Right On The Right

I know I'm a bit late on this one, and I've been slacking on my promise to bring you guys movie reviews. Pursuit of Happyness, Casino Royale, World Trade Center, United 93, and Spiderman 3 were all requested to be reviewed by some of you guys, and I apologize that I never got to those. I figure I'll review Transformers before it leaves theaters.

Transformers follows the tale of Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf), finding out about his grandfather's history and learning about the existence of alien robots in the universe. Throughout the movie he has an evolving love interest with Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox), and they both end up being the driving human characters in the film. Witwicky goes to buy a vehicle, a used camaro, which ends up being the robot Bumblebee (voiced by Mark Ryan). Bumblebee leads Sam and Mikaela to discovering the presence of more Autobots, and the discovery of the Deceptacons, which are trying to find the Allspark, a device they would use to take over the universe. That's an incredibly short synopsis of the plot.

Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen), is easily the coolest source of action in the film, being the leader of the autobots and the strongest of the Transformers, aside from the primary enemy Megatron. The special effects and action in the movie were incredibly good looking, but with Speilberg being executive producer it didn't surprise me that much. Another source of action is Army Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel). The military is portrayed rather positively and they help bring down some of the Deceptacons throughout the movie. The added human touch differentiates this movie with the animated film from 1986, as does the twist ending (which I won't reveal).

The movie has some surprising comedic moments, including when the various autobots try to hide outside of the Witwicky household quietly, and various scenes with Sam's parents (Kevin Dunn and Julie White). One scene, which probably contributes to the movie's PG-13 rating, had Sam searching for something in his room with the door shut and his mom though he was masturbating. Another constant source of humor is an agent from Sector 7, a government agency that knows about the Transformers existence, Agent Simmons (John Turturro). Conspiracy theorists would love the movie's explanation for the existance of the Hoover Dam.

John Voigt does an excellent job playing the Secretary of Defense, and the President of the United States is never seen in the movie, except in a scene where his feet are visible on Air Force One, and he asks a stewardess to get him "a ding-dong." Rachael Taylor and Anthony Anderson play your tech geeks in the movie, playing a signal analyst and a hacker respectively. More humorous clips erupt when Anderson is on screen, including a clip with him and his brother playing Dance Dance Revolution.

Overall, I think a few things make this a great movie. The injection of humor into scenes that are there to move the movie along makes you forget about the fact that things aren't exploding on screen, and when things are exploding on scene, you won't be looking away. Megan Fox makes the movie interesting in some parts, and was a great pick for the female hottie. If you liked the old Transformers, you're almost sure to love the movie, although a friend of mine said he didn't like Optimus Prime because, "He had a nose." If you're willing to overlook the minor changes made, it's enjoyable. The plot moves along quickly despite it being a relatively long movie, and the casting was just about as good as it could be. All in all, I have to say you'll be glued to the screen and won't fall asleep, unless you're a 12-year-old with ADD.