Another Disappointment from Michael Bay

Went to see the Transformers movie. Not being a big fan of the 1980s animated cartoon series, I was just looking for some exciting action sequences and special effects. There wasn't a whole lot of either. While I didn't expect a Shakespearean plot, the utter lack of a coherent storyline was made more evident by the disjointed action and jarring camera work.

Shia LaBeouf portrays one of the most unlikable protagonists seen on the big screen in some time. His character, Sam Witwicky, starts out as the typical, outsider geek-type but without the innate charm that can endear the character to the audience and, of course, the beautiful girl, Mikaela.

There seems to be no continuity director on this set as when Sam picks up Mikaela early in the 144 minute movie she notes that she lives ten miles away. It appears to be early to mid-afternoon. Along the way there is a short delay as Sam's car (a Transformer, of course) tries to play matchmaker by futzing with the radio and feigning a breakdown. Mikaela should have maced Sam right there. When they finally get to Mikaela's house, it's the middle of the night. Maybe there was a scene (or three) that were edited out to explain the time lapse but we're left to assume that some deep emotional exchanges have led Mikaela to see the depths of Sam's personality. Depths which are completely omitted from the script. Of course, by the end of the movie, Sam has a smokin' car so maybe that's good enough for her.

The Transformers themselves are decent. The special effects were pretty much what I expected. In fact, the best lines of dialogue are saved for the robots who seem more at ease with the clunky, mechanical "plot". Unfortunately, the battle scenes are so frenetic that it's downright headache inducing. You can't really see what is going on and more annoying is that with rare exception, you can't tell which Autobot (good guy Transformer) is fighting with which Decepticon (bad guy Transformer).

Eventually, the government captures Sam and Mikaela because of their association with the alien Autobots. Then in the next scene and without exposition, they've been released and are flying to the Hoover Dam under the protection of the Secretary of Defense. Huh?

Without the nostalgia of having collected or watched Transformers, I was left sorely disappointed in the movie. The only thing that was somewhat interesting was the proto-type Camero that Sam's Autobot transformed into. What surprised me was the fact that GM hadn't released the new Camero for production so as to provide a product tie in to the movie. Goodness knows there isn't enough product placement nowadays.

One and a half stars. The action is good but the plot and love story are enough to make Pearl Harbor look well written and acted.

Buffy-link alert: Tom Lenk (Buffy's "Andrew") plays a nameless computer analyst recruited by the government to do something or other.