Film
This Week in Film: July 6, 2007
Transformers
REVIEW: The fact that Transformers is based on a beloved -- albeit silly -- 80's cartoon show that was based on a toyline is not lost on Michael Bay. The movie about giant alien robots is big and jokey; the latter of which is both a good and a bad thing. The good is that it makes all the exposition -- that is everything in between the action sequences -- bearable; we might as well laugh while we wait for the explosions. The bad is that too often we cringe at how stupid the dialog is. We can't have our cake. I suppose you might argue that it's meant to be like a cartoon... well, then WHY isn't this thing a cartoon instead of a nearly three-hour Jumbo-tron?
Bay's signature flair for orchestrating impressive but ultimately confusing action sequences is fully intact. With his abuse of whip-pans and over-the-top staccato editing, his absence since The Island hasn't been spent learning how to tell a strong cinematic story. The former music video director does nothing new or interesting here, it's Bay all the way. But for what it's worth, we're talking about Transformers here -- let's try to remember why we liked them in the first place: they're gimmicky and fun.
There's a bit of goofy irony going on in the script as the Transformers locate the young hero by finding his username on eBay, and that since the massive auction site has come into existence in the late 90's, it has become the one destination for Transformer collectibles and memorabilia. Why it didn't go one step closer into Being John Malkovich self-reflexive territory and have our hero place a bid on an authentic Megatron, may probably be the only hint of restraint in this whole anarchistic bombast.
While we're on the topic of the script, it's also worth mentioning that the movie is loaded, mercilessly, with sly -- ok, painfully obvious -- in-jokes about modern technology: from cars to computers and everything in between. Bay is not known for being subtle, and when he reaches for his themes, he's really reaching. His simplistic, trite view of altruistic self-sacrifice -- which he has, ahem, explored in all his movies -- is as hackneyed and needlessly tacked-on as it's ever been. I had a hard time buying Optimus Prime's existential conundrum.
I realize it's easy to bash Bay for his dramatic ineptitude -- and also echoing a lot of what many critics have been saying all along -- but in the action department, Bay isn't too shabby, although he still prefers to shoot in the most incoherent style. I'll admit, a Michael Bay action sequence is distinct and unmistakably his: sometimes fun, but ridiculous to the extreme. But, hey, the man can blow things up, um, pretty good -- if only he would hold on his shots a wee bit longer. That said, the action in Transformers is blurry, sloppy, and for the most part forgettable. I'm not a Michael Bay fan, so going into this movie, I expected it to be bad... the movie is atrocious.
Also Opening this Week:
Rescue Dawn
You Kill Me
Bride of Silence
Romanzo Criminale
Boy Culture
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
License To Wed
(Photo: Dreamworks)
Discussion
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I'd say at least 3/4 of the scenes with the humans were completely unnecessary in that they added no value to the movie, nor did any characters establish any sort of depth or connection with the audience.
I think the product placement in this movie is about as heavy as I've ever seen it. I mean come on, a transforming Mountain Dew machine? I get the whole patriotic thing too, but the over the top promotion of GM cars was painful. What robot in their right mind would choose a Solstice, anyway?
The movie was far from good, but it was more than watchable: it was a good bunch of summer fun, marked with explosions, silliness, and giant frickin' robots. If you go in not expecting a brilliantly-auteured film and just expect an entertaining popcorn flick (with giant robots), you may just be pleasantly surprised at how much fun <i>Transformers</i> can be.
(And really, don't tell me all through your childhood you never imagined what a Megatron vs. Optimus Prime battle would look like in real life...) =)
On an aside, Rescue Dawn is a better film than Transformers (though it's not perfect), so hopefully some people will push their money over to Herzog instead of Bay this weekend.
And more importantly, Spielberg's influence over the editing room can clearly be seen in the majority of the action scenes. If Bay is a terrible filmmaker (and he is), his flaws are editing based. Here, the action is almost coherent.
Bay's signature inability to manage a simple storytelling process remains in effect when the movie doesn't so much end as just drop dead in the last ten minutes, but otherwise (and this isn't saying much) I'd call this his best-made film to date.
According to the latest OnStar commercial, Jimmy Kimmel.
For the GM promotion, well, they paid a chunk of money, their cars were featured. I expect american muscle cars to become transformers, not hyundai accents. The mountain dew machine/xbox 360/ipod transformers, while obvious in movie ads, made sense in that exact moment.
People, if you're going to see a cheesey over the top action movie, don't expect anything BUT a cheesey over the top action movie.
The official BlogTO "Shit Disturber" response: Best Action/Explosion Movie of the Year.
Let's leave reviewing to people who actually enjoy the genre. Otherwise we end up with piles of reviews that tell us absolutely nothing. You hate over the top action flicks? And you hated this over the top action flick? Great. We've learned absolutely nothing and you've just wasted your time (not to mention ours)
I went into Transformers with the best intentions... I really wanted to like it for what it is... and there are nice comical touches that worked for me. But overall, you'd have to strap me down pretty hard to make me want to watch it again.
Also caught Rescue Dawn last week. It's flawed and weird, but I enjoyed it much more towards the end.
Yeh, Sameer, I've been waiting a long time to see Optimus Prime and Megatron go at it... but how it turned wasn't that spectacular. Way too hard to follow what was going on... like watching two lawnmowers smashing into each other while the camera holds on extreme close-up the whole time.
it was so awesome, michael bay was the perfect director for this movie
and
Why did the autobots speak english right from the very beginning, whereas the Decepticons spoke an alien language until Megatron got thawed? (by the way, now every morning when I wake up I announce "I am Mattatron!")