Transformers (2007 film)
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 We are here.....We are waiting.
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Transformers is a 2007 Science Fiction film directed by Micheal Bay and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film in the Transformers Film Series.
Plot
Humanity's fate is uncertain when two organizations of robots from Cybertron, the heroic Autobots, and the villainous Decepticons, bring their war to Planet Earth. The robots can change into different mechanical objects as they seek the AllSpark, the key to ultimate power. Only a human teenager, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) can save the planet from the evil forces of the Decepticons.
Why It's Here and It's Waiting
- Transformers (2007) started the live action Transformers series on a positive note and there's a reason it's the only one out of Michael Bay's Transformers movies to actually get mostly positive reviews.
- The acting is great, in terms of both voice and physical acting.
- The human characters are for the most part tolerable and the script at least attempted to make viewers care about them.
- Sam Witwicky is more relatable and tolerable in this film than in the sequels.
- Michaela Banes, unlike a lot of female characters in Michael Bay films, is actually a strong heroine who does a lot more than just fan service.
- Captain Lennox is one of the most sympathetic human characters in the film.
- Amazing and cool special effects, thanks to ILM.
- Outstanding CGI and visual effects that still holds up to this day, with the Autobots and Decepticons looking so realistic and lifelike. Every scene where the Autobots and Decepticons transform is so epic and satisfying, including the sound effects.
- Amazing and stunning cinematography
- Good direction by Michael Bay, who toned down most of his typical filmmaking style in this movie.
- Bay was initially reluctant to make the movie as a film based on toys is not his usual thing, but surprisingly, Transformers (2007) easily became one of his highest rated movies, with a lot of people saying it's one of his best.
- Pretty good faithfulness to the source material, even with the Transformers redesigns. In fact, it's nice that the movie didn't cater to a specific fan base and instead tried to adapt Transformers in general, while having ideas from the animated shows that came before it.
- Pretty good voice acting and the casting choices befit the individual Transformers characters.
- Peter Cullen (who voiced Optimus Prime in the G1 cartoon) reprised his role as the character in the movie, which was loved by old-school fans and was considered one of the movie's best aspects.
- Charlie Adler (who voiced multiple G1 characters, mainly Silverbot) voices Starscream in this movie and the way his voice was edited in this movie makes him sound more menacing than in the sequels.
- Hugo Weaving (despite not enjoying his experience playing the character) was an awesome choice for Megatron and many fans agree he has the most evil and terrifying Megatron voice. He also befit Megatron's menacing design in the movie.
- The Decepticons are portrayed as threatening villains and were each given their time to shine, unlike in the sequels (where most of them are portrayed as just animalistic jobbers who get anticlimactically killed off the moment they appear).
- In this film, all the Decepticons actually do have a plan and a big part in the story (even with their limited screen time and dialogue).
- In the opening scene, Blackout attacking the military base while accessing files on the internet was a good plan, as it lowers chances of humans foiling their plan with their weaponry.
- He even summons Scorponok, assigned to wipe out the ones who survived the attack on the military base.
- In the opening scene, Blackout attacking the military base while accessing files on the internet was a good plan, as it lowers chances of humans foiling their plan with their weaponry.
- Frenzy secretly following the humans and contacting all Decepticons after locating Megatron and the All Spark is clever.
- This leads to all Decepticons mobilizing, trying to unfreeze Megatron, attacking the humans, and trying to obtain the All Spark.
- While the Decepticons don't exactly have a ton of characterization in this film, the fact that they contributed something meaningful to the plot and the fact that they do some pretty deadly and cool things in their scenes that make sense for their characters (including their fighting styles and their Cybertronian dialogue that is timed well), they did make an impression in this film.
- Speaking of which, the Decepticons mobilize scene shows them speaking to each other in Cybertronian language is sick.
- Megatron is without a doubt the Decepticon who is the biggest scene stealer in the movie (which makes sense since he is the leader). For only having about 7-8 minutes of screentime, he made such a huge impression, doing tons of badass things throughout his scenes and making a lot of awesome quotes. Even with his redesign, he captures the charismatic, entertaining charm of his G1 incarnation.
- His role in the movie (outside of the action) is also pretty interesting. After being found on Earth, he was kept frozen and taken somewhere where he is used as an experiment by humans, with them even using his Cybertronian technology and finding uses for it as well.
- In this film, all the Decepticons actually do have a plan and a big part in the story (even with their limited screen time and dialogue).
- Amazing use of visual storytelling as well.
- The movie has some emotional moments, such as:
- The scene were Bumblebee gets captured by Sector 7, being used as a human experiment.
- The Autobots' meeting where they talk about what they have to do (including the fact that Jazz is worried about Bumblebee), with Optimus Prime even explaining why they have to save the humans from the Decepticons. Optimus was even willing to sacrifice himself for the safety of mankind, knowing that the Autobots shouldn't let the humans pay for their mistakes.
- "Autobots, roll out!"
- Optimus Prime mourning over Megatron's death, saddened by the fact that he lost someone he cared about. In fact, when you think about it, a reason why Optimus Prime wanted the All Spark to take his own life was because he didn't want to kill Megatron. This is something his flanderized self in the sequels would never do.
- "You left me no choice, brother."
- Speaking of which, unlike in the sequels, Optimus Prime actually has his G1 personality in this film, being as lovable and inspirational as many fans remember him to be. He even has many great quotes in the movie, some of which are things he has said in the G1 cartoon.
- Great music score composed by Steve Jablonsky.
- Additionally, Linkin Park's "What I've Done" is awesome and befitting for how cool Transformers are.
- Unlike its sequels, this movie actually has a simple, straightforward, easy-to-understand, and effective story that makes sense for a Transformers movie. In fact, the human storyline of this film is literally about humans discovering the Transformers and learning about their existence and technology, though the robots themselves still have their own subplot in the story (including some scenes of characterization).
- It even has the classic premise of a boy learning that his car is a Transformer and would eventually form a brotherly bond with him.
- The idea of a human organization studying the Transformers, Sector 7, is very creative.
- Despite the dark, serious tone, there are plenty of funny moments in the film. In fact, while this movie does have the Michael Bay-style humor, they land a lot better in this film and they are done in a more creative, relatable fashion.
- Bumblebee tripping over Barricade in car mode is funny and it makes sense for Bumblebee's youthful nature.
- The scene where the Autobots are in Sam's garden is priceless.
- It's funny watching Optimus Prime accidentally stepping on a fountain and ruining flowers that belong to Sam's mom.
- During the final battle, Megatron ticking away a man (who is actually Michael Bay himself) while calling him "Disgusting." is just hilarious.
- Pretty balanced pacing that takes it time for each subplot to properly build up.
- While the humans do have more screen time than the Transformers, the movie is manages to feel like it focuses on both of them equally because of the balanced script and story structure. Along with that, the human subplot doesn't overshadow the Transformers subplot.
- It spawned memes such as, "ARE YOU USERNAME LADIESMAN217?" and "Shut up grandma! Drink your prune juice!".
- Pretty amazing action sequences that are intense and high on epic factor:
- It's also awesome watching each Decepticons actually being pretty hard to take down, showing how dangerous they are.
- Blackout attacking the military base and Scorponok attacking the survivors (including a village) are pretty terrifying.
- Even the short fight scenes such as Bumblebee vs. Barricade and Optimus Prime vs. Bonecrusher were fun.
- The final battle is undeniably the greatest and most epic part of the movie.
- Unlike the sequels, there isn't too much going on in each part of the fight and it actually tries making it clear who's fighting who in each shot, so the long final battle actually tries being easy to follow.
- Megatron chasing Sam Witwicky and almost killing him makes the former look like a horror movie monster, which works for the fact that Megatron should be a threat to humans.
- During the Autobots' first scene, Optimus Prime shows Sam and Michaela a holographic image of the Cybertronian War, including a part where Megatron kills an innocent life.
- Outside of the action sequences, there other epic moments such as the chilling intro (which shows Optimus Prime explaining the All Spark), the Autobots' arrival, and the flashback that shows Megatron being discovered by Sam's great great grandfather after crashlanding on Earth (before Megatron could retrieve the All Spark).
- Jazz's death is sad and it's nice that his death was actually treated as something important, unlike the 1986 film which just kept killing off classic characters just for the sake of introducing new ones, not treating the original Transformers as characters.
- Satisfying ending where Earth and its people are saved (even if it cost the All Spark) and the Autobots choose to stay, watching over the humans. Bumblebee wishes to stay with Sam, wanting to always be his guardian and close human friend. Meanwhile, Optimus mourns over Megatron's death, sad that he lost his brother.
- "With the All Spark gone, we cannot return life to our planet, and fate has yielded its reward, a new world to call home... We live among its people now, hiding in plain sight while watching over them in secret, waiting, protecting. I have witnessed their capacity for courage, and though we are worlds apart, like us, there is more to then than meets the eye. I am Optimus Prime and I sent this message to any surviving Autobots taking refuge among the stars. We are here... We are waiting."
- There is even a cool mid-credit scene that shows Starscream flying into outer space which perfectly sets up for the next film.
- Without it, we would have never gotten Transformers Animated.
- It spawned three good tie-in video games such as Transformers: The Game and the two DS games, Transformers: Decepticons and Autobots.
- Like any version of Transformers, this movie spawned a fun toyline that would eventually get improved in the toylines for Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon.
- Unlike the 1986 Transformers movie, this film actually became a box office success.
- This film proved that it is possible to make a solid blockbuster based on Hasbro's Transformers action figures without feeling like an extended commercial. It sold its toys and merchandise well but it didn't treat the Transformers characters in the movie as things just for blatantly advertising.
- This IS the movie that saved the Transformers franchise from getting killed because of its impact on the franchise, spawning a new generation of Transformers fans.
- The movie also became a childhood favorite to many kids who grew up in the 2000s.
Bad Qualities
- The Autobots' and Decepticons' radical redesigns drew a divisive response from old-school fans, particularly ones who were most hoping for modernized versions of the G1 designs, though to be fair, the designs were not 100% based on G1.
- Some of the camera angles were shaky and hard to see what was going on sometimes.
Reception
Transformers (2007) received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics and old-school Transformers fans (with most of the negative reviews being from old-school G1 fans who just purely express resentment towards Michael Bay with a passion, even tending to treat the movie as similar to its sequels), but the movie was met with highly positive reviews from average viewers (including children who grew up in the 2000s). Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 57% based on 228 reviews and an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "While believable characters are hard to come by in Transformers, the effects are staggering and the action is exhilarating." On Metacritic, the film has an weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Transformers (2007) is one of the few Michael Bay films to actually get a mostly positive critical reception, with many considering it one of his best.
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