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Movie review: “Transformers”
BY MAGGIE SCOTT
Detroit is getting a boost from a very unusual source: Japan. “Transformers,” an American movie based on a 1980s’ kids show from the Asian nation, is going to be an enormous blockbuster; and it features a few of Detroit’s classic vehicles as the intergalactic “autobots”.
Motor City is catching this much-needed break after a few years of eating the dust of Japan’s increasingly superior automotive sales. GM must be holding its breath to see whether the “cool” factor of the “Transformers” will translate into not just toy sales, but car sales as well.
The cool factor starts with the beat up Camaro our hero Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) drives off a used car lot. The car quickly threatens to displace his dog, Mojo, as Sam’s best friend, when he realizes the yellow muscle car is a chick magnet. Not just any chick…the dream girl (Megan Fox) he’s had his eye on in history class.
A crush that somehow the car seems to sense and begins to aid and abet in a hilarious courting sequence. Little does Sam know at this point that his hot rod is on more of a mission than to help him score. Aliens known as Decepticons are arriving on Earth searching for their leader, Megatron, and something called The Cube; necessary for annihilating humans and controlling the universe.
The Transformers have arrived, too; and Sam’s about to discover that he’s driving one. Also feeling the effects of the invasion are an American military base in the Mid East desert, the Pentagon and agents connected with something known as Sector 7.
They’re dealing with murderous metallic monsters pulverizing acres of real estate, men and materials; top secret file theft; electronic signal disruption…your typical armageddon stuff. And, in the true spirit of a subset of the armageddon movie genre, an ordinary guy with a really hot girl by his side is going to save the world.
Once Sam and Mikaela understand that the Transformers, led by Optimus Prime, are there to help, they take a shine to the clanking creatures, and throw themselves into the fray. Besides finding The Cube, it’s critical that Sam get his hands on a pair of glasses his grandfather wore during an Arctic expedition that discovered remains the U.S. government would take extreme measures to make more top secret than top secret.
The Transformers’ morphing into multi-story behemoths from such snazzy vehicles as a Cadillac or a Peterbilt truck and engaging in titanic battles against Decepicons who have morphed from helicopters or jet planes is done with jaw-dropping computer effects. Director Michael Bay strikes a terrific balance of finely paced, delightfully witty script, with unabashedly testosterone fueled action that burns rubber. A Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures release, rated PG-13 for violence.
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