Transformers

RATING: C

Transformers. If you were a kid during the 80's, you might've been a fan; whether it was the toy line, the TV show, and apparently there was even a comic. And in order to find a way to sell more toys, the guys figured they might as well make a live-action movie. Or something like that.

And hence, we have the first movie about the war between the Autobots (led by Optimus Prime) and the Decepticons (led by Megatron) as it comes to Earth, with both parties in search of the "All Spark," a mysterious cube that powered their home world, Cybertron. Obviously, one side intends to use it for good; the other for evil. And some teenager named Sam Witwicky holds the key to finding its location on Earth. 

Michael Bay was selected to direct this movie (and all its sequels), which is part of the reason there are often mixed emotions about this movie. To start, the action sequences are pretty doggone incredible. Watching the robots fight each other is what you came for, and the special effects department delivers and then some. The only problem with these scenes is that (if you're not already familiar with the various robots) without doing a little research you might have trouble figuring out which robot is which (save for Optimus, Megatron, and Bumblebee--Sam's guardian). 

The biggest problem by far with this movie is much of what goes on when we're not watching robots in general. We spend more time than I'd like with Sam Witwicky and his personal life; little of it even ties into the actual plot of the movie, aside from him and his new car (Bumblebee). The attempts at humor used are just plain awful; material that I'd expect to find in maybe a teen "comedy" movie, but not in an action/adventure movie about robots fighting each other. And often the script (especially during these "comedy" scenes, which really aren't that funny) is just awful.

And honestly, I'm not that big on Sam Witwicky at all. He gets better during the awesome final act, but he's just annoying for most of the movie. I like Shia LeBeouf, but this isn't one of his better films. But he's better than Megan Fox (who plays his love interest), who isn't an actress so much as she is intended to be eye candy. As it turns out, the two primary military characters (Lennox and Epps) turn out to be far more appealing than the two main human characters and I wish we'd spent more time with them instead when we weren't spending time with the robots. 

Really, what makes this movie worth watching at all is the Transformers themselves, their conflict and their battles. All of that is far more interesting, and it's what you came to watch in the first place. But we just spend too much time with meaningless human material that contributes little to nothing to the plot. The crude attempts at humor in most of this movie are awfully misguided and feel pretty out of place in a movie about robots fighting each other. 

Transformers leaves you with mixed emotions, indeed; you might be wowed by the action sequences, but you'll be pretty frustrated with a lot of other things. If you're a fan of the material, and you enjoy big action films in general, you'll want to see it; but if you're looking for something a little more serious and more well done on things other than the action, this is not for you. I was entertained enough to not regret watching it, but it's definitely only for a certain audience/demographic.