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Review

It’s becoming somewhat of a tradition: Since Independence Day, movie audiences are treated to alien attacks at our nation’s theaters on July 4. War of the Worlds, the two Men in Black films, even Terminator 3 all had heroes fighting villains from beyond time or space to celebrate the fourth with a bang. 2007’s entry is Transformers, a loud, slick, silly, exciting popcorn movie that isn’t nearly as accomplished as any of those other films, but you certainly do get a bang for your buck. And from all the fireworks on the screen, this is gonna make a lot of bucks.

Director Michael Bay (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor) isn’t exactly known for his subtlety, and subtle Transformers isn’t. But someone had the good sense to bring on Steven Spielberg as Executive Producer, for the production values are outstanding, all you would expect from probably the most successful director/producer of all time. Throughout most of his career, Spielberg could always be counted on for bringing out the inner child in all of us, and at its best, Transformers does exactly that.

The Everychild in this instance is Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), a nerdy but cute high school 11th grader who, like most boys his age, pines for the local beauty (Megan Fox), worries to excess about everything and is looking forward to his first car. It is the latter that sets the story in motion when Sam and his father (Kevin Dunn in a nice turn) go to Bobby Bolivia’s used car lot (Bernie Mac in a neat cameo as Bobby) and buy a beat-up yellow Camaro. When Bobby says that the car picks the owner, he isn’t kidding.

As it turns out, the car is one of several robot soldiers called Autobots from the dying planet Cybertron. They can transform at will back and forth from a mechanical being (car, plane, cell phone, portable CD player) into their real selves: giant robots with Edward Scissorhands appendages. Sam’s great-grandfather had made a discovery of the Autobots’ archenemy, Megatron, leader of the evil Decepticons, and now Sam is unknowingly in possession of a map that both the Autobots and Decepticons are after.

Throw in the standard cast of characters – a secret government organization, so secret that even the Secretary of Defense (Jon Voight) doesn’t know about it; a gung-ho group of grunts who escape the film’s opening carnage of a U.S. military base in the Middle East by the Decepticons; and a couple of youthful computer geeks – and there’s the making of a by-the-book, color-inside-the-lines military adventure that plays more like a recruiting film rather than CGI magic show.

But the effects are just that: magical. The semi-destruction of Los Angeles, the couple of lengthy battle sequences and, of course, the Transformers themselves are all remarkably done. The latter are the raison d’etre of the film, and do not disappoint.

The state-of-the-arts effects are not even the best thing in Transformers; that belongs to LaBeouf as Sam. The young actor has such a genuinely appealing quality to him, it’s difficult to imagine that Transformers, effects and all, would have worked half as well without him. It’s not an award-caliber performance per se, but it’s one of great heart and personality. The supporting cast ranges from good to barely bearable, with Voight giving much more conviction than the one-dimensional role deserves.

It’s probably safe to say that if loud explosions (a lot of them actually), a juvenile script and cardboard-cut-out characters can’t be overlooked for the sake of effects, Transformers is definitely not for you. But for the kid looking for pure visceral excitement, this will suffice until the next big-budget Hollywood formulaic epic – or at least the latest alien invasion come next July 4th.

 -- David Bleiler