In our constant barrage of summer movies we naturally stumbled into Transformers. As a family we weren't big viewers of the TV show, I think it was before the girls primary TV time and wasn't really their demographic. So we didn't really know too much about the story.
As has become my standard comment: the special effects were amazing. They truly were special. The director, Michael Bay, likes to do a lot of 360 degree circles around the actors in all sorts of scenes. Probably a little more difficult to do even in the digital world, but it looked great. Actually too good. It seemed at times these shots were in there, just say "see what we can do..." Not to sound like a movie critic or worse, somebody who knows what they're talking about, but it seemed a little forced to me.
The actors were fine. I like Shia LaBeouf. I was a Boy Meets World fan and The Greatest Game Ever Played is one of my favorite movies. The girl (Megan Fox) satisfies the "easy on the eyes" requirement. The two soldiers (Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson) were not really developed (again don't want to sound like a person who knows anything). It was weird how Capt. Lennox (Duhamel) became instantly knowledgeable and friendly with Sam (LaBeouf). I didn't buy it...and I bet there was a lot of footage left over for the Deleted Scenes section of the DVD. Rachael Taylor got tossed in as a bonus, she played this Aussie computer genius, who also happens to be totally hot and looks great in a pair of jeans and heels...like every female computer hacker I've ever met or worked with ;-)
I also didn't buy the whole middle act. They spent an uncomfortable amount of time at the main character's house, showing the robots hiding from stupid old mom and dad. And then mom has to embarrass her son in front of this girl who happens to be hiding in his room. It was just plain dumb. Then it got dumber with the introduction of this group of Uber-CIA dudes, led by John Turturro. Why he was even in there is beyond me. He acted like a moron and seemed totally out of place. Throw in another later, way too lengthy scene with him trying to send a warning message with the obligatory hackers using old outdated equipment. It was painful.
All in all...this was an average movie, loaded with great action and amazing special effects. Better than Fantastic Four...barely. I remember when I first saw the teaser trailer for this movie...I thought "a movie based on the cartoon? I'll pass...". Then the hype machine geared up and I bought into it. This was going to be THE movie of the summer. I couldn't wait for it to show up. And after seeing it...I was anxious to see Harry Potter. And glad that I had seen Die Hard.