I try to somewhat compartmentalize my critical reactions according to the intentions and genre of a film, hence, I expect different stories and goals from different types of movies. For a superhero movie, if it hews pretty close to a cinematic version of what is appealing about the comic book version of a character–Iron Man being a very good example–I’m happy. But if a film’s apparent aims are higher, seeking insight into the human condition with narrative complexity and artistic beauty, I alter my expectations. A Transformers movie isn’t one of those. I don’t necessarily lower my expectations but I don’t judge an orange by an apple’s standards. Lots of critics haven’t cared for the new Transformers movie–they dismiss it as a loud, overlong and junky cash-in on the success of the original blockbuster film.
Transformers started as an animated series based on a line of Hasbro toys that immediately hit it big with boys fascinated by the duality of the toys/characters. By appealing to grown-up guys with fond memories of the 1980s series you’d also of course grab their kids. The new film is by and large a successful sequel with the same ingredients as previously, in fact, it follows the formula so well you can describe the plots of both with the same general thumbnail summary: The titular robots, both the good freedom-loving Autobots, led by the noble Optimus Prime and the evil Decepticons both seek an object the control of which could empower the possessors but spell doom for humanity. In the new film the Rock’em Sock ‘em Robots seek slivers of the destroyed Allspark to gain vital information about power source that will revive their race but destroy the earth. And of course the human hero of the story, Sam Witwicky, played by the mighty likable Shia LaBeouf possesses knowledge in his noggin that the Decepticons want to extract–painfully–so again we have little humans being chased by big bad robots and rescued by good ones.
The script rolls along with director Michael Bay happily blowing up sets and blasting his actors, real and CGI, across the screen from one set piece to the next. To me it galloped like a well-paced comic book with more than enough action executed like only Bay can do. The adolescent sex jokes I didn’t like from the first film must have tested well in the first film because there are more of them in this one–too much for a film that will have lots of pre-teens with their dads–Bay needs to take his young audience more seriously if the studio heads won’t.
I would also have liked to have more interaction between the Autobots–Other than the loyal Bumblebee (and he can only communicate by body language and snippets of audio from the radio) I can barely remember the name of some of them from the first film and they have very little to do except back up Optimus. Yes, this is sort of like wishing Sulu and Checkov had more screen time in an old Star Trek movie but what worked well in a cartoon seems too much to expect in a feature film. Those little gripes aside, popcorn movies rarely come much better than this–the audience in our theater was as animated and joyous as I’ve seen in years and we clapped at the end. Minute for minute, in a summer action movie, I have rarely had as much robo-value packed in as this film–it’s like the Sam’s Club of summer flicks–fun comes in bulk.
