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Transformers is today’s adolescent generation’s The Last Starfighter. For unknown reasons, adolescent males seem prone to (among other things) a curious desire to be befriended by alien life with its accompanying technology, high speed travel, and ability to guarantee successful romancing of attractive teen females. With its fantasy-stroking power, this formula is a recipe for commercial success no matter what the cinematic merits the final film happen to possess. Despite the obvious exploitation of formulaic protocols, Michael Bay’s 2007 movie adaptation of the 1980’s Transformers animated series/toy phenomenon, the film impresses me more than I had imagined that it would. The film is non-stop entertainment with a heart-pounding, high-action finish that will leave you catching your breath, though the movie disappointingly takes a few too many pit stops into corny-land that are unnecessary and do disservice to what would otherwise have been a phenomenal action/adventure/science-fiction film deserving of solid praise.

The plot, for those who aren’t familiar, revolves around a race of alien robots who come to Earth in search of a mythic source of power for their dying planet, which ultimately culminates in a classic good-versus-evil fight to the finish. Along the way their quest for “the cube” of power involves the life of young teen boy Sam Witwicky, expertly played by Shia LaBeouf, and the female object of his desire, Mikaela Banes, performed by the stunning Megan Fox. The film’s strengths, other than the obvious criteria of visually pounding action sequences and seamlessly integrated CGI effects, are its outstanding acting talents that really propel the movie’s plot into the realm of an emotionally engaging story. Shia’s performance goes beyond acting as he becomes the very essence of Sam Witwicky; this young actor has a gift for depicting a young teen male brimming with erotic desire, nervous insecurity, and eager passion that come together in a way that’s both comedic and believable at the same time. Megan’s performance is also sharply tuned as her character forms the perfect compliment to Sam Witwicky’s personality, energy, and adolescent sexual desire. Sam’s parents are also an admirable addition to the cast and provoke more than one moment of heartfelt laughter.

With all it has going for it, it’s a shame that Director Bay couldn’t have resisted the urge to throw in a few cheap gags that needlessly pull the film down. The film’s weaknesses begin about an hour into the film, with the first words uttered by the Transformer robots. With that inaugural robot conversation, the film seems to shift bizarrely from a heretofore respectable action/adventure into some sort of silly comedy with a target audience of kids under 12. And then, as quickly as it diverges into this off- shoot of unwelcome farce, it bounces back and reassumes the genre of a more serious sci-fi/action film intent on earning the viewer’s respect. This back/forth flip-flopping happens over and over until the film’s culmination, and while some viewers might not be bothered or might even enjoy this change of style, I found it disappointingly distracting and destructive to the film’s otherwise outstanding qualities.

With all its faults, however, the film is still easily enjoyed for the entertaining vehicle that it most certainly is. Dan’s thoughts on the film (from his review 15 Oct review of the HD DVD versus DVD):

“Based on one of the many factoids found in the supplements, I’m apparently among the 25% of American males who haven’t had the Transformers experience as a child or adolescent.  I was unaware of the animated television series, I never played with Transformers toys as a child... all I knew was that Hasbro had marketed a toy line of robots that could be bent and folded into other things.  So the prospect of a film based on a bunch of toys that was purported to be a prolonged commercial for General Motors did not fill me with glee.  But wait a minute.  Michael Bay directs, Steven Spielberg is an executive producer, ILM is doing the special effects, and the budget is a staggering $148 million dollars.  Hmmm, maybe I should take this venture more seriously.  Bay and Spielberg spent their production budget well; they delivered a prototypical popcorn movie that earned an impressive $478 million worldwide.

“The film opens with some exposition that orients the uninitiated 25%.  A peaceful world of cybernetic creatures that achieved sentience was wracked by war as evil and good battled for dominance.  During the conflict, the source of life, the Allspark, was lost and it drifted away into interstellar space.  Ever since, both the forces of evil in the form of Decpticons and the forces of good in the form of Autobots have been searching for the Allspark to recover it.

“By no small coincidence, the Allspark made its way to earth to become this film’s Macguffin.  The key to its location is now in the hands of an awkward teenager with raging hormones: Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf).  He lusts after the beautiful and sexy Mikaela Banes (the impossibly foxy Megan Fox), and is desperate to sell some of his grandfather’s possessions that survived his years as an explorer and adventurer.  Little does he know that among them is the information that will either save the Earth or destroy it.

“Never underestimate the power of the Web.  Sam is trying to sell those artifacts on eBay to earn his share of the money required to take his father up on an offer to buy his first car, a car he hopes to use to impress the delicious Mikaela.  Both Autobots and Decepticons have come to Earth, and through the power of the information superhighway, have tracked down the hapless teen (how they know that one of his grandfather’s artifacts is important is not clear).  And when Sam is sought out by the robots, his life will also be transformed in ways he couldn’t hope for or imagine.

“Not surprisingly, the military are also on the case.  The Decepticons have made their destructive presence felt in none too subtle ways, perhaps as a diversion as they try to hack military servers to steal the information they believe might lead them to the Allspark.  The devastation is impressive (and strictly gratuitous).  The military also discover Sam’s involvement, so we have the Air Force, the Army, Defense Secretary John Keller (Jon Voight), and Section 7 Agent Simmons (John Turturro) of a shadowy, secret organization reminiscent of Men in Black, all after the teenager.

“This is beauty and the geek submerged in an absolutely kickass, special effects laden, action-intensive sci-fi flick punctuated by humor; it’s simply a lot of fun.  Bay has put together an intense, quickly paced film that’s so involving that you don’t have a chance to think long enough to appreciate the plot holes or be bothered by how utterly silly it all is.  I found myself amused by a screenplay laced with humor that is entirely contextual and not at all gratuitous.  Shia LaBeouf is charming and funny, the perfect archetype horny teen.  Megan Fox is appealing and delightful as the girl who’s always attracted to the wrong kind of guy.  Jon Voight is persuasively take- charge.  The reliable John Turturro is credibly creepy.  And the supporting cast is uniformly effective.  But the real stars of the show are created within the confines of a vast network of computers.  I was terribly impressed with the quality of the CGI and the complexity of each robot.  The transformations are a wonder to behold. 

“So Transformers has earned a top spot on my list of guilty pleasures.  It’s eye candy and ear candy.  It’s fun.  It’s entertaining.  And it is pure silliness, but I liked it anyway."

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

For this release on Blu-ray Disc, Paramount has produced an entirely new 2.35:1 high bit rate AVC compression optimized for the higher bandwidth afforded by the Blu-ray Disc medium versus what has already been offered on the HD DVD. As I don’t have the original HD DVD or the ability to screen it in my own system, I can’t directly compare the resultant picture of the two versions. However, I can state absolutely that this Blu-ray Disc video encode is about the most transparent-to-the-source that I’ve seen from any 1080p medium, period. The level of fine detail is staggering; the image is completely unfiltered and produces an incredibly natural film-like character with its ultra-fine grain structure and complex textural detail. The action scenes are maze of intersecting details which are designed to overwhelm your visual sense via their intensity, and that effect is preserved perfectly on this Blu-ray Disc. The film image is purposefully manipulated to look hot most of the time with exaggerated white and black dynamic range, which adds a sense of three dimensionality and color saturation that heighten the visual impact beyond traditional linear-shot film techniques. The slightly stylized color palette and dynamic range help to accentuate the film’s high action and energy, and should not be viewed as flaws in this video presentation. There are no hints of compression artifacts or edge halos to be found anywhere, no matter how fast the action or how complex the scene. In this period where more and more 1080p pictures seem to be getting dumbed down to look grain-free and over-smoothed for consumers unfamiliar with the proper look of the film medium, it’s so refreshing to find Paramount embracing a hands-off approach to preserving such an incredible level of natural film detail. Perfection.

Dan writes regarding the image from the HD DVD: “The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is presented in an excellent high definition transfer compressed with the AVC video CODEC.  This is a great-looking disc.  If all HD DVDs had this level of detail, this illusion of depth, this level of finely grained textures, and this terrific video dynamic range sans white or black crush, I’d be hard pressed to maintain my preference for Blu-ray Disc.  My only objection is that the colorist made all the flesh tones entirely too yellow; everyone in almost every shot looks like they’re suffering from jaundice.  Other than that, my impression is that this is one of the better transfers I’ve seen in the HD DVD format."

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

When Paramount made the sudden decision last year to shift its dual- format support to an HD DVD only position, Transformers was the most notable title that got caught as the door slammed just prior to the original planned release on both formats. Given its more limited bandwidth and space, the HD DVD was pushed to its encoding limits yet still had to sacrifice lossless audio due to bandwidth restrictions according to Paramount representatives who were directly asked about the omission of lossless audio on the HD DVD. Thankfully, in addition to newly optimized high bit rate video encoding, Paramount has provided a 24-bit lossless audio track in the form of Dolby TrueHD on this Blu-ray Disc release. The previously reported problem with LFE balance by some listeners to the soundtrack on the HD DVD and DVD release has also been addressed and corrected. For these reasons alone, this Blu-ray Disc release may represent a reason to upgrade for some consumers already in possession of the HD DVD.

To my ears, the lossless Dolby TrueHD track is reference quality in every way but one: its only real flaw is that the robots' dialogue sounds detached from the action scenes and forced into the center channel as if it’s been dubbed in a close-mic recoding session in a foam- padded room and edited right into the mix without regard to the acoustic context of each scene’s environment. This sonic character doesn’t match the more integrated sound of the live actors’ ADR speech, which seems to suit the onscreen environments with appropriate decays and reflections to place them believable into the space envisioned on the screen.

But other than that, this is the demo mix of the decade. The lossless track is powerful, full-frequency, and soothingly natural on the top- end. The musical score is lush and dimensional, and the surround activity is jarringly (satisfyingly) aggressive when it needs to be and appropriately subtle when it needs to be. If you’re looking for a soundtrack that can push the limits of your amps, speakers, and sub, while at the same time maintaining all of the natural fidelity that can make the most of a high-end audio reproduction system, you’ve found your Blu-ray demo disc.

Dan writes regarding the (lossy only) audio of the HD DVD: “The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 track is striking in its bombastic envelopment.  The surrounds are extremely active with both discrete sounds and pans of jets, helicopters, and flying robots.  Deep bass will pummel you during combat sequences and robotic battles; a very fine subwoofer is essential.  The sound effects have an impressive dynamic range.  The score by Steve Jablonsky is definitely in the Hans Zimmer school of composition; loud, energetic, exciting, it’s an appropriate compliment to the visuals.  Despite the sonic fireworks, the dialog remains crystal clear throughout.  Expect just a hint of unavoidable harshness that is a product of lossy compression." 

The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Paramount has presented all of the bonus material from the HD DVD on this two-disc Blu-ray Disc set (even the web-enabled features and PIP commentary feature). Before I share Dan’s comments about the bonus material from his review of the HD DVD edition, I’ll remark that it’s refreshing that Paramount has enabled users to migrate to the Blu-ray Disc edition without the fear of losing bonus content in the process. In order to maximize picture and sound quality of the feature presentation, just as with the HD DVD, Paramount has presented all of the bonus material not directly linked to the film’s play (like commentary) on a second disc.

Dan writes:

“We begin with a very fine feature-length commentary by director Michael Bay.  He begins at the beginning, describing a telephone call from Steven Spielberg, inviting him to direct a toy movie.  He describes his transformation from a skeptic to a true believer and signed on.  He describes his relationship with the military, explaining his access to hardware that even surprised me.  He’s very open and chatty, and it becomes extremely clear very quickly that this is one intense director.  He talks about his cast and we learn about the audition process and Bay’s technique for motivating his players, particularly Megan Fox, a relatively new performer.  He talks at length about the CGI and his collaboration with ILM and Digital Domain, a special effects house he purchased with some partners.  We learn about his relationship with General Motors and Hasbro.  We learn that he put so much faith in the film that he gave up his director’s fee in exchange for a backend deal - that worked out rather well.  I enjoyed his anecdotes from the shoot.  But the commentary ends with a bit too much of a self-congratulatory tone.  Even though there’s some duplication with the material in the video supplements, this is a worthwhile track.

“Also on disc one, you’ll find Transformers H.U.D., which is a fine text trivia track that pops little factoids onto the screen throughout the film.  There are also Web enabled features that regular readers know I can mention but not critique since I have no high speed Internet connection in my home theater.  But frankly, I’m not sure you could want more than is found on disc two.  Let me move on to the second disc. [David can access Web features on the Blu-ray Disc and he found that they are similar to a fun facts or pop-up trivia feature that displays text-based trivia about key scenes or characters while watching the film. The applet to run this feature took only seconds to download on his PS3 and played seamlessly while watching the film].

“I applaud Paramount for providing all the supplements in fine-looking 1.78:1 high definition video also compressed with the AVC video CODEC.  Bravo.

“We begin with the Our World documentary (49:20 with the considerately provided Play All option); it’s divided into four sections: The Story Sparks; Human Allies; I Fight Giant Robots; and, Battleground.

“In the first section, we learn about Hasbro and the origins of the robotic characters.  Executive producer Steven Spielberg appears to describe the origins of the film concept.  Michael Bay was reluctant initially, but after attending Transformers School at Hasbro became convinced that the concept had merit.  We’re taken through some concept art and learn that Bay transformed the script from a bit too campy to something dead serious.  With the collaboration of the specialists at ILM who specialize in animatics, he planned his shoot.

“The next chapter puts the spotlight on casting and the principal actors.  We enjoy lots of impressive behind the scenes footage.  It’s exceptionally clear that Bay is a frantic and tireless director who runs a tight ship.  He carries a megaphone and isn’t afraid to use it.  This is one intense man.  I guess I would be too if I were gambling a $150 million movie budget.  He explains that he concentrated on making both the characters and the situations as real as possible.  Bay also shares his thoughts about his performers.  We learn and see that Megan Fox frequently had trouble keeping a straight face.  She may be gorgeous but she’s not that experienced; with Bay pushing her buttons, she was very effective.  The chapter goes through all the principal cast members.

“In the next chapter, Bay explains that he has an exceptionally good relationship with the military, has been able to access surprising locations, and was able to film the latest weapons systems.  We see the actors going through training, learning how to take a building and handle their weapons.  Bay has great respect for the military and uses military people to play military people.  It’s also in this section that we learn how he emphasizes practical effects over CGI whenever possible.

“Battleground takes us to various locations: White Sands Missile Range, Hoover Dam, downtown Los Angeles, and Holloman Air Force Base among them.  We see the huge set constructed for the Hoover interior.  It was built where Howard Hughes fabricated the Spruce Goose.  Impressive. 

“Moving on to the next section, we begin with a documentary called Their War (1:05:07).  And it, too, is organized into four chapters: Rise of the Robots; Autobots Roll Out; Decepticons Strike; and, Inside The Allspark.

“In the first, Spielberg kicks off the chapter with a few comments about his memories of playing with his children’s' Transformers toys.  It’s here that we learn of the toys’ Japanese origins and how Hasbro bought the rights and created a story suitable for an animated TV show that was intended to sell their toys.  It was a very clever business decision; the line has sold over $3 billion at retail since its introduction in the '80s.  I had no idea.  But the downside of such popularity are obsessive fan-geeks who are so invested in the series and characters that Bay’s reimagining provoked threats.  Before principal photography was completed, much information was leaked to the Web, including designs and script.  Bay had new technologies created for the alien home world and introduced new concepts.  Some fans objected, which had a small influence on the film; other fans were simply threatening.  It wasn’t until the film was released and proved to be so respectful of the characters that the threats stopped.  We also learn of the evolution of the film.  Hasbro affected the decision to stick with generation-one characters and corrected Optimus Prime’s appearance, giving it more of a Samurai-like look.  The number or robots was limited by the budget, something that becomes even clearer in a later chapter.

“Peter Cullen voiced the TV character of Optimus Prime and he was brought back for the film.  We also see Hugo Weaving providing the voice of Megatron.  It’s here that the development of the robots is described.  First, the production made foam robots as sculptures.  From those, larger static structures were built at a cost of anywhere from $250 thousand to three quarter of a million dollars each.  It cost $75,000 just to paint Bumblebee.  There is a discussion about the cars and which vehicles were to be used in the film.  It’s also here that we learn of the negotiations with automobile companies that yielded the winner: General Motors.  So advanced were the cars during principal photography that the yellow Camero was a $500,000 hand-built preproduction prototype.  All of the cars were highly jazzed up for the film and the featurette demonstrates how.  GM also provided flood damaged cars to burn, crash, flip, crush, and mangle.  Two hundred cars were destroyed in the making of this film.  The featurette shows us how; for example, an amazing compressed air launcher catapulted a car into an L.A. building.  Revealed are camera go-cart techniques.  And it’s in this chapter that the huge highway chase is dissected, including some impressive physical effects, like a bus being ripped in half.  Bay just pushes and pushes and pushes; it’s amazingly that there were no injuries.

“In the Decpticon chapter, we learn of the decision to have the evil robots transform to and from military vehicles.  Among them is our country’s most advanced deployed fighter, the F-22 Raptor (StarScream takes that form); I'm still amazed that he was able to film them.  The featurette moves through the various vehicles used for the robots.  It also touches upon the filming of Ospreys, Warthogs, a C-130 gunship, and the F-117 Stealth fighter, which couldn't be filmed from certain angles for security reasons.  It’s here that the important point is made that the film paid for all costs involving the military; none of the costs came out of taxpayers’ pockets. 

“During Inside the Allspark, Bay mentions that he bought Digital Domain, a significant special effects house.  Nonetheless, ILM did 75% of the CGI and Digital Domain only did 25%.  We’re whisked to ILM with an aerial shot of the Presidio, its new home.  Among the ILM programmers are remarkable Transformers collectors and fans.  We learn more about the robot computer models; Optimus Prime had an astounding 10,108 parts, an all-time record for ILM CGI complexity.  So complex are the robots that for three robots visible onscreen, it took thirty-eight hours to render each frame.  ILM converted Bay to animatics; he’s now a big fan of them rather than storyboards.  We learn how ILM was at the shoot to provide guidance.  And it is here that another of my questions was answered.  Martial arts fighters were taped for the ILM CG animators to help them program more organic movements; I was surprised that the robots weren't created using motion capture.  There are discussions of imparting emotions through robotic facial expressions, creating impressive transformations, match moving, and subtle lighting effects, like reflections of the environment.

“These two documentaries are extremely through and complete.  Very well done.

“Also in this section is Transformers Tech Inspector.  It’s an interactive display of the various robots in high detail.  You can rotate, select the part of the robot to view, and observe specific details.  The only downside is that I couldn't see how to pause the rotation.

“The next section is called More Than Meets The Eye, also divided into different sections.  From Script to Sand: The Skorponok Desert Attack (8:55) is an analysis and dissection of that sequence.  Inspired by a comic book, complete 3D simulation as animatics were created as a first step.  We join the crew as they scout Holloman AFB in Alamogordo, NM.  The location had to be cleared of unexploded ordnance.  We’re given a view of construction and a description of the village.  We learn about how the pyrotechnics were accomplished.

“Next is Concepts (2:11), a series of artists renderings panned and zoomed and backed by music from the score.

“The trailers section includes Teaser 1 (1:52), Theatrical 2 (2:13), and Theatrical 4 (2:44).

“The supplements have their own set of subtitles: English, English SDH on the HD DVD, English Closed Captions on the DVD, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

The 144- minute feature film is organized into twenty-three chapters.

Final Thoughts

An entertaining film comes to you new and improved on Blu-ray Disc with a newly optimized reference-setting video compression and lossless Dolby TrueHD audio presentation. With all the bonus material from the previous DVD and HD DVD editions carefully preserved, this Blu-ray Disc release is a win- win for the home theater community. Whether you’re buying Transformers for the first time in 1080p, or whether you’re upgrading from the HD DVD version to enjoy the lossless audio, this disc is an easy recommendation. Enjoy.