Transformers (2007)

A high school kid just wants a car and a girl. He ends up with a car that is actually an alien robot involved in a battle with other alien robots in which the fate of the world is at stake, and he hooks up with the hottest girl in school.

The Plot: (Spoilers)

An opening voiceover tells of an ancient cube with the power create worlds and fill them with life, that was lost to outer space in a war over its power that destroyed a world. Those searching for the cube to rebuild their world were led to the previously unknown planet Earth.

At the US SOCCENT military base in Qatar, as a group of soldiersreturn from a mission, a mysterious US military helicopter approaches without making contact.

Soldiers returning from a mission are looking forward to some relaxation they aren't going to get

Fighter planes sent to investigate ID it as a helicopter that was reportedly shot down. As one soldier, a Captain (Josh Duhamel), is talking to his wife and infant daughter via videophone, the helicopter lands at the base and transforms into a giant robot armed with energy weapons that downloads the base’s computer files. Some soldiers disconnect the power and the robot starts destroying the base. Another soldier (Tyrese Gibson) manages to take a photo of the robot, and he, the Captain who was talking to his family and a few others try to get away.

That's one big robot!

High school student Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is giving a genealogy presentation in his history class about his great great grandfather Archibald Witwicky, who explored the Arctic Circle and was later thought to be crazy for claiming to have seen a giant iceman and drawing strange symbols. His teacher (Peter Jacobson) initially gives him a B-minus, because the presentation included him trying to sell family antiques, which he also tries to sell on eBay, but Sam explains how his father agreed to buy him a car if he earned $2000 in three days, which he did, but a B-minus on the project would negate the deal. The teacher gives him an A-minus.

Sam Witwicky in class

Sam’s dad (Kevin Dunn) takes him to a shady used car lot, where Sam takes a liking to an old yellow Camaro that has appeared on the lot without the lot owner, Bobby Bolivia (Bernie Mac), knowing anything about it. Bolivia says the Camaro is $5,000, but Sam’s dad won’t pay more than $4,000. Bolivia tries to sell them a yellow VW Beetle next to the Camaro for $4,000, but the Camaro’s passenger door swings open hard, severely denting the Beetle. Bolivia starts talking about another car on the lot, when a soundwave emanating from the Camaro shatters the windows of every other car on the lot. Bolivia agrees to sell the Camaro for $4,000.

This should have been seen as a bad sign

At the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense John Keller (Jon Voight) meets with a group of young people who have distinguished themselves in signal analysis, to help identify a signal that was detected when the robot tried to hack into the military’s database through the base in Qatar. Meanwhile some of the survivors from the attack, including the Captain who was talking to his family and the soldier who took a picture of the robot, are trying to get somewhere where they can contact the military, and are being stalked by a robot.

The Secretary of Defense

Sam and his friend Miles (John Robinson) drive Sam’s car to a party at the lake. Sam gets into an argument with a football player named Trent (Travis Van Winkle). Trent’s girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox) breaks them up, but Trent then says something to annoy her and she decides to walk home. Sam abandons Miles to give her a ride home. On the way they talk, and the popular Mikaela doesn’t even recognize Sam, despite the fact that they have gone to the same schools since first grade and have many classes together. The car stalls at a romantic spot along the road, and the radio starts operating by itself, which embarrasses Sam. Mikaela offers to look under the hood, and the old Camaro turns out to have an impressive engine. Mikaela reveals that her father taught her all about fixing cars. Mikaela decides to walk the rest of the way, and Sam begs his car to start, which it does, and he drives her the rest of the way home. Outside her house, she says she had a good time with him.

Sam drives Mikaela home

At the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon, a young analyst (Rachael Taylor) picks up the signal they are searching for, which is coming from a robot (voice of Reno Wilson) on Air Force One that disguises itself as a small portable stereo. The robot is using Air Force One’s connection to plant a virus and at the same time download information about the iceman that Sam’s grandfather reportedly discovered on September 7, 1895, information on which is classified Top Secret. The Pentagon severs the connection in the middle of the transfer. The robot is discovered by secret service agents, but it is bulletproof and kills the agents before they can report it. Air Force One lands and the robot escapes into a waiting police car, whose driver largely ignores it. The robot reports on something called the all spark and uses the internet to make the connection between Sam’s grandfather and Sam, who it intends to track down.

Don't you hate when someone reads over your shoulder?

Sam is awoken by the sound of his car’s engine, and his spots his car driving away. While chasing it on his bike, he reports the theft to 911 on his cellphone. He tracks the car to a sawmill, where from a distance he sees his car transformed into a giant robot, shining a spotlight into the sky. He records a video message on his cellphone, saying his car is alive, and tries to get closer, but is chased by guard dogs into the old sawdust burner. Sam’s car breaks in and Sam still thinks someone is driving his car. Seconds later a police car breaks in and the officers take Sam into custody.

At the Pentagon, the young female analyst who detected the signal on Air Force One sneaks into a meeting where top officials and Defense Secretary Keller are discussing the situation. She doesn’t think any of their ideas are actual possibilities and interrupts with theories of her own that sound crazy to everyone else. Keller tells her that he’ll only listen if she has some proof of her ideas.

Getting chewed out by the Secretary of Defense

In Qatar, the survivors of the base attack are almost to a village with a phone when they are

attacked by a giant scorpion-like robot. Under attack, they make to the village where they get a cellphone and call the Pentagon. A Predator drone is sent in to send back pictures and air gunships open fire on the robot, which withstands almost everything they fire and escapes underground, damaged. The men are rescued and are to be returned to the United States as soon as possible.

Not Again!

The analyst at the Pentagon thinks there’s only one hacker who can figure out the signal, so she copies it to a memory card and takes it to him. His name is Glen (Anthony Anderson) and he finally reveals her name is Maggie. The Pentagon catches on to her pretty quickly though and send the FBI after her, and just as they find out the signal has to do with the iceman and Witwicky and something called Sector Seven, the FBI break in and arrest them.

Sam is home, having been bailed out of jail by his dad. Sam’s car returns to his house. Sam thinks the car is stalking him and tries to outrun it on his mother’s bike.

I think it's obvious who will win this race

In the process of running from his car, Sam runs into Mikaela and her friends. Mikaela goes after him on her motorscooter. Sam doesn’t realize it, but he is also being pursued by a Saleen Mustang Police Car.

Anyone think this might not be a real police car?

Hiding from his Camaro, he spots the police car and tries to get help, but the police car transforms into a robot (voice of Jess Harnell) and asks Sam about his eBay auctions.

Would this be considered an Advanced Interrogation Technique?

The Camaro knocks down the robot, giving Sam a chance to escape, and he runs into Mikaela again, with the robot chasing him. The Camaro rescues them and the robot turns back into the police Mustang and follows them to a refinery. The Camaro ejects Sam and Mikaela and turns into a robot.

I guess Sam won't have to worry about getting an alarm system

It's always shocking when your car turns into a robot

The police car also turns back into a robot, and ejects the smaller robot that was on Air Force One. At the large robots fight, the smaller robot goes after Sam and catches him, but Mikaela finds a power saw and cuts up the smaller robot. The robot’s head continues to operate independently, and it grows new spider-like legs, finds Mikaela’s dropped purse and takes the place of her cellphone. Meanwhile, Sam’s “car” has damaged the other robot and introduces itself, though it can only communicate through its radio. It turns back into a Camaro and Sam and Mikaela get in, and Mikaela retrieves her purse.

At long last, an introduction

As they drive, Mikaela wonders why a sophisticated robot would disguise itself as an old beat-up Camaro. The Camaro stops on the side of the road and throws them out. Sam thinks she hurt the car’s feelings, but it copies the design of a passing car to become a new 2010 Camaro, which impresses Sam and Mikaela.

The best $4,000 Sam ever spent

The Camaro drives Sam and Mikaela to the Griffith Observatory, where they see four meteorites strike nearby. The meteorites are robots, which disguise themselves as copies of nearby vehicles, and they all meet up with Sam and Mikaela and the Camaro. All of the vehicles transform into robots. The leader is Optimus Prime (voice of Peter Cullen), whose disguise is a Peterbilt semi tractor. He introduces the others: First Lieutenant Jazz (voice of Darius McCrary) whose disguise is a Pontiac Solstice, weapons specialist Ironhide (voice of Jess Harnell) whose disguise is a GMC Topkick C4500 truck, medical officer Ratchet (voice of Robert Foxworth) whose disguise is a Hummer H2 Search & Rescue Truck, and finally Sam’s guardian Bumblebee, the Camaro, whose vocal processor was previously damaged in battle. Optimus Prime explains that they are Autonomous Robotic Organisms, or Autobots, from the planet Cybertron, and are trying to find the Allspark before Megatron, a Decepticon who started a war that destroyed their planet and traced the Allspark to Earth and crashed, and Sam’s great grandfather found him by accident under the ice in the Arctic Circle and accidently activated Megatron’s navigation system which microscopically imprinted the coordinates of the Allspark on Witwicky’s glasses, which were among the antiques Sam was trying to sell on eBay. If Megatron finds the Allspark first, he can use it to transform Earth’s machines into a new army that would destroy the human race.

The gang's all here

On an Air Force cargo plane, the survivors from Qatar are analyzing the tail of the scorpion-like robot that attacked them that broke off when the gunships attacked it. The tail is able to move on its own.

Maggie and Glen are alone in an interrogation room. When the agents come in Glen cracks immediately and puts all the blame on Maggie, who tells them about Witwicky and Sector Seven.

The Autobots take Sam back to his house to retrieve the glasses, which he has trouble finding. In an amusing scene, the Autobots try to hide from Sam’s parents, who keep bothering him and have snuck Mikaela into his room to help him look, and manage to destroy the back yard (but Sam’s dad chalks it up to earthquakes, as the Autobots have shaken the house.

The Autobots "hide" in the backyard

When the Autobots accidentally knock out the power, Sam’s parents bust into his room, and argue with Sam until Mikaela shows herself.

Hanging around the house

The glasses are in Sam’s backpack, which his mom says are in the kitchen. Sam gets the glasses and is about to give them to Optimus Prime, when a Sector Seven team shows up and the leader (John Turturro) arrests everyone. The Autobots intercept them to free Sam and Mikaela, but the Sector Seven leader calls for reinforcements, and Sam, Mikaela and Bumblebee are again captured. Optimus Prime determines they can’t be rescued without harming humans. In all the action, Sam had dropped the glasses, and Optimus Prime finds them.

Bumblebee is captured. Doesn't he look sad?

At the Pentagon, Keller is preparing for a likely war with China when Tom Banacheck (Michael O’Neill) from Sector Seven, advanced research division, arrives carrying a briefcase. The Secretary of Defense has never heard of Sector Seven. Just then, the virus shuts down all computers and communications. Banacheck says he was sent by the President and that Keller needs to see what he has. In a conference room, Banacheck tells Keller that Sector Seven is a special access division of the government, created in secret by a Presidential order from Herbert Hoover. He tells Keller that the Beagle II lander that was lost on Mars didn’t crash, but actually transmitted 13 seconds of footage, which ended with an image of a giant robot. He shows Keller the footage and a copy of the image of the robot, with another photo: the one taken by the soldier in Qatar. They are similar. Banacheck suspects that the virus was planted to they couldn’t respond to the next attack. Keller orders the use of radio to contact their ships and call them back and to prepare for an eminent attack.

Sam and Mikaela, Maggie and Glen, and the surviving soldiers from Qatar, led by Captain Lennox (the one who was talking to his family when the attack started) are all brought to a secret facility at the base of the Hoover Dam, where Sector Seven had the frozen Megatron, or NBE-1 (Non-Biological Extraterrestrial One) as they call him, moved, kept frozen and reverse engineered to form the basis of American technology. The Sector Seven agent that arrested Sam and Mikaela, named Simmons, is there too.

Banachek, Simmons and Sam discuss terms

Sam fills them in on the truth about Megatron and the All Spark cube, and realizes that Sector Seven knows where it is as well. They are taken to a room that looks out over a chamber containing the cube, which is huge. The Hoover Dam was originally built to conceal it.

The cube

The small robot that disguised itself as Mikaela’s cellphone also gets into the secret base and finds the All Spark, and is restored by it to its undamaged form. It transmits a message to other Decepticons, including Starscream who is disguised as an F-22 fighter plane, Barricade the Mustang Police Car, Devastator an M1 Abrams tank, Bonecrusher a Buffalo H Mine-Protected Vehicle and the helicopter.

Banacheck and Simmons take everyone to a room where they have a bulletproof box into which they can channel the cube’s energy. Simmons puts a cellphone into the box and zaps it with the energy, and it transforms into a small robot, which develops various weapons to try to escape. Before it can, Simmons destroys it.

The Decepticon that snuck into the facility starts defrosting Megatron. Sam demands to be taken to Bumblebee. Simmons refuses but the soldiers take Sam’s side, leading to a Mexican standoff, and Simmons agrees. They get Bumblebee and take him to the cube, and Bumblebee causes the cube to collapse into a cube small enough that he can carry it.

That's convenient

The soldiers propose taking the cube to the nearest town, Mission City, which is 22 miles away, and hiding it there, and radioing the Air Force for support. Keller, Banacheck and Simmons agree. Bumblebee, in his Camaro form, leaves with Sam, Mikaela and the Allspark, as Megatron thaws enough to come back to life. Megatron (voice of Hugo Weaving) escapes and gets outside where he meets with Starscream (voice of Charlie Adler), who reports that the humans have escaped with the All Spark.

Megatron

Bumblebee is escorted by the soldiers to the city. On the way, they are joined by the rest of the Autobots, who had figured out the cube’s location from the coordinates etched in the glasses, and then are pursued by the Decepticon vehicles. Bonecrusher (voice of Jim Wood) transforms into his robot form and Optimus Prime transforms to fight him and defeats him. Meanwhile, Keller, Simmons, Maggie and Glen get to the old radio and Glen tries to get a signal out, while the little robots fights its way in, but in the end Glen gets the Air Force to send in F-22s and the little robot accidentally takes itself out.

Optimus Prime vs Bonecrusher

In the city, the soldiers spot an F-22 and think it’s the Air Force, but Ironhide recognizes it as Starscream. He and Bumblebee transform and use a truck to protect the others from Starscream’s weapons fire, and Bumblebee is seriously damaged in the process. As Devastator the tank appears around the corner, Sam doesn’t want to leave Bumblebee, who gives him the All Spark cube.

Bumblebee gives Sam the cube

Jazz, Ironhide, Ratchet and the soldiers fight Devastator, now in his robot form, while Mikaela tries to hotwire a tow truck. Megatron arrives and kills Jazz. The other autobots fall back. The decepticon disguised as the helicopter arrives as well. Mikaela and Sam try to use the tow truck to tow Bumblebee to safety. The soldier tells Sam to get the All Spark to a rooftop where he can be rescued by incoming Blackhawk helicopters. Mikaela stays to try to save Bumblebee and says that whatever happens she’s glad she got into the Sam’s car. Ironhide tells Sam that he and Ratchet will cover him as he gets to the building. As Sam runs for the building, Mikaela drives off in the tow truck with Bumblebee.

I think I'd run too

Just then, Optimus Prime arrives to challenge Megatron.

Perfect timing

Megatron transforms into a futuristic aircraft and attacks Prime, who grabs onto him. After crashing into a couple of buildings, the fight in the street and Megatron knocks Prime down and goes after Sam.

This doesn't look like a good sign

Mikaela and Bumblebee decide to go back and help, with Mikaela driving the tow truck in reverse and Bumblebee firing his weapons, which remain undamaged. They help the soldiers destroy Devastator. Sam reaches the abandoned building he was headed for with Megatron close behind. He reaches the roof and signals the helicopters with a flare, but Starscream takes them out with a missile. Megatron has Sam cornered on the roof, but Prime catches up to them. When Sam refuses to hand over the All Spark to Megatron and Megatron knocks him off the roof, Prime catches him.

Not a good position to be in

In the street below, Optimus Prime tells Sam that if he can’t defeat Megetron, he will sacrifice himself to destroy the All Spark, which will happen if it is combined with his own spark in his chest. Prime and Megatron fight and despite help from the soldiers, who defeat the Decepticon helicopter, and the F-22s, who also have to deal with Starscream, Megatron can’t fully be stopped. Prime tells Sam to put the All Spark cube into his chest, but Sam has the opportunity to put in into Megatron’s instead, and Megatron is killed.

After the battle: Ironhide, Ratchet & Optimus Prime holding Jazz's remains

Bumblebee, his voice (voice of Mark Ryan) restored, asks to remain with Sam, and Prime allows it. The government disbands Sector Seven and deposits the remains of the defeated Decepticons into the Laurentian Abyss, seven miles underwater. The other Autobots remain on Earth as well, hiding in plain sight, and Optimus Prime sends a message into space to any other surviving Autobots, inviting them to join them. Starscream, the only Decepticon to survive, escapes into space.

My Review:

All Transformers really had to deliver was cars that turn into giant battling robots; in addition to more than satisfying that requirement, it also brings a story that is compelling and actually makes sense, at least as much sense as a story about alien robots that transform into cars can be expected to make. I was never into Transformers as a kid, so I don’t have the background to discuss how well the movie respects established canon and since this is a movie about robots from outer space that transform into cars, I’m not really going to go into suspension of disbelief issues, but one thing I will point out is that the weight of the Transformers in their robot modes seemed inconsistent, especially during the final battle. They are all very large and presumably very heavy, and usually when one is thrown into a building, the building is heavily damaged. On the other hand, when we see Megatron corner Sam on the roof of the abandoned building (actually Detroit’s abandoned Michigan Central Station), we see Starscream land on the roof of another building, and see Optimus Prime running on a rooftop and suspending himself between two buildings. It doesn’t seem like the buildings should be able to support the weight of the Transformers, and especially the pounding of Optimus Prime running on a rooftop. The special effects are excellent and everything seems real. The robot modes are “busy” (I think I would have preferred them a bit sleeker) and the transformations are very busy, with a lot of motion that might be a bit too much, but those are stylistic choices. One criticism I’d make is in the cinematography: while it’s good in the scenes with human actors, in many of the robot-only scenes, especially transformation and battle scenes, the camera seems very close to the action. With all the fast-paced movement in the robots, it would make the action a little easier to keep track of. It also might have helped to have given Jazz and Ironhide brighter colors, especially with all the Decepticons being dark and/or metallic. Plot-wise, there is a lot going on in this movie and some of it doesn’t really seem necessary. In particular, the whole business with Maggie and Glen didn’t really add anything to the story, and they could’ve just been government employees and it wouldn’t have changed the rest of the movie. The attempts at humor were hit-or-miss. I loved the whole scene where Sam tries to keep the Autobots hidden from his parents, despite the fact that none of the characters actions in the scene made much sense. On the other hand, the scene where Bumblebee “leaks coolant” on Agent Simmons was tasteless, and had already been done better with Sam’s dog and Ironhide. The casting is great, both for the on-screen actors and the voice actors. Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox do a fine job, and the supporting cast is excellent. John Turturro’s Agent Simmons stole all the scenes he was in. More great actors filled other supporting roles, like Jon Voight as the Secretary of Defense, Bernie Mac as car salesman Bobby Bolivia, and Peter Jacobson as Sam’s history teacher. I don’t know what the Transformers sounded like in the old cartoon, but all their voices seemed to fit.

Overall, Transformers is fun, escapist science-fiction action, and if transforming robots sound like fun to you, this is your movie!