CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 06/29/07

The First Car I Always Wanted

By peter clines

Transformers

Story by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman and John Rogers
Screenplay by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
Based on the Hasbro characters and toys

Like most fumbling high-schoolers, Sam (Shia LaBeouf) thinks owning a car will help him get the girl (Megan Fox) and change his life. It turns out he's right—his new ride is the advance scout for a race of giant mechanical aliens who can disguise themselves as everyday vehicles. These "Autobots" have chased their robotic archenemies, the Decepticons, to Earth with the hope of finding an ancient relic that could bring an end to their centuries-long war…or prolong it forever. All things considered, for a movie based off a toy line, Transformers is amazingly solid. The screenplay by Orci & Kurtzman starts strong with a huge action scene, then lets the robots fade away for a while as it settles into drive, letting the audience get to know Sam and Mikaela (Fox) and also experience some of the basic joys of movies like The Love Bug—that the hero's car really does have a mind of its own. It balances this with an equally light view of the enemy, a Gremlins-esque portable stereo (voiced by Reno Wilson) as the film continues speed and shifting gears, with bigger threats [the sociopathic police car Barricade (v. by Jess Harnell)], bigger heroes [the knight-like Autobot leader Optimus Prime (v. by Peter Cullen, Prime's voice from the classic cartoon], and even the faint hints of a government conspiracy. Once the audience has gotten used to the idea of giant, shape-changing machines, the titanic, robot-on-robot battles are inevitable. Most importantly, Transformers never takes itself so seriously that it forgets to be fun, which is why it's such a great ride.

Transformers
Paramount Pictures
Rated PG-13; 143 min.

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Peter Clines has had a lifelong love affair with the movies. He grew up in New England, where he studied English literature and education, and now lives and writes somewhere in Southern California. If anyone knows exactly where, he would appreciate a few hints.

Transformers courtesy Paramount Pictures

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