of destruction than terror. Then the second half of this fight is in the desert where a coordinated attack puts an end to the threat relatively quickly. The other big action part of the film is the end but I'll talk more about it later in my comments.

The next main flaw of Transformers is the imbalance in acting talent. Well, I guess it's not so much an imbalance as just way too one-sided in the favor of "poor acting" since imbalance to me gives the false impression that it's only slightly weighted in one direction. Megan Fox was picked for this role to be hot and that's it. All too often, her atrocious acting is put on display as she cannot deliver simple lines to save her face. I guess it works out well though as she's placed opposite Shia LaBeouf who equally cannot act. His fondness for "No no no no no no ..." rings true here and simply put, he's just not likable as a main character. It didn't work in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and it's not working here. And further adding to this cluster of bad characters we have terrible acting by his parents in the film. They're supposed to be flat and stereotypical characters but they just take it too far (though I guess this could be blamed on the script) and make for more wasted potential. On the good front, there's Jon Voight and John Turturro. Both of these guys are great for different reasons. Voight is just a solid actor - sadly, something that no one besides Turturro can claim. As for Turturro, you can tell he has a ton of fun with the role. He does not take it seriously in the slightest, overacting at every appropriate moment. But he does this in a way that works (unlike the parents) and it comes off as if he's mocking the absurdity of everything that's going on in the scene. I think he's the only redeeming factor in the whole movie (yes, even more so than Megan Fox's general appearance). You'll notice I didn't mention quite a few of the lesser characters. It's because they just don't matter. Really, this story could function on just the people named above (and extremely minor roles elsewhere) but instead the film tries to create too many important characters. We don't need Captain Lennox and USAF Tech Sergeant Epps as really only one would serve the same role. Similarly, Madsen is just another excuse to include an attractive female and she doesn't do much else. Whitman is supposed to be comic relief but he just fails here. Failure all around on the acting and character front.

Finally, I'll talk about that final action scene. Okay, my first complaint with this part of the film is that the plot just completely falls apart right here. Basically, the plot right here is: "Okay, so we have this giant cube. But we know that all these bad guys know it's here. So let's take it to a city, away from here. But let's leave in this cavalcade of oddly assorted cars that clearly alerts the Decepticons to where we are going. Oh, and there's all these people in the city so it'll be dangerous for all these people we don't want to harm." This makes absolutely zero sense and is so ridiculously stupid that it actually took me out of the movie. It's pathetic. Failing on this point, it puts pressure on the action to be good and I guess it somewhat is. There's a really cool sequence where the Decepticon Starscream takes out three jets as a disguised jet. It's actually probably the highlight of the entire movie action-wise. My one real complaint with the ending here is that the camera sometimes jerks around too much and it's hard to discern what's really going on in the action. It's not Bourne-ian levels or anything, but it still detracts from everything.

Overall, I gave this film a 3/10. Transformers just isn't all that enjoyable an action movie. It just fails too frequently. There are enough positives though (mainly John Turturro's acting and an above average action part for the finale) to give it a somewhat reasonable score.