With the arrival of the TRANSFORMERS movie on Earth, all fanboys scream with delight. It’s pure, unadulterated eye-popping action with slam-bang cinema-shaking explosions that would make your grandma believe World War III has just started. Pure bliss for the boys again as the film transforms into a hormonal teenager’s fantasy: awesomely cool Autobots, majestic Optimus Prime, sensational cars, hot girls who actually care about metamorphosing robots and machineries, and CGI special effects that fit seamlessly into the realistic world of humans.


Whilst tailored with a flawed plot, this sci-fi robot film is generous enough to let our eyes be blown with visuals so exhilarating that it actually makes us believe there has never been a robot film which was made as good as this. This film brings out all the “kids” in adults and actually hauls us back to our youngling days where robots were the most fascinating toys to behold. Such astounding graphics seemed to scream with CGI, but with the latest technology, all computer-graphic animators behind this film must have worked so tremendously hard to bring the clash of titans on the screen.


But it’s not only the battle between Autobots and Decepticons; its central plot revolves around Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf), a high school student, geeky yet cool at the same time, who unconsciously harbours a material that holds an important price to mankind’s survival. After acquiring a hard-earned A-grade in his report, his father gives him a batty, old, yellow Camaro Chevvy, which turns out to be one of the Autobots, Bumblebee. It has a mind of its own as it drives Sam everywhere while impressing hot girl classmate, Mikaela (Maegan Fox), playing tunes that fits the mood yet embarrassingly fits the situation. In a chase for his car one night, he discovers it’s actually a robot, his yellow Chevvy, and signals the space with a light beam on its chest.


The plot is not so difficult to follow at first, as we were first introduced by the God-like, all-powering giant cube, Allspark, which created the world Cybertron and its entire species included. Then following the episode in Qatar, as Capt. Lennox (Josh Duhamel) leads an army in investigating the anomalies happening in the place, they face a massive Decepticon, while a small robot steals secret files from the Air Force One. This all then leads to a major realisation on Sam’s character that he is important to the world, and the Autobots are reckoning Megatron will rise again.


Michael Bay is no stranger to blockbusters. Hard-edged action is his weapon of choice. True from his ARMAGEDDON, PEARL HARBOR and THE ISLAND days, he knows his thing and does very well in it. The shots he included in TRANSFORMERS are so complex, with high-flying shots that felt so ridiculously awesome that you could believe straight away that these robots are so dauntingly realistic. Take the climax of the film for example, as Autobots try to put down the evil Decepticons in a gloriously wild action sequence in a city; it involves technical mastery and camerawork to deliver the finished job in metals and exploding bombs.


Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky generates a sympathetic action hero in him; but unfortunately doesn’t do really well if he wanted to prove his acting chops. But I believe this kid Shia will make it big (bring it on INDIANA JONES 4!) It’s a role made for blockbustering, not for real performance. Megan Fox creates sexual appeal in the film, as her uber-hotness dazzles.


TRANSFORMERS, over all proves to the three-quels of SPIDERMAN, SHREK and PIRATES that summer popcorn era has not yet ended. It’s big, loud, noisy and yet fun. It has an unsure balance between humour and seriousness, and the plot may be a bit shallow (the cube Allstar and Sam’s grandfather’s mysterious coded glasses weren’t too much emphasised even though it holds great importance to the entire story) – but it’s a throwaway, mega-budgeted popcorn flick. It’s better to forgive this, because I admit, I enjoyed watching it with the racketed noise and the blow-up finale that never felt overbloated, although has a kind of ending that screamed of a sequel. Transforming cars, trucks and helicopters are just way cool to ignore.


It’s far from the “classic film” status, but it’s good enough to be a crowd pleaser and a guilty entertainment.




RATING: B+