Transformed for this century

Review: Transformers have arrived in town!

Well I can't say I was desperate to go see the Transformers movie, but a friend who had heard good things brought me along to it. It's a slow starter then surprisingly picks up quite a pace in the latter half.

The story centres on the 'auto-bot' race, who find their way to earth for a number of reasons. The baddies follow the dictator Mega-Tron, determined to conquer Earth and the good-guys are led by Optimus-Prime, intent on saving the human race.

The cast is not exactly full to the brim with big names, but there are a few members who you will recognise, John Voight for one, leads the government as the Secretary of Defence. Transformers also features Josh Duhamel (of Las Vegas fame) and Shia LaBeouf (who you may remember from the Even Stevens show).

Shia plays Sam Witwicky, the grandson of the famous explorer who discovered Mega-Tron frozen in the ice caps decades ago, and is the only person with information as to his current whereabouts. Because of this he is protected by his very own auto-bot 'bumblebee' (a streamlined Camaro that every boy would dream of) and works with Optimus Prime to protect the Earth from the auto-bot invasion. We watch as the auto-bots search for a device that crashed to earth many years ago, which will allow the creation of more auto-bots, and as you will notice throughout the film, this is not always a good thing!

Mega-Tron and his followers are a violent bunch and we see major death and destruction scenes throughout the film, with the bots infiltrating some of the most secure military installations with great ease.

This movie's main showcase, however, is the special effects. We see seemingly innocent devices (including XBOX 360s and CD Player) transform into violent killers in a matter of seconds.

As stunning as the effects are in the first part of the movie, for the final battle scene, things move perhaps too quickly, when the Auto-Bots have an all-out guns and laser war in the middle of a US city. The effects and transformations almost happen too fast to comprehend, and at a number of junctions in the film you are left wondering which ones are the bad guys and which are the good.

It’s a simple story in all senses - boiling down to ‘good vs. evil’ and ‘will the boy get the girl?’ I wont say how the film ends, but it is, as you would expect, fairly predictable. However, it’s well-acted with some great scenes throughout.

Unfortunately, this wasn't a movie for me, but if you like effects, crashes or just loved the transformers when you were a kid, then this is definitely one for you.

By: Sean Bryceland