Transformers(2007)

Transformers is an action-adventure film starring Shia Lebeouf, Megan Fox, and John Turturro, which takes place in present day….well, lots of places really. The film tends to move around a lot, showing places such as Iraq, Washington D.C, New York City, etc. So the film is set in Present day Earth.The movie follows Sam Witwicky(Labeouf), your average high-school underdog looking to score with the typical pretty girl and gearhead dream Mikayla(Fox). In the beginning of the film Sam shows off the glasses of one of his famous ancestors, an important plot-point that sends the evil transformers known as Decepticons chasing after him. However, luckily for him, his father ends up buying him “Bumblebee”, one of the good guys(Autobots). Sam soon learns that the two forces have been waging a war, and they’ve been led to Earth where the Decepticon leader known as “Megatron” has been frozen for years, and where the incredibly powerful All-spark is hidden.Now, the script leaves something to be desired, quite a lot actually. First off, I’m not sure if I’m supposed to like ANY of the characters on screen. Witwicky is content with ditching his best friend for the girl, is never funny when he means to be, and tends to mostly scream a lot and run away when things get hectic. Mikayla’s character is simply to look pretty, which I can respect, but she lacks substance. Turturro’s character is only made for immature jokes, such as potty humor and the pantsing of a respected actor. Secondly, The plot bases itself around a license whose tagline is “Robots in disguise, more than meets the eye”, but the robots must have some seriously awful disguises seeing as everyone in the world seems to have found them out, and if they were more than meets the eye, why do they all seem so stupid? These beings are supposed to be the most advanced pieces of technology in the universe, yet they can’t follow simple orders like “wait here, don’t follow me”, only to practically give away their robotic disguises yet again. Furthermore, in one scene that is used to explain the influence of transformers on the fictional world, they make Megatron out to be the biggest idiot in the film. The scene goes as follows: Turturro explains that all of our technology has been made from studying the frozen Megatron, after which Sam sums up Megatron’s plan as “Coming to Earth to find the All Spark so that he can use our technology against us, thereby enslaving us”. So basically, Megatron came to Earth to use all of our non-existent digital technology against us…? And if he had no idea that we were technologically inferior, you think he’d be a little more prepared heading to a planet he clearly has no clue about.Another bothersome bit I found was that Megatron was voiced by Hugo Weaving. That’s a definite positive, but they alter his voice so much that it may as well have been an unknown in the role. That’s just spending money for the sake of spending money. And what is the problem with the musical score? During the car chases there are actually a few songs that sound very epic and would suit a decent action scene, but those exist only in chases, once the action starts they fade into guitar riffs that aren’t nearly as enjoyable.The film has an uninteresting plot, is miscast with badly written characters, bad choice of music, and the biggest selling point of the film(i.e:big robots beating each other up) is not as fun as it sounds. It’s not the worst film I’ve ever seen, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to any of my friends. However, if you like to look at big robots amidst very shaky camera and terrible music by bands like “Linkin Park”, acting out a story without much depth and full of unlikable characters…..then this movie is right up your alley.