A transforming toy story

'Transformers' bears the hallmarks of its executive producer, Steven Spielberg. The robotic story feels more human as a result.

from the July 6, 2007 edition

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Oddly enough, except for one brief appearance, we never hear from the president at all. Instead, the weight of the world is shouldered by the Defense Secretary, played sympathetically by Jon Voight as a Southern-fried potentate. Did Bay and his screenwriters imagine that keeping the president under wraps would make us forget about Iraq? But the truth is that, as was also the case in the latest "Die Hard" flick, terrorism in the movies – even when it's rained down upon us by bots – inevitably conjures up real-world catastrophes.

What keeps "Transformers" watchable is LaBeouf and the computerized effects, which are often startling. When Sam's Camaro muscles up into the Bumblebee bot, it's like watching every boy's fantasy of his first pair of wheels. Suddenly your clunker turns into supercar.

LaBeouf doesn't overdo the wide-eyed wonder bit. He knows how to act his age without coming across as a doofus. As in "Disturbia," he carries an instant rapport that is immensely useful in a movie dominated by so much robotics.

I wish Bay had been more adventurous with the film's overall presentation. He draws on imagery from movies as disparate as "War Games" and the recent "King Kong" without ever quite coming up with his own look. (If ever there was a live-action movie that cried out for the style of Japanese anime, this is it.)

Although Bay isn't as soulless here as he's been in the past – "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor" might have been directed by a Decepticon – it's difficult to have a light touch when your fists are constantly clenched.

Bay has set the film up for a sequel, of course. Although I had a pretty good time at "Transformers," I don't relish the prospect of yet another summer movie franchise, especially one that is essentially a mammoth repository of product placements. Just about everything connected to this movie is a tie-in, except for the popcorn. And even then I'm not too sure. Grade: B

• Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and language.

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