So much attention was surrounded by the release of the movie Transformers. It was the biggest blockbuster hit of Summer 2007 grossing 27.8 million dollars on its first day of release, in the United States that is. The people it attracted and the money it brought in some how redeemed the movie slump that Hollywood was in before Transformers. Not only does the movie have an interesting story line, it justifies where it came from. Directed by Michael Bay, this film has everything a great film should have to offer. The special effects are absolutely amazing. The performance is everything an actor/actress could live up to in their career. I didn’t want to mention it but, the good looks of both the men and the women in the film is something nice for each sex to look at. The film is not just a fighting scene war on war for robots; it has action, comedy, amazing graphics, and leaves the watcher with an optimistic feeling.
Transformers is definitely the definition of a summer Blockbuster. In total worldwide the movie grossed $706.5 million. When the film was released in Malaysia, it grossed $5.2 million, making Transformers the most successful movie in Malaysian history. When the film opened in China on July 11, 2007 it became the second highest grossing film in China making $37.3 million. Its opening there set a record for a foreign language film. In the United States the film grossed $319 million. The money the movie brought in its opening week gave it the record for the highest grossing movie of a non-sequel. Transformers definitely set some very high standards for future movies. The success of the film is due to its universal means that can be understood by anyone. The first message the film puts forward is good vs. evil. This theme is everywhere in the world and everyone can relate to war and this good vs. bad. There is another theme that people could relate to which is love/romance. There is the love that Sam has for Bumblebee and the other autobots and there is the romance between Sam and Mikaela. The two struggle throughout the movie and finally get together at the end. This is something everyone enjoys.
The film starts off with a brief description of the Autobots and the Decepticons and why they are coming to earth or for that matter are already here. As many might know, the movie is about alien robots that can transform into different objects and come to earth looking for a cube called the all spark which gives life to anything electronic. The story focuses on a high school student, Sam Witwicky, played by Shia LaBeouf who like most high school students is dying to get his first car. Sam makes a deal with his father that if he gets some money together and can bring home A’s on his next few assignments he will help get him a car. In order to get some money together Sam uses a popular internet site, EBay, to sell a pair of his great-great grandfather’s glasses. We find out that Sam’s great-great grandfather was a famous explorer and found some things in the Artic but eventually went crazy. We also come to see that Sam’s life is now intertwined with the robots because there is an inscription on his great-great grandfather’s glasses that gives the robots the location of where they can find the “all spark”.
Sam and his father finally go looking for cars and Sam finds a yellow Camero, which suits him. Sam starts having odd encounters with his car. It drove it self away and even played songs that relate to how Sam was feeling, specifically towards a young lady, Mikaela, played by bomb shell Meagan Fox who by the way was the sole reason for my boyfriend watching the movie. Sam’s car, known as Bumblebee, turns out to be an Autobot and is Sam’s guardian from the evil Decepticons.
Meanwhile the US Military is drawn into the battle after their based in Qatar is attacked by a helicopter that transforms into a Decepticon and steals top secret information. We learn more when another Decepticon hacks into Air Force One’s data base to steal information. The military is ready to go into battle with the evil robots to save all of humanity. Sam, Mikaela, the military hotties (Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson), and the Autobots go into war with the Decepticons in the middle of a huge city. Buildings are destroyed, people are killed, robots die, and there is a lot of violence.
This says a lot about our culture. This is a sci-fi action drama but it has a more profound meaning. For instance when the government is going to attack other countries, it is saying that maybe we jump to things to quickly. This applies for so much in our society. People usually jump to conclusions and turn out to be wrong. This movie has a big genre expectation of a blockbuster, but it turned out to be much more than just a blockbuster. It is fun to watch and keeps the watcher engaged but it also has an amazing ending that brings up so much more than just a blockbuster. The feeling is optimistic and peaceful. The watcher is left with hope for humanity and hope for the robot race. Peace is restored to the humans and a message is sent to other robots that Earth is a nice place to be. It shows that although humans may do bad things there is good in everyone.
There were a few things to the film that was just plain confusing. When all of the robots on either side came together it was very hard to keep tract of which robot was which. The only one that was easy for the watcher to identify was Bumblebee, because he was bright yellow, hence his name. The fight scene at the end of the film was hard to figure out who was fighting who and keep track of which robots were the Autobots or the Decepticons. Another confusion for the watcher was the amount of violence in the film. The violence made it hard to understand who was winning in the battles until the very end. Buildings kept exploding and shots kept being fired so things were always in mayhem. It was also odd that the military brought the “all spark” right into the middle of a very busy city where many civilians were hurt and some even killed.
Mikaela
Maggie
Something else that came off awkward in the movie was the theme of beautiful women. The first absolutely gorgeous woman seen is Mikaela, play by Megan Fox. Mikaela turns out to know so much about cars because of her father. At one point in the film, Sam’s car won’t start and Mikaela speaks about what could be possibly wrong with it. She uses much automobile terminology that shows she understands what she is talking about. The situation to this point is somewhat believable, but then Michael Bay also brings in Maggie. Maggie is played by Rachael Taylor. She aids the US Department of Defense in decoding a virus planted by the Decepticons. She is extremely computer smart and also a computer hacker. Taylor, just like Fox, is an absolutely beautiful woman. Society usually views people who are very computer literate to be nerds and not very good looking. They are introverts and tend to be portrayed that way in most movies and television shows. This makes it a bit hard to believe that there can be such a beautiful woman who is a computer hacker. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of beautiful women being able to do things that are usually left to men. Although for movie purposes it is a bit hard to believe. For Bay, this is typical in the movies he has directed in the past. Some films include: The Island, Pearl Harbor, and Bad Boys. All of these films have very beautiful women in them.
One thing that makes this film what it is has to be the graphics. Every scene of the movie looks as if you could reach into the screen and touch the robots. They look right in place and do not have one bit of fake quality. They do not look like they are a double screen, meaning two cameras shot and then placed together. An example of this can be seen in the original film of King Kong. A scene in the movie where it does not look like computer graphics and looks as if the robots were real is when Bumblebee “lubricates” or urinates on a government official who kidnaps Sam and Mikaela. I could swear that there is a robot standing over the man urinating on him and not a computer graphics insert.
Over all, the entire movie has so much greatness to it that it shadows out any of the features that may not make sense to the watcher. It is fast paced and never gives the watcher a chance to bet bored or even think about anything else. You become so absorbed into the film. For instance, right now I wanted to write this review while watching the movie to get better ideas, but I kept getting distracted and watching the film even though I have seen it a thousand times. The graphics that piece the robots with people look absolutely amazing. It looks so real that you would think that the robots were on screen. The actors/actress perform amazingly. There characters seem like real people you could meet in normal life. They do not over act or be unrealistic, which is a quality of a great movie. The movie is so entertaining and even thought it is an action film it has touch of comedy to it and brings the watcher to a heart felt ending. Optimus Prime ends the movie with a speech that I can’t even describe. It has so much emotion and meaning.
Works Cited
Photo 1
Photo 2
http://blogs.feministsf.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/transformers1.jpg
Photo 3
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/transformers/images/thumb/3/37/MaggieMadsen_1.jpg/250px-MaggieMadsen_1.jpg
Transformers. Dir. Michael Bay. Perf. Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Rachael Taylor, Tyrese Gibson. 2007. DVD. Dream Works LLC and Paramount Pictures Corporation, 2007
““More than meets the eye” Transformers.” Youtube.com. 3 November 2007 <http://youtube.com/watch?v=xwW76KpqITc>.
“Bumblebee Goes Pee”. Youtube.com. 16 October 2007 <http://youtube.com/watch?v=TYWmtCQW8s0&feature=related>.
“Optimus Prime Speech” Youtube.com. 17 November 2007. <http://youtube.com/watch?v=L4g9kJ_UJTY>.
