Transformers (2007) Dir: Michael Bay
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I remember watching this as a teenager and absolutely loving it. The explosive action, the iconic Autobots and great soundtrack had me hooked. However, upon rewatching it, I came to realise just how mediocre the film is.
Michael Bay doesn't exactly have a stellar filmography, and this being considered one of his better films doesn't exactly speak volumes of his directorial skills.
That's not to say this film is bad, on the contrary, some of the action sequences are genuinely very cool, and the CGI mostly holds up well. The main issues come from two particular factors.
First and foremost, Michael Bay's stylistic and visual choices are immensely irritating. The filter, the lighting choices, the choice of camera shots - it all annoyed me. The second key issue I had is with the dialogue; it was truly abysmal.
Shia Lebouf stars, and while I've seen him provide some genuinely enjoyable performances before, this was not one of them. If anything, he was just another source of irritation. I did not enjoy him or his character at all.
Megan Fox was only marginally better, although that may be because she had less of the atrocious dialogue to spew. She was at least bearable though.
I'll also mention a raft of supporting actors who, while being rather mediocre, still contributed enough to warrant note; Rachael Taylor, Peter Cullen, Josh Duhamel, Bernie Mac, John Turturro, Jon Voight, Anthony Anderson, Hugo Weaving, Kevin Dunn and Julie White.
Overall, there is no denying that I was disappointed by my viewing experience in rewatching this sci-fi action film. I was hoping for a solid, if eccentric affair, but instead was treated to a pretty poor action film, lifted only by its iconic alien robots.
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