Transformers (12A.)
Directed by Michael Bay.
Starring Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Torturro, Jon Voight. 143 mins.
The film opens with an attack on a US base in Qatar and the whole movie has parallels with American military involvement in the Arab world: the hardware is undoubtedly impressive but it struggles to win hearts and minds. We could add that like the Iraq war it only makes sense to a select band of true believers and seems to go on forever.
It is the film of the 80’s toy robots that turned into cars, trucks and planes. Divided into good and bad they used to battle it out on the earth, all chronicled in numerous cartoons and comic books. Fans are precious about Transformer folklore and when I snorted derisively at the bad robots being called the Decepticons I received a very dirty look from one sitting next to me. (But really, who are they ever going to trick – The Gullibots?)
The movie is directed by Michael Bay a man widely held to be Hollywood’s leading philistine, though I’ve always found his thundering summer blockbusters to be rather skilfully put together and lightened by a jaunty nihilism. He was in attendance at the screening I saw, promising that he was here to make sure it was “loud” and on that at least he delivered. I doubt I made out more than a third of the dialogue.
It’s breaking box office records in the States but I’m still going to sit here and tell you that the movie is fatally misconceived. Whatever fans think, Transformers is such a paper thin mythology that it needs to be a kids’ movie. Instead these innocent, childlike PG robots find themselves lost in an ugly, soulless, witless 12A action movie full of gung ho militarism and horny American teens. It has poorly managed performances and an incoherent narrative; with the possible exception of Pearl Harbour, this is Bay’s slackest directing job.
The only hope is that the spectacle will save it but to be honest there’s nothing here that you haven’t already seen in the Citroen C4 adverts. Bay tries to make the interaction between the Robots and the landscape as realistic as possible but it’s less impressive than what was achieved by Spielberg (a producer on this film) in War of the World. Once you’ve seen one robot turn into a car or vice versa all that’s left is to do it again with more and more explosions.
Michael Bay reviews:
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Pain and Gain
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Directed by Michael Bay.
Starring Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Torturro, Jon Voight. 143 mins.
The film opens with an attack on a US base in Qatar and the whole movie has parallels with American military involvement in the Arab world: the hardware is undoubtedly impressive but it struggles to win hearts and minds. We could add that like the Iraq war it only makes sense to a select band of true believers and seems to go on forever.
It is the film of the 80’s toy robots that turned into cars, trucks and planes. Divided into good and bad they used to battle it out on the earth, all chronicled in numerous cartoons and comic books. Fans are precious about Transformer folklore and when I snorted derisively at the bad robots being called the Decepticons I received a very dirty look from one sitting next to me. (But really, who are they ever going to trick – The Gullibots?)
The movie is directed by Michael Bay a man widely held to be Hollywood’s leading philistine, though I’ve always found his thundering summer blockbusters to be rather skilfully put together and lightened by a jaunty nihilism. He was in attendance at the screening I saw, promising that he was here to make sure it was “loud” and on that at least he delivered. I doubt I made out more than a third of the dialogue.
It’s breaking box office records in the States but I’m still going to sit here and tell you that the movie is fatally misconceived. Whatever fans think, Transformers is such a paper thin mythology that it needs to be a kids’ movie. Instead these innocent, childlike PG robots find themselves lost in an ugly, soulless, witless 12A action movie full of gung ho militarism and horny American teens. It has poorly managed performances and an incoherent narrative; with the possible exception of Pearl Harbour, this is Bay’s slackest directing job.
The only hope is that the spectacle will save it but to be honest there’s nothing here that you haven’t already seen in the Citroen C4 adverts. Bay tries to make the interaction between the Robots and the landscape as realistic as possible but it’s less impressive than what was achieved by Spielberg (a producer on this film) in War of the World. Once you’ve seen one robot turn into a car or vice versa all that’s left is to do it again with more and more explosions.
Michael Bay reviews:
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Pain and Gain
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
