The mega-budget sci-fi action film Transformers hit theaters this week as the top box-office attraction of all time, according to media reports. The film took in $156.2 million during its first week, the studio reported.
It deserves it. Transformers has raised a good deal of attention for its giant-robot characters, but the real strength of the film is the human element.
Transformers director Michael Bay is known for his skill at creating over-the-top action sequences that defy logic but still impress the senses, but his real strength is in creating characters we really care about and then testing their courage and moral strength.
What is even more important, I think, about Bay’s films is that his characters rise to the occasion. Bay is no cynic, and his protagonists, although raffish and full of human flaws as the rest of us, are basically good and want to do what’s right. They also tend to have a good deal of fun while doing so, as in Bad Boys and Bad Boys II.
As in those two films, along with Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and Transformers, the image of the protector is strong in Bay’s films. Evildoers threaten, and protectors always arise to save those who aren’t able to do so themselves. Bay’s films create a straightforward moral universe in which some people want to exploit others, and other people step forward to try to stop them—and Transformers is more explicit and direct about this than in any previous Bay film.
Self-sacrifice is a powerful element of most of Bay’s films, and is a central aspect of Armageddon. It is also a critical theme of Transformers, where one of the "autobots" of the film’s title offers itself for a Christ-like death that will save the human race from the evil Decepticons.
As in Armageddon, The Rock, and, if I recall correctly, most of his other films, the writers also intersperse religious notions through the story, as in the instance noted above, which constitutes a central element of the plot. In fact, the entire central battle between Autobots and Decepticons, with its great, powerful beings battling over the very existence of humankind, repeatedly evokes notions of angels and demons engaged in spiritual warfare.
Bay’s films tend to intersperse comical scenes of American bourgeois domestic life among the action sequences. This serves an important thematic purpose, in showing precisely what the good characters are fighting for and what the evildoers are trying to destroy. It also helps us to understand them better, and thereby identify with them and feel more emotional involvement in the film.
In Transformers Bay seems to take special care to provide even more of these scenes than usual, and it is a very wise decision indeed.
Sure, audiences will come for the Autobots and Decepticons, but what really makes Transformers interesting and effective is the human beings at the center of the story.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments, RJ. I agree that if we compare these characters to those in straight dramas or comedies, they don’t seem that impressive. But for an action movie, I still think they’re rather good and help the movie along. But I’m definitely getting beaten about the head for this one! Perhaps I’m becoming so jaded about over-exaggerated action scenes that I’m happy whenever a movie tries to do something else a little more human-scaled. It will be interesting to see if Transformers continues to do well at the box office, which would suggest that there is indeed something good about it besides the super SFX.
Steve,
The weakest part of the film was the human characters. While Michaela (Megan Fox) is shown to have some depth to her character and does get into heroics, there really isn’t much of a journey there for her. Sam (Shia Lebouf) arguably has a much longer character journey from teenager to hero but really doesn’t hit any mileposts on his character arc. There are brief moments that speak of the hero he is to become, but really they tend to get subsumed by the family comedy aspects.
And watching the family comedy aspects was painful. They really interrupted the tone of the film and made me wonder whether the movie was supposed to be an action movie (like Terminator) or a family comedy (like Kindergarten Cop). They did little to nothing to advance the theme by “showing precisely what the good characters are fighting for and what the evildoers are trying to destroy” and in this particular case the family comedy scenes likely inspired some audience members to start rooting for the Decepticons. (Okay, maybe I was one of them)
Other issues are things like the bonding between Sam and the Autobot Bumblebee being really too short, and the Australian blonde NSA expert providing little to no value in terms of the story–other than to look good on screen.
Overall, I would have much preferred to have taken Justin Long’s character from Live Free or Die Hard and transplanted him into the Transformers movie. I think that it would have made for a much better tone throughout.
Otherwise, the FX work is excellent, the pacing is good (except for the Autobots hiding in the garden scene, which ran on far too long), and the concept is a solid one, but I think that the movie could have been improved a great deal.
Hmm, this is very strange indeed. I enjoyed the film and appreciated the pacing. And I thought that the plot fit together very nicely. Clearly, Hunter, agents of a foreign power must have drugged you before you saw the film. Please make sure to get a full blood workup asap. I only hope it’s not too late and that the effects are not permanent.
This is your first film review with which I have ever disagreed. I was bored by Transformers and I loved the old cartoon. Explosions kept waking me up. I thought the plot was extremely weak. Ditto many of the characters. I give it a good grade for special effects, but a C- for everything else, except Shia Leboeuf and his parents.