MICHAEL BAY

Bil’s rating (out of 5):   BB. 

USA, 2007.  DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, Hasbro, Di Bonaventura Pictures, SprocketHeads.  Story by John Rogers, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Screenplay by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman.  Cinematography by Mitchell Amundsen.  Produced by Ian Bryce, Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Don Murphy.  Music by Steve Jablonsky.  Production Design by Jeff Mann.  Costume Design by Deborah Lynn Scott.  Film Editing by Tom Muldoon, Paul Rubell, Glen Scantlebury.  

Loud, unabashed mess from Michael Bay that updates the 80s toy sensation to the new millenium. Shia LaBeouf is a high-school student who is trying to get through his days without being beaten up by the cool guys and is hoping that the hot girl in class will someday notice him. He gets his wish fulfilled when the used car his dad buys him turns out to be an alien from another planet, recently arrived with a whole army of vehicularly disguised mega-robots in search of an artifact that they lost on earth decades earlier. From here explodes a huge adventure that involves the U.S. army and two sides of robot factions (one good, one bad) that fight each other for domination of their missing treasure. Bay’s film embraces all manner of emotions, all walks of life, gives us glimpses into the American spirit that show the nature of the country’s domination and the righteousness of its uses of power: Bay’s film is America. In short, it’s total bullshit and lasts way too long, with a pedestrian plot that fails to capture the imagination even when the magnificent visual effects are at their most impressive. Not helping the matter are two terrible performances in the centre, with LeBoeuf running around desperately begging us to like him and Megan Fox (as the class hot girl) barely able to deliver dialogue with the slightest bit of conviction; the giant robots elicit more feeling than these two do.

Academy Award Nominations: Best Visual Effects; Best Sound Mixing; Best Sound Editing