*In Qatar, U.S. soldiers are attacked by a robot that has transformed from a helicopter in the sky and then destroys everything in its wake. Informed of this attack, the Pentagon calls an emergency meeting to figure out who the attacker is. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the U.S. an 11th grade student Sam Witwicky (Shia Labeouf) excitedly buys his first car, a beat up yellow Camaro. One night, Sam’s car is stolen and Sam follows it on his bike but he is overpowered by a police car that transforms into a frightening 20-foot robot that sends signals to a UFO. As the robot menacingly tries to question Sam, his friend Mikaela (Megan Fox) appears, and together they run from the attacker. At this point, Sam’s Camaro, though driverless, comes to rescue them. Soon the Camaro transforms into another giant robot who turns out to be friendly “Bumblebee”. From him Sam learns the good robots called autobots are at war with the evil robots called Decepticons, all from the planet Cyberton. Sam’s great great grandfather’s (who was an Arctic explorer) eyeglasses hold the key to the location of the “cube” that had fallen to the Arctic ages ago. It is important for the Autobots to recover the “cube” before the Decepticons do because with it, the Decepticons intent to destroy all, including human life, and rule the universe. Sam and the Autobots pledge to help each other.
Though the cartoon Transformers – the Movie in 1986 had fascinated a lot of young fans, it is Transformers (2007) that is the showcase of the latest and most advanced of CGI technology. The spectacular chases and stunts as well as the awesome animated transformation sequences (from cars and helicopters to robots) are blended into live action so seamlessly that they seem believable. Putting these animated transformations in real spaces and making them interact with real objects make them realistic. The movie is loud, fast and packed with adrenaline – pumping action and probably these are what mostly attracts the young male viewers who comprise most of the audience. But the movie can be confusing because of several army groups competing for attention and wanting a piece of the action as the two groups of adversarial robots (who confusingly look similar) fight to the death. The casting is fine. Sam (Shia Labeuf) is right for his role as the likeable, ordinary eleven year old sympathetic to the aliens (shades of E.T.). The rest of the cast is multiracial. Voices are also well chosen. Peter Cullen does the narration for good robot Optimus Primus and Hugo Weaving is heard as the evil robot Megatron. Some lines are quotable like “Freedom is the right of all sentient human beings” and “it takes sacrifice to bring peace to humanity”.
Can one mine any values from sci-fi action movies? Usually such movies have not much depth and neither does Transformers but happily there are some things worth noting in this movie. Robots are machines, mechanical objects with no heart but in this movie, the good robots are imbued with certain laudable human qualities like gratitude, friendship, loyalty, love, even selflessness. Towards the end, a robot decides to sacrifice himself so as to destroy the “cube” to make sure it does not fall into the enemy’s hands and to assure the survival of the human race. Though the movie is all fantasy, the good qualities mentioned have some resonances among children and young adults and inspire as well as encourage some emulation among them. Though there is war and a lot of fights, there are no gory or gruesome death scenes.
*taken from CINEMA: CatholicInitiative for Enlightened Movie Appreciation
my Review: Loyalty and Friendship
these are the things that I learned from this movie amidst the great CGI effects and whopping plot, a big WOW for making non-transformers fans for really appreciating this movie.. it is about a War of the Autobots and Decepticons that followed here in Earth.. the battle scenes are super great. eventhough there are not-so-famous actors in this, the moral and plot are awesome.. all I can say is you should really watch this film... ^_^
