Transformers - Review

It has now become a cliche in itself to hate on the Transformers films and to be honest, most of the haters have some very valid points and most of them are directed at Michael Bay. However, back in 2007, 12-year-old me was sitting in a Cineplex theatre watching previews for the upcoming movies that summer. There have been very few trailers where I remember the exact feeling I felt when I watched it for the first time. After watching the trailer for the first live action Transformers film, I thought it was the most epic thing I have ever seen. I turn to my dad and we both say at the exact same time, "we gotta see that!" None of us knew anything about Transformers, ever watched the show or even owned any of the toys, we were just pumped and to be honest, it was quite incredible because there hadn't been movies of this scale before, at least from what I remember growing up. Sure you had your Spider-Man's and your X-Men movies, but this felt like a whole new level at this time. Looking back now, I am actually glad that this film feels scaled back, only because we now naturally compare it to the sequels and how over the top and crazy they are. So watching this in 2017, it feels nice to have the action set pieces scaled back. Also, I have to give credit to Michael Bay for actually doing a good job setting up the story and taking the time to establish the characters and give a little bit of suspense and intrigue in the story while slowing dishing out the information about the Transformers and why they are coming to earth. From that standpoint, this movie does a pretty good job. I care about the characters, understand what's going on and I actually laugh at some of the humour. Yes, it can get out of hand in some places (masturbating jokes and pee jokes are a little immature and distracting) but for the most part, the humour actually works. As for the complaints people have about Michael Bay, I will admit that some of his infamous trademarks are here. I'm talking about the Michael Bay spin shot or the teal and orange contrasted colour scheme, I'm talking about the explosions with the sparks, the racist humour (very minimal here) and the fact that every girl in this movie is flat out super hot and the fact that they are super hot plays a part in the story and some of the jokes. While I can understand where these people are coming from, but you have to understand who this movie is made for. This is what I call a "dick flick" (obviously satirizing the term "chick-flick" and directly taken from the Nostalgia Critic aka Doug Walker). Think about 50 Shades of Grey and who it is marketed to. Mostly women aged 17 to ... well, I don't want to know how old some women are who fantasize about this stuff but you get the picture. Women who watch movies like that want a rich guy to take them out on fancy dates including fancy dinners, plane rides, etc. This stuff appeals to them. Myself, being a 22-year-old male does not fantasize about this stuff. Transformers came out at the perfect time for me. I was 12 going into Grade 7 and what did I like seeing in movies like this? Cool cars, big explosions, an epic score (I like that with all my movies though, to be honest), and hot girls. Now you can argue that having those things in movies for our pre-teen youth is toxic for them, but I'm not going to get into that. All I will say is that Transformers is an entertaining action thrill ride with some good laughs and likable characters. Yes, I like Shia Labeouf and I didn't think Megan Fox was that terrible. Shoot me. If you don't ever watch any other movies in this franchise, so be it and I understand why but give the first one a shot. It's a fun time.