Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Original Transformers cartoons, toys and movie, Optimus Prime
Likes: Fun action flicks, Shia LaBeouf
Dislikes: The new robot designs
Hates: My childhood being bastardized

The Movie
Boy was I not looking forward to this movie. From the first frame I saw of a robot, and probably from the moment it was announced that Michael Bay would be directing, I could feel the excitement I could have felt about a live-action Transformers movie shift to seething disinterest, as my childhood icons became unidentifiable messes better suited to a scrapyard than a lunchbox. Afternoons spent waging battle with Jimmy Craft on his bedroom floor, Autobot (good guy) against Decepticon (enemy), with dreams of the upcoming movie in our heads, were becoming hazy. Bumblebee was now a Camaro. A goddamn Camaro.

I may have overreacted a bit.

Sure those cartoons and toys were a big part of MY childhood, but a large portion of those excited by the film likely didn't have that same attachment. Transformers: The Movie may be Oscar-worthy to me and a small group of diehard fans, but to others, it's '80s cheese aimed purely at kids. So all I could ask Bay to do is make a good movie and not taint the franchise's name: mission mostly accomplished.

Instead of focusing on the alien robots, an unlikely demographic among filmgoers, Bay chose to give the audience human heroes to cheer for, starting with Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf), a high-school kid who lives in the limbo of school life, going neither noticed or unnoticed. When he tries to sell some family heirlooms online to pay for a car though, he draws the attention of the Transformers, both good and bad, who recognize a code in the antiques that will lead them to the All-Spark, a world-changing energy source that gives life to machines. Now, he has to help the Autobots keep the All-Spark out of the hands of the bad guys.

Unfortunately, the government, as it is known to do, has put together a secret group, led by a hammy John Turturro, which keeps the All-Spark secret...right near a giant alien robot that it's keeping on ice. It's obvious that the effectiveness of this plan isn't exactly high, which results in an all-out war between the Autobots, led by heroic truck Optimus Prime, and the Decepticons, now led by the re-awoken and rather cranky Megatron. Before all that though, the army, including special ops captain William Lennox (Josh Duhamel), are under siege when attacked by some of the Decepticons in Quatar, bringing the coming attack to the attention of the government, including the Secretary of Defense (Jon Voight.) So now it's the army and the Autobots who have to save the world.

After two viewings, I had three major problems with this film. First is the design of the robots. Sure, I have a very distinctive image of the Transformers from the cartoon, but when placed in the real world they wouldn't work that well. So I certainly appreciate the thought that went into making the robots more "real," especially in regards to their size. A giant robot can't just shrink to the size of a cassette player, so the filmmakers made sure every piece was accounted for when the robots transform. But when you combine this new "organic" design, which features a tremendous amount of detail, with Bay's style of up-close action sequences, it gets rather difficult to tell what the hell is going on. At one point, a robot is killed, but I couldn't even tell who it was until he was specifically mentioned by name later on. Either simplifying the design or pulling back a bit would have helped a lot.

My second problem is the pacing. When watching the film in theaters, I was able to check my watch and approximate, but with a timecode I can now tell that the first time an Autobot does battle in this film is one hour and 50 minutes in. That's simply unacceptable for a movie like this. Sure, there are a couple of attacks by the bad guys and impressive car chases, but to have the Autobots basically hang around for more than 2/3rds of the film, cracking more jokes than skulls, is a waste of the characters. So much of the movie is about the humans and their responses to the threat of the Decepticons, that when the Autobots actually show up to fight, it elicits a feeling of "Finally!" instead of pure excitement. The film didn't need to be wall to wall fighting, which is what it becomes in the end, but even one early show of Autobot might would have helped things out a bit.

The final big issue with the film is the unfortunate insertion of "comic relief" into the film. Yes, I realize it's aimed at a younger audience, and that a sense of humor balances out the intensity, but when you've got Optimus Prime saying "My bad," and Jazz calling the humans "little bitches," it reeks of trying too hard to be hip. The entire scene at Sam's house, with the robots first hiding and then trashing the yard is so ridiculous that it took me out of the film, in much the same way that Anthony Anderson's scaredy-cat hacker and Turturro's bumbling authoritarian did. But none of it is as bad as Bay's personal Jar Jar Binks, Frenzy, the tiny robot who works behind the scenes for the Decepticons. Providing more annoyance than anything else, thanks in large part to his ADHD-like presence, he brings a dose of slapstick to the film, which probably makes the kids crack-up, but it left me cold.

Despite these problems, Transformers is a really enjoyable movie. Much of the credit has to go to the extremely likable cast, led by LeBeouf, who's funny and believable as a kid in way over his head. The humor in his part felt completely natural and not forced at all. What felt forced was the presence of Mikaela (the appropriately named Megan Fox), who serves mainly as eye candy, someone for Sam to kiss at some point, and a female character for the ladies watching to identify with. But good luck finding a hetero guy who'll complain when her glistening midriff is on-screen. And for those ladies who can't see themselves in Fox's sculpted abs, there's always Duhamel, who gives the movie an injection of action hero adrenaline that makes his scenes memorable.

While the human stars hold up their end of the film, everyone came to see the robots, and they are impressive. Though Frank Welker was replaced as the voice of Megatron by the excellent Hugo Weaving, Bay brought back Peter Cullen to give Optimus Prime his iconic, dramatic voice, which pays off huge with the delivery of a classic line from the animated film. It's one of several nods to the source materials that subtle tell the core fans they have not been ignored. Visually, the robots are amazingly intricate and beautifully animated, while the introduction of a "battle mode," seen best on Sam's car Bumblebee, is both extremely cool and smart, considering the robots' abilities and battles. The film could have done without the gorgeous car commercials that are peppered throughout (count how many times you get a convoy against a beautiful landscape), but considering Bay made his bones directing ads, it could be expected.

There are certainly some problems (as I explained above) but Bay's team did a terrific job in bringing the concept to life. The director doesn't have the greatest reputation among serious film fans, due to his films being commercial successes and critical dogs, but if you aren't expecting to see a deep exploration of the human soul and like a few explosions when you sit down to watch a movie, Bay does it as good or better than anyone else in the industry, and may have hit his chaotic peak with Transformers.

Please note, this is not the IMAX cut of the film, which has a few additional scenes. Maybe that's being held back for the inevitable "More Than Meets the Eye" Edition, likely to arrive in 2009 or whenever the sequel hits theaters.

The DVDs
Transformers is available in two SD versions, a one-disc standard release and a two-disc special edition, along with a HD-DVD version. We received the two-disc edition to review, but there's no guarantee that the single-disc will be the same as the first disc of the special edition (especially since the first disc is marked as Disc 1, which wouldn't make sense on its own.) The two bland, gray, art-less discs are packed in a clear, dual-hub single-width case, with stark distinctive images of Optimus and Megatron's profiles on opposite sides. The case is inside a transparent plastic slipcover that has the film's logo on it. The effect is really quite nice. The first disc features a sweet animated, anamorphic widescreen main menu with options to watch the film, adjust languages and select scenes, while the second disc has a similar menu with bonus features and set-up options. Audio options include English, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, while subtitles are available in English, French and Spanish, along with closed captioning.

The Quality
In checking out the 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer on this film, I wondered if the fast movement and mix of CGI and film would fare well on DVD. It certainly looks great, as the only negative I really noticed was some minor haloing in a few of the interior scenes. The colors are well-reproduced, matching the theatrical presentation's cold palette and washed-out sun flares, and the level of detail is excellent, from the sparks of metal on concrete to the gears on the robots. There were no noticeable problems with digital artifacts, and the film is free of any dirt or damage. The transfer rate maintains a steady 8-9Mbps throughout the final conflict, which makes for a beautiful presentation.

The sound design on the film would have benefited from a DTS track, but we have to make due with a Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation that's uniformly top-notch. The dialogue is crisp and clean, while the music and special effects are spread throughout the speakers, putting you in the middle of the action, enhanced by some strong LFE hits. There are some nice dynamic effects, especially during the battle sequences, that really hammer home the action in the movie, making the track a good version of what it sounded like in theaters.

The Extras
The only extra on the first disc is a feature-length audio commentary by Bay, which means you get 143 minutes of his rather self-centered thoughts on the movie, along with production stories. Though there are a few dead spots here and there, for the most part Bay fills the time, coming in well-prepared. You too should be prepared, as you're going to hear about how he made the movie he wanted to make, not the movie the fans wanted. Truthfully, it's not a hard listen, as you learn how he got involved in the movie, how he shot the film in his well-known style, and even some thoughts about his plans for a sequel.

The second platter is where the bulk of the bonuses are found, split into three groups. "Our World" is first, and is broken into four segments, which can be view separately, or in one 49-minute chunk. It starts with the eight-minute "The Story Sparks," which focuses on the origin and development of the film, as well as Bay's involvement. On-set footage is supplemented by interviews with Spielberg, Bay, the writers, and some of the cast and crew, along with some people from Hasbro, making it a solid background, though a bit too Bay-centric. It's followed by the 13 minute "Human Allies," a featurette on the film's cast, with interviews with some of the crew, Bay, and his actors, including LaBeouf, Duhamel and Fox. The highlights have to be the audition clips, a near-catastrophe on-set for LaBeouf, the focus on Fox's hotness, and Turturro's imitations. The 14-minute "I Fight Giant Robots" covers the military advisers who worked on the film and the training the cast went through, as well as the military personnel who actually are in the movie. For a popcorn movie, a lot went into attaining a level of authenticity in the military details. The section ends with "Battleground," a nearly 14-minute piece on the sets where the film's intense fight scenes occur and how the scenes were shot, which is fascination to anyone with an interest in film production.

"Their War" runs over 65 minutes, and also has four parts, though these all look at the robots. "Rise of the Robots" is almost 14-minutes long, and talks about the original series and toys, and the fans who still fondly follow the characters and buy the merchandise. A trip to BotCon 2007 lets the fans have their say, which leads into the controversy over the film's alterations of the characters, which Bay explains in his own, somewhat unrepentant way. Some footage of the voices of Optimus and Megatron is also included to show why Bay made the decisions he made in regards to the casting. More background on the corporate side of the film can be found in the 20-minute "Autobots Roll Out," a featurette about the relationship with GMC and the cars that were chosen to be the Autobots. Instead of a commercial for GMC, it's really a pretty nice exploration of the choices and what went into getting the cars ready for the film. It's balanced by the 14-minute "Decepticons Strike," which does the same thing for the bad guys, showing how the various villains' vehicle shapes were chosen, which is actually quite smart. The area finishes with the 17-minute "Inside the All-Spark," which is about the computer graphics and special effects done for the film. It's a quality overview of the process needed to integrate the robots with the cast.

"More Than Meets the Eye" is kind of a catch-all area, with three short items. "From Script to Sand: The Skorponok Desert Attack" (8:53) uses storyboards, on-set footage and interviews to highlight the work that went into this signature scene, creating a small capsule version of the other featurettes. The only featurette I thought was lacking was the "Concepts" reel, which, at 2:12, just doesn't give enough of the film's conceptual art to satisfy a fan. A good 10 minutes might have been enough, as these alternate takes and inspirations are beautiful and interesting to look at. A manual slideshow would have been appreciated also. The final extra is a trailer gallery, which has the film's teaser and two of the theatrical trailers, which can be watched together or separately.

On the Hunt
There are at least three Easter Eggs on this set, and they are pretty easy to find. Among the hidden extras are a faux commercial, an unusual casting session and the filming of a cameo. Good stuff.

The Bottom Line
"Transformers" is a fun, mindless action movie, but at two hours and 23 minutes, there's just not enough Transformers action, and too much set-up. If you jump to the final 40 minutes, it's probably the greatest popcorn movie shorts ever, and you really wouldn't be missing that much, with the exception of solid performances by LaBeouf and Duhamel and the stunning shots of Fox. The DVD looks and sounds great, and the extras are really quite nice for anyone who wants to know more about the film's technical marvels and corporate tie-ins and, of course, Bay himself. Are they worth the cost of the extra disc? The six-dollar difference makes sense if you really liked the movie, but this material would have made it onto a one-disc version of a shorter film.

Fans of the original Transformers would probably lean toward the 1986 film, if given a choice between the two, but this new vision does manage to stand on its own as a silly, exciting theme-park ride. After all, it's really hard to go wrong when you've got giant robots in knock-down drag-out battles.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.