"I bought
a car. Turned out to be an alien robot. Who knew?" deadpans Sam Witwicky,
hero and human heart of Michael Bay's rollicking robot-smackdown fest,
Transformers. Witwicky (the sweetly nerdy Shia LaBeouf, channeling a
young John Cusack) is the perfect counterpoint to the nearly nonstop
exhilarating action. The plot is simple: an alien civil war (the Autobots
vs. the evil Decepticons) has spilled onto Earth, and young Sam is caught
in the fray by his newly purchased souped-up Camaro. Which has a mind--and
identity, as a noble-warrior robot named Bumblebee--of its own. The
effects, especially the mind-blowing transformations of the robots into
their earthly forms and back again, are stellar. Fans of the earlier
film and TV series will be thrilled at this cutting-edge incarnation,
but this version should please all fans of high-adrenaline action. Director
Bay gleefully salts the movie with homages to pop-culture touchstones
like Raiders of the Lost Ark, King Kong, and the early technothriller
WarGames. The actors, though clearly all supporting those kickass robots,
are uniformly on-target, including the dashing Josh Duhamel as a U.S.
Army sergeant fighting an enemy he never anticipated; Jon Voight, as
a tough yet sympathetic Secretary of Defense in over his head; and John
Turturro, whose special agent manages to be confidently unctuous, even
stripped to his undies. But the film belongs to Bumblebee, Optimus Prime,
and the dastardly Megatron--and the wicked stunts they collide in
all over the globe. Long live Transformers!
From director Michael Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg comes a
thrilling battle between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. When
their epic struggle comes to Earth, all that stands between the Decepticonsr and
ultimate power is a clue held by young Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf). Unaware that
he is mankind's last chance for survival, Sam and Bumblebee, his robot disguised
as a car, are in a heart-pounding race against an enemy unlike anything anyone
has seen before. It's the incredible, breath-taking film spectacular that USA
Today says ''will appeal to the kid in all of us.''
