Transformers July 6th, 2007

First of all let me say that I know very little about that late 80s craze that was Transformers. I remember playing with a couple toys but I didn't know any of their names and I didn't watch any of the cartoons. None of this, I think, made any difference while I watched the movie. Mostly I think because the best things in this movie had nothing whatsoever to do with Transformers. Oddly enough since the movie is named Transformers I find it weird to suggest what probably would have made this a great movie instead of a good one would have been the absence of the Transformer Wars. What I'm basically saying is that instead of the whole war thing, they should have solely focused on the Romantic Comedy part and maybe renamed the movie "Shia and the Bumblebee: A story about a kid and his transformer car." Because seriously that's the best thing about this movie. Shia Lebouf trying to score Megan Fox with the help of his car.
And of course this is a weird thing to say because this movie is directed by Michael Bay, a man who has made such mindless blow-em-ups like Armageddon, Bad Boys II, Pearl Harbor, and The Island. He specializes in huge spectacles, but seriously who saw this movie said they liked the climatic battle better than the antics of LeBouf, the snarliness of Turturro, and the complete wackiness of Transformers trying to hide in a backyard. In this movie, the actual humans are more compelling than the huge special effects displays.
I'm not saying I hate all action in a movie. But there's a difference between the best computer simulated explosions money can buy and martial arts. The former is boring, the other is exhilirating. It's sort of the difference between watching a classic basketball game or a loop of guys dunking. One is instant gratification, the other is drawn out, you can see what's happening why it's happening and who it's happening too. In the end it's more memorable and more enjoyable. The problem with the action sequences in this movie is that you rarely get the entire picture. The Transformers are so huge that it's hard to ever get a real good shot of what they're doing or who they're fighting. I hardly ever knew the names of who I was watching and it was incredibly hard to see what was actually going on. Bay further compounds the problem by shaking and moving the camera alot. This not only hurts the action but also the comedy. He needs to do less. Think about the Matrix, they never did closeups during an action sequence, they wanted you to see the strategy involved. 
Still there are many strong points to this film. Shia is paticularly good at stealing the scene from gigantic robots, Megan Fox is hot, and John Tuturro, Anthony Anderson, and the parents provide solid supporting work. If you see this on DVD, skip the climatic battle. Boorrrrinnnggg. Everything else is fine.