Thank you Michael Bay!

You put some simplicity back into the summer blockbuster and allowed us to enjoy it again. Transformers is the new and improved makeover given to the familiar toys and cartoon characters. Unlike this summer’s many blockbusters with more story lines and subplots than a Robert Altman movie, Bay gives a coherent story and still proves a spectacle. Shia LaBeouf (Holes) cuts his box-office teeth as Sam Witwicky, he high school student with eyes for the hot girl in school (Megan Fox) and unknowingly to him, an important reason the Transformers are on Planet Earth.

The Decepticons come to Earth in search of Megatron and The Cube,
hoping to cause Earth’s doom and to stop them is the Autobots, led by Optimus
Prime. Fans of the cartoon and animated movie will be pleased with Bay’s
version as the movie is full of morals and decisions are made after group
discussions, like in the cartoons. Bay keeps it simple by sticking to this
story line as the focus of the movie. There are national security issues and
Jon Voight (National Treasure) plays the Secretary of Defense with Josh
Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson as soldiers that have seen the Decepticons up
close. Bay allows these to play as subplots and keeps the focus on LaBeouf
and the Autobots.

Transformers is an up-grade from the other summer blockbusters in store, however Bay does fall short on the visuals a little.

Bay does not like a static camera and he keeps it moving throughout. He does create some nice sights with his camera movement, adding feeling to his (sometimes overly) dramatic soundtrack. Bay does however have trouble with his framing, mostly when it comes to the Transformers. Too often the camera is zoomed in on the machines as they transform into robots and we are not granted the visual of seeing the entire process unfold before our eyes. Instead we only see most of the Transformer and miss out on an amazing visual.
While I could have used the visuals a little further away, Bay does
create visually impressive footage throughout the movie and you feel like the
money spent on it was used efficiently. The movie is filled with some humor
throughout, surprisingly from the Autobots many times, and has an
understandable storyline wrapped in a visual effects laden movie. And at 2
hours and 9 minutes, the movie packs its punch in enough time to get you out
and in the sunshine for the rest of your Fourth of July holiday

.