Connections to the AllSpark lead to nebbish high school student Sam Whitwicky (Shia LaBeouf), who plans on selling his grandfather’s old glasses on eBay so he could afford enough cash to buy a new car and impress long-time crush Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox). But when he realizes what potential the glasses are, he unwillingly becomes a factor in the fight between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Of course, he’s not alone; he receives help from army sergeants William Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Epps (Tyrese Gibson), Department of Defense assistant Maggie Madsen (Rachael Taylor), computer hacker Glen Whitman (Anthony Anderson), and Secretary of Defense John Keller (Jon Voight).

Having a legendary franchise like “Transformers” (comic books, TV shows, toys, and the like) transformed (no pun intended) into a summer blockbuster could’ve been one of the worst ideas ever. Especially when the man behind the lens in none other than Michael Bay, he of critical revulsion from message board geeks and “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

Of course, Bay didn’t do bad in the past (I still hold “The Rock” as a great example of Bay delivering a megaton punch of visceral tension with jokes thrown in). It was once “Armageddon” came rolling in that he was looking to do more than just giving crowds a rip-roaring time, though I don’t think a crap love story should be putting a damper on what could’ve been able competition against “Independence Day”. But when Bay threw out his attempts to be fun, and have another ridiculously corny love story be the backdrop of a historic event, he brought upon the world the poison that was “Pearl Harbor”. Then, his anger towards critics thus brought “Bad Boys II”, which replaced the fun and charm of the first one with reckless endangerment for an unbearable 147 minutes. Of course, Bay did pick up footing with the underrated and misunderstood sci-fi action “The Island”, which ALMOST brought back memories of when he wasn’t lashing out at critics.

Now it’s 2007. With “Transformers”, Bay comes in with some secret weapons. One of them is Steven Spielberg, basically one of the legendary directors of our time. It being a sci-fi film, like most of his films (E.T., War of the Worlds), helped increase anticipation for the film’s release. Then there’s Shia LaBeouf, the former “Even Stevens” co-star who recently blew up after the success of the “Rear Window” update “Disturbia”. Throw those ingredients in with a bunch of other stars, Spielberg’s Industrial Lights & Magic for the special effects, and an estimated budget of $147 million, and you’ve got this summer’s largest crowd-pleaser ever.

With “Transformers”, almost every robot of the famed franchise are thrown into the mix. Bay has the iconic Optimus Prime and Megatron, while throwing in minor figures like Barricade, Bonecrusher, Bumblebee, Frenzy, Ironhide, Jazz, Ratchet, and Starscream into the wrestling ring. Much has been made to the movie-based versions of these robots. But thanks to IL&M, every one of them is wonderfully rendered with amazing attention to detail. Bay even gets a pat on the back for rangling in Peter Cullen, the original voice of Optimus Prime in all Transformers cartoons, to reprise his role. Now that’s pleasing the fanbase!

Where the team of Bay/Spielberg succeed is not taking the film too seriously, a la the cartoon. Much like “Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl”, there’s a jocular tone to all the madness going on. Some of it does get a little heavy-handed (I could’ve dealt without a “lubriaction” gag, character actor Kevin Dunn hiding inside a tiny bathtub, or Sam getting cornered by Barricade – that scene plays for both laughs and suspense, and it comes off a little awkward), but thanks to a film free of bleakness that would normally weight the film down (see “TMNT”), there’s a high energy to the film that makes up for any flaws. Probably one of the bigger compliments to the nature of the film is character actor John Turturro; he’s a ball of joy as the scenery-chewing FBI agent who gets his comeuppance from one of the Autobots (hint: Superman boxers are on display).

Of course, Bay puts a lid briefly on the jokes and delivers a whopping 40-minute-long, action-packed finale. Bay, being the mad director that he is, cuts away like crazy (a habit from “Bad Boys II”), though he’s a bit more restrained in letting viewers be immersed in the battle (once Smashing Pumpkins’ “Doomsday Clock” begins playing, you’d better hang on to your theater seats). And Bay’s staple of the marines are in also full force here, and he gives Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson, awesome actors who may go big after the film comes and goes, plenty of time to play with guns. While Duhamel takes too much of Gibson’s shine (the R&B singer/actor doesn’t make much of an impression), both actors having a ball, and that’s fine with me.

This is Shia LaBeouf’s third movie in a row where a clunky performance is definitely out of the question. Sure, his smart-aleck persona is put in full force, though he’s not too quick to lose our sympathy even in the humorous scenes when his character Sam fails in wooing Mikaela, who’s surprsingly well played by Megan Fox (who could go wrong with an actress who appeared on the Kelly Ripa sitcom “Hope and Faith” posed for FHM/Maxim magazine, and plays X-box?). And there’s great supporting performances from side actors like Rachael Taylor (despite being ridiculously attractive, she’s actually believable as a government understudy), Anthony Anderson (who’s a 100% hoot here), and Jon Voight (co-star of Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor once again plays a president, though here, he stands out more).

Not everyone is going to like this film (especially the Razzies association, probably understandable after Bay’s recent bombs). But there are kids like me who want to have a giddy pre-teen jump out and relive our memorable past. “Transformers” is pretty much that movie.

The film was shot in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Plot

The film concerns “Memphis” Raines (Nicolas Cage), a former master car thief forced to return to his former trade and steal fifty specified cars for crime boss Raymond Vincent Calitri (Christopher Eccleston), who is threatening to kill Memphis’ brother, Kip (Giovanni Ribisi), because Kip had taken a contract but failed to fulfill it (a stolen Porsche Carrera was chased to Kip’s warehouse and the collected cars were impounded).

Memphis now has to fulfill the contract and so reassembles his old crew, also joined by Kip’s crew.

With Detective Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo) and his partner, Det. Drycoff (Timothy Olyphant) breathing down their necks, they decide to steal all the cars in one night, to reduce the chances of being caught.

But, the police already know about the boost and, after cracking a bloke at the Mercedes dealership, who had earlier supplied Kip’s crew with the special laser cut keys for a Mercedes, set a trap to catch them in action. It thus turns out to be a high action drama of a very long night.

Also featured are Angelina Jolie as “Sway”, Robert Duvall as “Otto”, and former footballer Vinnie Jones as “Sphinx”.

Release

Though the movie earned a $242 million worldwide box-office gross, after overhead, it lost roughly $90 million after all expenses, including the $103.3 million it cost to make the movie, were taken into account over the next four years as of 2003.

Plot

A group of Honda Civics are hijacking trucks and taking their contents. One car first goes in front of the truck and uses a hook to pull off the pane of glass. One of the people then uses a grappling hook to enter the cab, subdue the driver, and drive off with the contents. The truckers are about to arm themselves and take things into their own hands, but hold off and let the police try to handle it. Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) is an undercover cop who is trying to find out who is responsible for these truck hijackings.

He tries to get in with a group of people led by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). Toretto runs a grocery shop and does tune ups on cars. Vince (Matt Schulze) gets into a fight with Brian which Dominic breaks up and tells Brian not to come back. Brian shows up again at a car race and bets his car that he will win. Dominic easily beats him in the race. The police then come to break up the race. Everyone flees, but Brian stays around and picks Dominic up. They are accosted by a rival Vietnamese car shop. They blow up Brian’s car. Afterwards, Toretto says that Brian still owes him a ten-second car, or a car that can complete the 1/4 mile in ten seconds or less.

Soon, Brian gets inside the Toretto clan. He dates Dominic’s sister, Mia, and begins tuning up cars and find out more information. The skid marks of the Honda Civics show a brand of tires. When Brian goes into the shop late at night to check out the cars, the tires don’t correspond to the tires on the Civics. Vince, one of Dominic’s friends, finds Brian poking around and accuses him of being a cop. Brian denies it and says that he can’t lose another race and was checking everyone’s cars out. Dominic, Vince, and Brian then break into the Vietnamese car shop, where they find a stack of DVD players and cars without engines in them.

Brian reports his findings to his superiors. After another truck hijacking, the police move in and arrest all the members of the Vietnamese car shop, but find that the players were legally purchased and that they are not the ones doing the hijackings. Brian’s superior tells him that it has to be Toretto doing it. Brian casually asks Toretto where he got the money to buy all the equipment and says that whatever Toretto is doing, he wants to be in on it. Toretto agrees as long as Brian wins the upcoming Race Wars, which take place in the desert.

In one race, Toretto clan member Jesse races Johnny Tran and loses. He then drives away very fast. At night, Toretto and the rest of the clan drive out. Brian tells Mia that he’s an undercover cop and tells her that the truckers are now armed. He convinces her to come with him to save her brother and his friends.

They trace his cell phone to Highway 86. Toretto pulls out the Civics to make one last carjacking. As dawn breaks, they find the truck and attempt to hijack it. However, the truck driver is armed with a shotgun. Vince’s arm is trapped in the hook as Letty and Toretto swing wildly to try to rescue him. Letty’s car soon flips over and Dominic soon skids off the road. Brian catches up to the truck and gets Vince off as the truck driver is reloading his gun. He calls a helicopter in, revealing to Toretto that he is a cop. Toretto drives off angrily.

Brian confronts Toretto at his house. At that moment, Jesse comes back. A couple of Vietnamese car shop people on motorcycles do a drive-by shooting and seriously injure Jesse. Brian and Dominic drive out in their cars to go after them. Dominic forces one cycle to flip over. Brian successfully shoots the other motorcycle. They then find themselves at an intersection and engage in a street race. A train approaches. Both cars manage to speed up and pass the tracks as the train barrels down on them. As they look at each other after their race, however, Dominic sideswipes a truck and his car flips over. Brian gets out of his car to check on Dominic. Dominic is okay, though his car is destroyed. Suddenly, they notice that the cops are coming. Knowing Dominic will be arrested when they arrive, Brian gives his keys to Dominic, saying, “I still owe you a ten-second car.” Brian then allows Dominic to escape.