Dr. DVD Review: Transformers
Posted by Ben Moser on 10.16.2007
From selling me action figures to trying to sell me Camaros, the toy that defined my childhood goes live-action. Can a tiny DVD contain the big action?
Shia LaBeouf ... Sam Witwicky
Megan Fox ... Mikaela Banes
Josh Duhamel ... Captain Lennox
Tyrese Gibson ... USAF Tech Sergeant Epps
Rachael Taylor ... Maggie Madsen
Anthony Anderson ... Glen Whitmann
Jon Voight ... Defense Secretary John Keller
John Turturro ... Agent Simmons
Michael O'Neill ... Tom Banachek
Kevin Dunn ... Ron Witwicky
Peter Cullen ... Optimus Prime (voice)
Julie White ... Judy Witwicky
In the months leading up to the release of Transformers I, like many other fans, bounced back and forth continuously between declaring leaked character designs and plot points to be blasphemy and trumpeting the teaser to be the signal of something very special about to happen to the cartoon I so adored as a child. As it turns out, watching the movie is a lot like the anticipation for the movie.
The basic mythos surrounding any incarnation of the Transformers, for the two of you who might be unaware, goes a little something like this:
There are two races of living machines on the planet of Cybertron. The Autobots are the good guys. The Decepticons are the bad guys. Their war spans the galaxy and spans millions of years. Eventually, and the reasons for this are what separate the various versions of the story the most, our little planet Earth becomes the pivotal point where the war can be either won or lost.
This time around the battle comes to Earth due to the search for the All Spark, a cube that the Decepticons will use to bring our technology to life and basically make life very miserable for all fleshy creatures involved. It was lost thousands of years ago and only recently have both sides found that the evil Decepticon leader Megatron had tracked it down but had been just unable to obtain it.
As I said before, watching Transformers is the same seesaw for me as waiting for it to come out was. My opinion of the movie never really settled. On this second viewing, it seemed to shake back and forth even more.
Shia LaBeouf's portrayal of Sam Witwicky is a prime example(see what I did there?) of this. At times, he comes off as charming and the soul of the movie. Unfortunately, he's entirely unsympathetic for at least the first 30 minutes of the film.
Witwicky isn't the only character with this problem, though.
Mikaela Banes(Megan Fox) isn't given a single reason for existing other than being the hot girl until we begin the final act. Maggie(Rachel Taylor) is a completely one dimensional character, as is her partner Glen(Anthony Anderson) who seems to be here more to supply the cutesy comic relief that summer actioners can't seem to live without more than to serve the story. Captain Lennox(Josh Duhamel) and his crew come off as the most human, but we're still only given the most basic reasons to care about them("I want to get home to my wife and daughter" is every movie's lead army guy's motivation).
We at least get to care about these characters eventually. Some of them are just plain insufferable on the screen. Ma and Pa Witwicky(Judy Witwicky and Kevin Dunn) are like nails on a chalkboard and detract from the movie for ever second of screen time they get. John Turturro's Agent Simmons suffers because he never settles from his bounce between bumbling idiot bad guy and serious threat to our heroes, leaving him as just plain annoying.
Of course, no one goes into a Michael Bay movie looking for outstanding characterization. They go for the big action with bigger explosions. The problem with that in the context of this movie, is that we spend a lot of time with these unlikable human characters with only small spots of action in the first two acts of this movie. If we're going to spend this much time with human characters and no giant robots blowing each other up, it would be good to like the characters. Unfortunately, the characters that become likable don't do so until just about the point where the movie's action could have sustained itself even without them.
In the meantime, the only thing to get me through to that part of the movie are the little nods to longtime fans like seeing the new Bumblebee as a beat up Camaro next to an old VW Bug or hearing Peter Cullen's voice coming from Optimus Prime once again.
For every great nod, though, we're also treated to more cute humor that just doesn't work. The bumbling Autobots trying to sneak around Sam's back yard, the embarrassingly bad "masturbation talk," and grinding the movie to a halt so we can actually have Bumblebee and Prime make a urination joke...these are all enough to make you want to give up on the movie until a subtle nod or the eventual development of the characters pulls you back in.
Once we get to that final act, though, we get what we all came for. If the first hour-and-a-half is just plain bad with a few decent moments to keep you involved, then the last 45 minutes is your stunning reward for sticking with it. Up to this point, you've mostly only watched the Transformers stand around(except for a few altercations and some annoying little ticks from Frenzy, who squeals and squeaks more like Star Wars alien than a Decepticon spy), but now we get to see what they can do.
There's an amazing fight with Optimus Prime on an overpass, Starscream doing an amazing sequence against some US fighter planes, and seeing Megatron finally get into the action(poor, poor black stereotype robot Jazz) is just as fun in subsequent viewings as it was the first time around. Here is where Bay excels. Getting the human commandos in on the action was a nice touch that led to some great big-time action as well. This segment of the move is just plain fun. Honestly, if there's any complaint here, it's that the action is probably too big most TV screens.
In that 45 minutes of movie, I seem to always go from wanting to bury this movie to wanting to praise it for delivering on the one front that it needed to deliver on. If Speilberg has let slip that there are plans for two more movies(because it's all about trilogies, baby), and if they can fix the plot and character development problems while continuing to bring the goods on the action side you're looking at the beginnings of a can't-miss franchise.
Extras:
Commentary with Director Michael Bay: I'm not usually fascinated by director commentary. I think that if you have the same problems with the movie that i did, though, you'll find this enlightening. Several times over the course of the commentary, Bay admits to not having a handle on how to shoot the Transformers themselves for a good chunk of move, underestimating the fan base that came with the property, and writing off the idea of doing the movie initially. The places where he admits to these things are pretty telling, too. Otherwise, it's not much different than any other commentary track.
Our World: A series of looks at the human characters and the people who portray them. The short of it is that Shia LaBeouf is funny and Meagan Fox is hot. Not too much worthwhile happening here.
Their War: A pretty fascinating, if not just a bit tedious, look at the creation of the Transformers we see in the movie. There are a few spots here where the cast and crew have some harsh words for the Transformer purists out there, but nothing to get worked up over. This is definitely worth a look.
More Than Meets the Eye: The highlight here is a good look at the fight with Scorponok in the desert. Maybe a little too detailed at points even. The rest is some concept work and trailers.
The nice thing about the disc two extras is that each of the featurettes has its chapters labeled and out there for you to pick through as you wish. The extras are all very detailed and show the process of making this film nicely.
The 411: There's a lot of good and a lot of bad in Transformers but, in the end, the payoff is worth the suffering you go through to get there. In DVD form, you can start the movie wherever you want, though, so the bad parts are totally optional. To that end, this would make a good addition to any home theater with a huge screen and surround sound. If your TV is too small to contain huge action, any recommendation comes very, very mildly.
