TRANSFORMERS
US, 2007, 145 minutes, Colour.
Shia La Beouf, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Anthony Anderson, Megan Fox, Rachael Taylor, Kevin Dunn, Julie White, John Turturro, John Voight.
Voices of: Peter Cullen, Mark Ryan, Robert Foxworth, Hugo Weaving.
Directed by Michael Bay.
Michael Bay usually directs big and loud popular movies. Transformers is, if not his biggest, then his loudest.
There is a market out there for Transformers, those who have played with the toys over the last twenty years, who know the names and characteristics of all the transforming machines (and the press book has details and photos of more than we would ever need to know – the reviewers that is, not the kids who enjoy them). The brief Japanese animated film of the early 1980s has also been re-released for Transformer fever.
Out in space, there has been conflict between the good and evil transforming machines – and now they have discovered Earth. As with many alien stories, the battle between good and evil has been located on earth, America to be specific (which is where most alien movie encounters take place and where apocalypse and armageddon are rife, making one ask what it is about US susceptibilities for unidentified, as well as identified, flying objects).
Actually, we discover that contact was made in the 1890s, the key to confrontation being transfixed on a pair of spectacles of the lead explorer in the Arctic. The spectacles are now on E-bay where his descendant (Shia La Boeuf) hopes to make some money. Instead, this is where the Decepticons make for, to retrieve the information that will give them supremacy. These are a big, monstrous and loud lot and can transform into huge machine terrors. On the other hand, we discover that the Autobots are the goodies and obviously more kindly disposed and turn into nice or humorous machines or sleek cars.
The government has a secret agency for all this kind of thing, unwisely under the direction of John Turturro who does an exaggerated turn as a wild bureaucrat. The more sober aspects of government are represented by an anguished Jon Voight. Meanwhile a wild hacker, Anthony Anderson, is commandeered by an IT expert, Rachel Taylor, and Shia’s girlfriend, Megan Fox gets in on the act, all witnesses to the final machine versus machine battle – which, of course, can only be won with the lone human hero’s help.
For those who love machines and mechanics, doom and boom, this is it. Otherwise, it is hard to tell a goody machine from a baddy machine and it all goes grindingly on – and on.
1.The big box office for the film? Target audience? Big, loud, action, effects?
2.The 1980s, the Transformer toys, merchandising, the film from Japan? The continued popularity? Transformers in the 21st century?
3.Michael Bay and his approach to slam-bang filming: effects, less interest in human characters, this time with the Transformers as characters? Their voices? Performance?
4.Locating the story in 2007, the background of the Iraq war, the bombing of Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Gulf? Qatar and the action? (Was the screenplay allegorical or not?)
5.The prologue, initial action, the setting in Qatar, the American forces, the desert sequences? The Decepticons, disguised as a helicopter, the attack, checking into the computer, killing the humans? The background of the wars, the Autobots, the search for the Allspark?
6.Washington, the reactions, the officials, their personalities, the meetings, discussions? The background of the journalists? The questions? A war on terror, terrorists, the plans?
7.The survivors of Qatar, Captain Lennox and the group, getting air support, the rescue? Their being attacked?
8.Sam, young man, his glasses, the code? His grandfather, the expedition to the Arctic, Megatron? As an ordinary boy? Autobot, Bumblebee, as a car, the humour, protection? The others, the arrival, the explanation? Sam and Mikaela? Characters? Parents? Optimus Prime, the Sector 7 agents, the arrest of Sam and Mikaela? The Autobots?
9.Washington, the defence secretary, his personality and work, strategies?
10.Agent Simmons, Sector 7, in himself, his work, touch of madness, plans, danger?
11.The meeting at Hoover Dam, the political personalities, the agents, the journalist and her presence? The discussions? Megatron buried there? Allspark? The Decepticon as a phone? Initiating the attack?
12.Optimus Prime, getting the glasses, the Autobots, the attack? Bumblebee and his shrinking the Allspark?
13.The secretary of state, the computer, the connection, stopping the local war?
14.The battle sequences, the victory, Sam and his involvement, the destruction of Megatron?
15.Audiences enjoying living in this technological, mechanical, shape-changing, action world?
