TRANSFORMERS
In Theatres:	July 3, 2007
On DVD:	TBA
Reviewed by:	Louis B.
Official website:	www.transformersmovie.com
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You gotta give it to filmmaker Michael Bay.

No one makes louder movies than he does and Transformers is one of his loudiest, noisiest films to date.

And, for the first half hour at least, it’s his funniest and most family friendly.

Transformers is based on a line of action toys which pretty much explains why the film’s characters are so one-dimensional and I’m not just talking about the robots.

With the exception of Shia LaBeouf who plays the unsuspecting teen Sam Witwicky every human in the movie is pure cardboard.

Even the robots show more humour and emotion than their human counterparts.

There’s a very funny moment when the gargantuam alien robots are hiding out in Sam’s backyard, trying to be inconspicuous.

It’s pure nonsense but those mechanical monsters actually seem emotionally animated which is more than one can say for Jon Voight.

The Transformers are an alien race known as the Autobots (these are the good ones) and the Decepticons (the baddies) who are in search of the Allspark (a kind of galactic super battery they need to sustain themselves.)

It’s on Earth in an underground government lab along with a free-dried Megatron the leader of the dreaded Decepticons.

Boy this plot makes all that nonsense in The Silver Surfer seem positively ingenious and plausible.

The whole purpose of the film is to have the Autobots and the Decepticons square off in a battle of the monsters.

It’s a kind of robotic Godzilla Versus Mothra.

The fun of Transformers lies in that first hour when we meet Sam Witwicky, a teen whose social skills with girls are not in step with his raging hormones.

Sam gets his first car a beat-up 1966 Camaro who is really Bumblebee, an Autobot.

Bumblebee plays appropriate music to show Sam how he should act in getting the girl.

LaBeouf is very funny.

He’s on a genuine roll this summer with Disturbia, his vocal work in Surf’s Up and now Transformers.

It’s no wonder he’s been signed to the new Indiana Jones movie.

Anthony Anderson is around for more comedy as master hacker Glen Whitman.

It’s when Transformers transforms into a blast-em-up actioner as the robots duel to the death (or at least to semi-death pending a sequel) that things begin to go overboard.

There are only so many moves these robots can have and they exhaust them pretty early on in the mega-battle so it’s all about repetition rather than creativity.

To mask this, Bay turns up the volume.

Stephen Spielberg produced the film which explains why it feels a tad like E.T. on steroids.

Watch for a scene when a transformer emerges from a swimming pool infront of a little girl.

It’s an homage to E.T.

Transformer fans will also have noted that Optimus Prime the leader of the good guys is voiced by Peter Cullen who supplied the robot’s voice in the Saturday Morning cartoon version two decades ago.

Transformers delivers to its core audience and that’s why it was made and made with style, technology and truckloads of money.

It’s a solid summer action movie but nothing truly special.