‘Transformers’

It’s a little complicated for the uninitiated, but the saving grace of the film is its balance of wit, humor and romance.

By: Bob Brown

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Sam Witwicky, played by Shia LaBeouf, gets caught in the middle of a robot war in Transformers.


   Remember those toys every kid had in the ’80s? Well, they’re back. For die-hard fans of die-cast Transformers, maybe they never left. Every young boy loves cars, trucks, planes and monster robots. What’s even better is if they can morph into one another. Hasbro’s winning combination was the American cousin of the Japanese toy company Takara’s original line of Diaclone transforming toys.
   After their arrival in the U.S. in 1984, the sub-licensing and cross-marketing began in earnest. Hasbro formed a television production company to create an animated TV series about the characters. They had their own mythology, based on a story line developed by writers from Marvel Comics. Then there was the feature-length cartoon, The Transformers: The Movie (1986), which boasted an all-star voice cast, including the legendary Orson Welles and Scatman Crothers in their final film. There was even a brief run of Marvel comic books.
   As with all hot toy fads, though, the initial fuss died down. Over the years, attempts to re-energize the line with new characters and new story lines were uneven in their success. Until now. This time, movie studios have become savvier about marketing to a wider audience, and a whole new generation is salivating to buy something they saw in a movie. Yes, this time around, in a transformation of its own, the Transformers in the movie have spawned a new set of toys, a new video game, and strong market tie-ins to General Motors and Peterbilt trucks.
   So much for the heavy marketing. How’s the movie? Actually, it’s not half bad. It preserves some of the mythology familiar to fans. A mysterious giant life force, the Allspark cube, has been hurled into space after a war on the planet Cybertron. The heroic Autobots, led by Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen, the original voice actor), are fighting the Decepticons under Megatron (Hugo Weaving), who has been trying to capture the Allspark.
   The forces have traced it to Earth, where their battle continues. Young Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), a gangly, insecure high school student, is unwittingly thrown into the middle of the contest when a car his father (Kevin Dunn) has bought for him turns out to be an Autobot in the shape of a beat-up 1974 Chevy Camaro. He discovers this while using the vehicle to pick up the only girl he’s had the courage to approach, the very attractive and unapproachable Mikaela (Megan Fox).
   Unknown to himself, Sam holds the key to the lost Allspark — a pair of spectacles owned by his grandfather, who was a famous Arctic explorer, and on whose glasses a secret code was etched many decades ago during a trek to the pole. It gets a little complicated for the uninitiated, but the saving grace of the film is its balance of wit, humor and romance, against the typical fare of Armageddon-type movies. Normally, a heavy dose of titanic clashes between robots while the world hangs in the balance would be enough to send a large portion of the audience to the exits.
   Even director Michael Bay (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor) was skeptical when first asked to do this film. He didn’t want to direct a flimsy story about a bunch of toys. But he changed his mind, and the film is the better for it. The script by two of his partners, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Mission: Impossible III), is high action with comic bits, and a coming-of-age love story. The cast includes some very talented character actors and comedians in fleeting but very funny roles, including Bernie Mac as a high-pressure used-car salesman (not a stretch), Anthony Anderson as computer-hacker Glen (every film has one), and John Turturro as Agent Simmons, leader of a super-secret project that even the president doesn’t know about. Julie White (a sometime Desperate Housewife) does a hilarious turn as Sam’s over-solicitous mother.
   Although they are digitized animations, even the Autobots have personalities and are sensitive. When Sam’s Camaro hears disparaging remarks made about its appearance, it pops a two-wheel maneuver in mid-tunnel and transforms itself into a hot 2008 Camaro concept car. Now even dads will be salivating for a new toy.
   This is a film the entire family can enjoy. The oblique sexual references are mild, the heavy battle action is mostly cartoonish (Autobots are sworn not to kill humans, and they themselves only "bleed" oil), and the story does not lag. However, the last 10-15 minutes of prolonged clashes, metal to metal, are loud, relentless and a tad overlong. It’s as if the digital team wanted to show how many tricks they could do with characters that required extremely complicated work to realize. According to one producer, mathematical algorithms were used to "transform" the creatures from robots to vehicles and back. One character, Ironhide, has a gun with 10,000 separate parts. You won’t be counting those parts in the blur.
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor and language.